Software quality assurance testing creates customers.
Its value lies hidden within the smooth flow of your UI, the ease with which a problem turns into a solution and the reliability and security that customers come to take for granted.
Software quality assurance is how you turn development innovation into customer experience execution. It makes sure there is nothing lurking within your application that will prevent a customer from praising your product to their friends and colleagues.
The customer is not the only one who benefits, either. An experienced QA expert knows there are several key strategies that can enhance the design and execution of software quality assurance testing to save time and resources within the SDLC—time and resources that could improve your product and your enterprise.
5 Steps to Quality Software Testing
Enhancing QA does not require you to sacrifice breadth and depth of testing. Instead, it relies on efficient planning, modern tools and continuous integration to maximize the resources at your disposal.
Smarter testing produces quality testing faster.
Through the execution of more than one million automated test cases across $11 billion of successful customer exits, our engineers have learned how to refine the QA process to an efficient, high-ROI process that delivers value quickly.
It is a five-step process:
- Take Full Advantage of Automation
- Commit Manual Testing Where Most Critical
- Optimize Checkpoints and Reporting
- Prioritize Communication and Collaboration
- Leverage Expertise and Experience
The process begins with the efficient use of modern QA’s most effective tool: test automation.
1. Take Full Advantage of Automation
Automation improves the depth, accuracy and coverage of your test cases, and it saves you time and valuable human resources in the process. By carefully designing test cases around your business priorities, you can ensure a stable, reliable product throughout an application’s evolution.
There are test automation tools now available to cover every phase of the QA process, including areas of GUI and UI testing that are traditionally reserved for time-consuming manual testing. Modern QA is at its best when it uses automation tools to integrate testing with development in an Agile environment. Here, developers and testers work hand-in-hand to break the SDLC down into manageable sprints bookended with automated regression tests that ensure product stability every time the evolving code changes.
Automation gives you the speed and unrelenting machine accuracy needed to balance reliability with growth.
2. Commit Manual Testing Where Most Critical
Maximizing the benefits of automation frees your engineers to do what they do best. Released from the repetitive, boring chore of regression testing, your developers can now concentrate on your business goals and the end-user experience.
The insights of manual testers make them the best option for user interface, usability, installation, error handling and elements of security testing. Tools are available to automate these tasks, but the qualitative and subjective analysis of human testers provides valued feedback a machine is not equipped to submit.
The best possible software quality assurance testing results occur when automation is supplemented with a manual testing component.
3. Optimize Checkpoints and Reporting
The Agile approach to development lets you access the talents of a broader range of stakeholders than traditional models of design and testing. To optimize these assets, you need to deliver regular reports that can be understood by everyone from technology whizzes to near-beginners. Many testing tools now accommodate natural language for both execution and reporting.
You should also establish clear checkpoints within the SDLC to ensure the product is proceeding efficiently and that testing adheres to core business goals. This includes the need to meet strict audit and compliance standards, such as HIPAA.
4. Prioritize Communication and Collaboration
The continuing maturity and specialization of offshore and nearshore QA solutions allows you to save important time and resources. Outsourcing to India, for example, can halve your QA spend and create a 24-hour production cycle.
Maximizing these benefits depends on prioritizing smooth communication between internal stakeholders, internal and external engineers—and between developers and scrum masters.
Regular meetings are a must, and digital communications such as video conferencing and workplace collaboration apps should be encouraged to facilitate communication across teams, management levels and locations.
5. Leverage Expertise and Experience
Finally, you must not feel you are alone in seeking a software quality assurance testing solution. Many enterprises, especially startups and small businesses, do not have access to the resources or test infrastructure needed to meet the highest standards of QA. There is far greater risk associated with cutting QA corners or forcing developers into double-duty as testers than you will ever encounter in outsourcing.
An expert QA partner is an extension of your team. You remain in control of the project while they provide advice on optimal test framework and tool selection, the integration of development and testing and the use of manual and automation testing.
Outsourcing allows you to scale production quickly when needed and to reduce test expenses at lower ebbs of the release cycle.
Software quality assurance testing is about your end-users. You need to maximize your QA investment to make sure the promise of your application survives to make a difference in the lives of your customers.
Software Quality Assurance Testing
Software quality testing creates customers by making sure your product does what it was designed to do. Your customer may seldom write a review to say they found an app to be bug-free; that is how apps are expected to arrive.
Instead, the value of QA testing lies in the repeat business and brand loyalty that develop when a customer gets what they want without having to notice all the technical wizardry going on behind the scenes.
QASource has delivered robust, customer-friendly apps for some of the largest companies in the world. Our engineers are available to deliver the same quality results for your product. Get a free quote or call +1.925.271.5555 today, and start improving your QA testing process.
