QASource Blog

Preparation turns big problems into little ones, and it turns bug problems into little sprints. When viewed from afar—as a single, monolithic step in your overall software development process—testing an entire application can seem overwhelming. How do you properly account for every potential execution, for every combination of platform, purpose and user? Or for every practical real-world contingency?

API vulnerabilities are potentially devastating. The programming interfaces at the heart of our internet-connected world shuttle data blindly, dependent entirely on the coding and testing standards that went into their development. The safety and security of your users’ data—and, therefore, your own reputation and brand quality—rest solely on the resources you put into testing the application. It is a high-stakes issue, one that has compromised and embarrassed some of the biggest companies in the world.

Your product generates emotions. Each time your end user engages with your product, they have an emotional response based on how well it solves their problem and how difficult it is to achieve that solution. Usability testing is the process of making life easier for your users. When done correctly, it replicates the user experience accurately enough to expose any potential frustrations and to map the most intuitive way to get from the problem to the solution.

The breadth of expert testing required to bring a healthcare app to market can be overwhelming. The final product has to be robust enough to handle large flows of electronic health information across intricate interoperable networks while conforming to high transport, terminology and security standards. As quickly as possible. On top of all that, a single flaw within this heavily regulated industry can render the product useless and your reputation as a developer seriously damaged.

Time is the one resource you cannot replenish or write-off. It is unstoppable and unforgiving. It is also a crucial element in the successful delivery of any software development project. Outsourcing your software quality management makes time an ally. An experienced QA expert can find efficiencies at every stage of the testing process, from initial planning through to delivery. They can scale up capacity quickly, identify where and when to apply automation, unlock the advantages of Agile development and early bug detection and create a 24-hour cycle of continuous testing and product improvement.

Quality is the true measure of product success. Poor user experience or application performance negates any advantages you achieve in delivery speed or production cost. Put simply, if it does not work, it is not worth producing. It is, therefore, critical to our product success that we can accurately measure and track test results to ensure our testing is delivering against our business goals. Understanding software quality metrics, especially in automated testing, helps us identify what is working well and what needs improvement.

Are you doing all you can to make your software stand out? Every day of every year, 6,140 new software apps are released on Google Play for Android alone, according to Statista. Switch to the Apple app store, and you will find a further 1,434 added daily. And that is just the mobile market. Those are the raw numbers behind the clichés we hear about “ever-increasing competition” and “rapidly evolving markets.”

Every software development conversation you begin should end with a word on QA testing. The two have become inseparable within the modern SDLC. They are the twin forces that give the Agile approach to software development the strength to dominate product delivery in the digital age. Development innovation is strengthened by continual testing. QA becomes more effective when deployed earlier and more often.

As developers, you are not judged solely on your end product. Every step along the way to delivery is monitored and measured against software quality control standards. All your engineering processes, methods, activities and work items are subject to scrutiny. In today’s environment, you can get it wrong even though you, ultimately, got it right. In the realm of quality assurance, the expectations are that we understand both the need for and the burden of meeting such high software quality control standards. We also know that the way you design your software quality control plan is critical to your professional success.