Quality Assurance or QA is a crucial step in the software-making process. Experienced software development teams know that QA cannot be compared to or replaced by techniques such as Software Testing or Quality Control. It is an entirely unique process with specific stages and methods. This article has everything you need to know about Quality Assurance in software development
1. What is Quality Assurance (QA)
To answer this question clearly, let’s break it down into main components: quality and assurance. By understanding the software quality definition and explaining the concept of assurance, you’ll easily grasp the QA concept.
Software Quality refers to software that is reasonably bug or defect-free. Besides that, software quality also included the software being delivered on time and within the specified budget and meets the requirements and expectations of a client.
Assurance is the process of making sure the end result corresponds with quality standards. The team checks if the software provides the necessary features in an intuitive way and offers reliable performance.
So, quality assurance is a set of processes for ensuring that a product delivers in the best quality standards. The main criteria for the
product’s external and internal quality are efficiency, functionality, usability, reliability, and maintainability
2. Why do we need QA in Software Development?
Indeed, can’t developers test products themselves? Yes, definitely! Five to six years ago, this issue was widely debated in IT communities. But in 2022, it’s clear that a software testing services company will not be out of work. Testing in IT should be carried out by qualified specialists.
So, What do quality assurance specialists do?
QA specialists check all interactions between different pieces of code and environments which are not part of the program that they have built themselves. The program is usually built by developers.
In the process of testing, QA usually put themselves in the shoes of a user whose product is being created. The logic of software QA
specialists’ work is not solely based on the creation of software but also includes the possibility of its breakdown.
3. When does Quality Assurance Software Testing Start?
Testing at the right time reduces the cost and time to rework and create error-free software to be delivered to the client. The testing starts at the requirements gathering stage and continues till the software is deployed.
However, it also varies depending on the development model used. For example, in the Waterfall model, testing is performed during the testing phase. In an Agile model, testing is performed at the end of each iteration.
Testing is conducted in different forms at each stage of the software development life cycle:
Pre-test, Testing day, and Regression Test. When all stages are completed, we eventually ship out our product. We could refer to the image below, to get more context about the QA stages and also the testing approaches involved.
4. What are the stages and types of testing approaches involved?
Test stages
- Pre-test: is a stage to verify features before release week
- Testing day: During testing days, the release candidate is tested according to the test plan. Each ticket is tested by multiple people.
- Regression testing: is stage to confirm that a recent code change has not affected existing features Testers perform manual tests or automation script runs on other existing functionality and also new features to make sure the entire system works correctly.
Test approaches
- Component test: Also called module testing, component testing checks individual parts of an application. Example: test only login features, to ensure this feature works correctly.
- E2E test: End-to-end testing is a methodology that assesses the working order of a complex workflow in the system. Example: A participant visits the SCA online shop, purchases a course, then logs in to the platform and accesses the course content and then logs out. This stage is mainly run by an automated script that emulates the actions of a user.
- Integration test : Integration test is to ensure a branch of new code work together properly as a group. Example: “Add to cart” is a new feature, QA specialists have to ensure that several features like:
(a)add to cart
(b)remove items from the cart
(c)quantity and price updated correctly (d) checkout all these features work correctly
Conclusion: Recap On The QA Process
Software quality assurance is a very significant part of software development. It can’t be underestimated as it helps to receive a correct-working and good-looking software solution, a software that functions properly.
References
Ritu Walia, and John Casey. QA Best Practices: GUI Test Automation for EDA Software. Accessed 3 Aug. 2022.
Bay, T., Baumgartner, B., Huni, M., Jutzeler, E. and Pedroni, M., 2014. Co-Pilot: using agile methods to land IT projects smoothly. Zurich: buch & netz.
