In a broad sense, successful QA helps verify that the features and functionality of your software product meet business objectives. It also ensures that your code is mostly free of bugs prior to the shipment of your product or the release of new versions. Moving forward with unsuccessful QA is a huge risk, as it can directly impact business and your product's reputation.
Here are ten common indicators that your current QA services may be failing:
- Incomplete Feature Coverage
Test cases should be created to cover all of your product's features. When testing does not account for all features, the test cases are considered incomplete. If latent, post-release bugs begin appearing often in your product, the culprit may be incomplete feature coverage. - Undefined Objectives and Goals
Successful testing is driven by individual goals and team objectives. If your QA team does not have a defined list of goals at the start of each project, tracking progress and monitoring engineer contributions will be impossible. - Poor Project Management
Proper management is essential to a successful product release. Lack of documentation, poor test cases, and inconsistent team meetings all indicate a lack of real leadership. - Lack of a Solid Project Plan
A project plan helps unite development and QA teams in pursuit of a common goal, and the lack of one is a big deal. A good plan usually shows the features that have been released to QA for testing, prioritization of these features, environment coverage, and more. - Lack of Organizational Support
Testing and team communication is made smooth and seamless by proper organizational support. This entails necessities like testing environments, tools, hardware, and required engineers. It also covers appropriate infrastructure for video demos and team meetings. See the benefits of proper facilities and state-of-the-art infrastructure. - Poorly Defined Roles and Responsibilities
Ownership is integral to good QA. Every member of the team should attend to a specific feature. This ensures that roles and responsibilities are assigned and understood, and that the team as a whole is made accountable for their contribution to the project. Learn more about performance metrics to track your QA team. - Incomplete Testing
Effort estimates should be framed after a thorough review of feature documentation so that the scope of the project can be defined and QA efforts can be managed. Otherwise, assigned timeframes and tasks may be unrealistic, resulting in half-tested or untested areas of the product. - Poor Communication
Communication between each team (sales, design, development, QA, etc.) must be open and effective for project success. If there is any blockage in the flow of information between individual team members, or from department to department, it indicates trouble. - Cost and Schedule Issues
Failure to meet goals within a specified timeframe or added cost is a sign of failed QA. Project managers must work to keep the QA budget and timeframe in line with the estimate provided to the customer. - Lack of Prioritization
Left within the complex features of a product, bugs can fester until the customer experiences them. If this happens, your QA is suffering from a lack of prioritization. When planning QA efforts, identify high-priority features so that your team can devote close focus to them.
Failing QA can make a big impact on your product and your business, but there are several ways to greatly improve your situation. Be sure to check back next week, because we'll be providing solutions to many of the problems discussed above.
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