QASource Blog

"You can't improve what you don't measure" - this saying is rightfully true for the world of software quality assurance. Quality Assurance (QA) metrics are used to estimate the progress and outcome of test results. Through metrics, it is easy to track the status of QA activities, measure team efficiency, and optimize processes.

It doesn’t take long to form a habit. With a trigger within your QA environment and a reward waiting at the finish line, bad habits are just as easy to develop as good ones.

The continued growth of your company depends on a quality product. In fact, ensuring product quality is the primary role of your engineering organization. It should then come as no surprise that your CEO and executive team are interested in keeping their finger on the pulse when it comes to quality and growth.

QA managers are tasked with continuously finding ways to improve quality assurance and overall software integrity, but are also asked to find ways to increase productivity of team members. But, between rounds of testing and writing up issue reports, there never seems to be enough time to carry out these changes. Increasing productivity of your QA team doesn’t have to be difficult. Targeting easy wins allows for more time to implement additional tactics that improve team productivity. And since there are a lot of tasks that QA teams tackle, increasing QA productivity can help successfully drive a company’s revenue growth. Here are 6 ways to increase productivity within your QA testing team:

QA onboarding can be an overwhelming process for any company, especially when there are so many factors to consider. Partner availability, testing infrastructure, training, domain experience, testing experience, communication skills—all of this can impact your success when working with an offshore QA team. By allocating your resources appropriately, you can proceed with onboarding your outsourced offshore QA team with ease and boost your QA productivity in the long run. Doing this successfully requires a solid understanding on how to onboard a QA team effectively. So, where should a business begin when onboarding their outsourced QA team? We recommend following this advice from our QA experts, from asking the right questions to establishing parameters for project success.

Recently, QASource, in conjunction with Sauce Labs, presented "Measuring Your Way to Successful Automation," a webinar during which QASource took a poll of its attendees about their automation metrics. Using the results of this poll, QASource put together an infographic that highlights the many ways metrics can benefit QA teams and testing projects.

When it comes to selecting a dedicated QA partner the choices are plentiful. But selecting the partner that will be a perfect fit for your company, product and existing team takes research and deliberation. The right partner is responsible for much more than providing high-quality testing -- they create a sustainable testing infrastructure, learn the product as well (or better!) than the developers and serve as a true extension of your onsite team.

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.

The past few months have been huge for QASource! A new blog installment, "QASource Highlights", will acknowledge industry achievements and inform our readers about relevant media coverage. In this inaugural post, we are proud to share three exciting features from EFYTimes, TEST Magazine and CIO Review.