Quality Assurance is a more in-depth approach than manual testing, and the current frameworks are more unpredictable than the set best practices. With technology development, automated test methods have been developed that test the software in the development process.
So, with this article, we aim to give an insight into Quality assurance and the process and methodologies involved.
What is Quality Assurance?
Quality assurance is a proactive and planned process that is essential to ensure that the product meets the requirements of the customer/market.
Quality assurance is not a one-time process. Instead, it is involved throughout the lifecycle of the software’s development phase. This makes sure that the product is refined and meets the specifications.
Quality Assurance is an amalgamation of strategies and best practices for evaluating software development, methods, process, tools, and technologies used to ensure the best product quality.
Process of Quality Assurance
- Focus on User Experience
The comprehensive testing of the software is essential. But, user experience is the foremost and most critical part of quality assurance. A bad UX is an indication of poor quality standards. Though the User experience is set to evolve with the development phase, it should be the most well-defined version in all the stages.
- Automation
With automation, quality testers can do a quick review, and it offers a more flexible approach than other methods. Automation is the most desirable solution for decreasing the cost of quality assurance. It also focuses on reducing human errors while improving overall productivity standards. Automation is an essential skill that QA engineers regularly use in the quality assurance process.
- Test and Code Coverage
Though test coverage is the favored quality check for many QA managers. But, a complete quality check is assured with both test cases and code coverage. For example, you meet the best quality assurance outcome when the test coverage is 100%, and a minimum of 90% code coverage is guaranteed.
- Bug testing
Ideally, in software development, the testing begins after completing the project. But, the best practice or flexible practice is to start checking from the inception of the project. This way, bugs are identified sooner, thus saving time and money.
Moreover, this way guarantees a positive experience with the developers. This ensures more in-depth quality checks and on-time delivery of the software.
- Smart testing
Continuous, thorough software testing is not sustainable due to the massive requirement for resources and time. So, innovative testing is the best viable option. This can be done by properly communicating with the developers and performing specified experiments to identify many bugs while utilizing the shortest amount of time and resources.
- Bug prevention
QA managers should be prepared to detect bugs, but overall prevention is the most desired situation for a QA specialist. Traditionally, QA checks start with the UI phase and are more functional, and unit testing begins after the software is past the UI phase. This approach stops bugs from entering the top-level development phase of the product, leading to severe functionality issues and postponement of the delivery.
Pro Tip: QA managers should focus on the major bugs and errors then move on to the minor ones.
- Portability
Nowadays, most users prefer software that can be used across multiple devices. With that, software developers and QA managers must keep in mind that the framework should operate in numerous environments.
- Reliability
In quality testing, a system crash is a common situation. So, QA testers must check the system’s capacity for minimum system crashes. After a system crash, the system should be designed to be completely functional within a limited time.
- Documentation
Documentation is when all the records regarding the appropriate changes are managed and archived. Approval of documents is done in this process.
Methods of Quality Assurance
QA testing encompasses a wide variety of testing methodologies. Each one is aimed at guaranteeing the success of the project. So, here are the most vital, comprehensive testing methods aimed at a bug-free product or an application.
Functional Testing
- Vulnerability testing
This test ensures that no security vulnerability makes it into the final product. This also safeguards the client by preventing their data and sensitive data leaking.
- Compatibility testing
For the optimum function of software, compatibility with the hardware is necessary. The components tested in this stage are internet browsers, operating systems, modules, and hardware. Though in-depth compatibility testing also takes into account other variables.
- Usability Testing
This testing is aimed at testing the design and UI of the software. This makes sure that the software is not cluttered or tough to navigate. The usability of software must make it easy to use, and this test aims at testing those criteria.
- Performance Testing
Performance testing considers a wide assortment of conditions that could affect the optimum functioning of the software and the hardware. Therefore, the test aims to determine the range for the optimum functioning of the product. For instance, conditions like the load on the hardware to the low battery conditions are tested while using the product.
Non-Functional Testing
- Unit testing
This testing method involves testing the individual modules or parts of the software. The module developers write this tests strategy before the commencement of the module for components of the specs. Each module is tested by test installations that are generally written in the same programming language as the module.
- Integration Testing
This testing is done with the previously tested modules in the unit testing and after combining the modules for performing tasks. The test is done as a combination of manual testing and automated testing.
- System Testing
System testing is the next phase after integration testing and considers all the framework as a whole. The test is done to find previously unfounded bugs and other issues.
The test is a steady increment from unit testing and integration testing.
- Acceptance Testing
This is the last test of the functional testing phase and ensures that all the project’s criteria and specifications are met. This test also encompasses the tests done by the customer and end-users.
Examples of Quality Assurance
Human Error
Human error in the banking interface switches quantity and price by accident. This results in the submission of mispriced orders to the market. These errors are reported to the QA team, and they change the UI validations and ensure that this process does not reoccur.
Systems
A management firm website is available 95% of the time, but the industry standard is 99%. So the firm complains to the QA team, and they investigate the issue and perform checks to solve it.
Design
A trading platform is challenging to use and takes time to loathe the necessary functions to perform a trade. This makes users lose valuable time and money. The QA team can fix the issue in subsequent software updates to increase the user’s experience.
Security
A company experiences regular incidents when it comes to sensitive information. The IT team can use cross-department details to strengthen the applications in collaboration with the QA team.
Quality Assurance Job & Salary
The Quality assurance jobs are on par with software developer jobs as both positions are essential to delivering the highest quality of the product. We can understand this better with the salary. The average Quality Assurance Engineer salary can be as high as $67,899.
Essential Quality Assurance Skills
A QA person needs soft and hard skills, which offer both personal and technical capabilities. In addition, the QA technology and methods are constantly developing with time, so among the sea of skills, these 5 skills are the most essential:
- Asking the right questions
A QA must have a complete understanding of the project before the process begins. A brief idea of end-to-end users, peak usage times, application usage, OS configuration is some of the answers that a QA should possess to limit and streamline the testing methods.
- Time Management
Every project has some realistic deadlines. So, planning and managing all the test cycles are necessary. Moreover, if one QA team delays the project, then the overall project is delayed.
- Thinking out of the Box
A creative skill, along with logical skills, is an absolute necessity. While analytical thinkers can help in effective analytic testing, critical thinkers can catch and address end-user’s problems.
- A Team Player
The work of a QA takes the effort of a whole team to analyze, run tests and identify and sometimes rectify those codes. So a QA should be approachable, listen, have good conversation skills, and have the ability to gain insights.
- Art of Listening
As we mentioned before, effective QA is done by a whole team. So, listening to the developer’s designs and development plans can help QA discover the high-risk areas.
Conclusion
Quality assurance aims to identify weaknesses and process-related issues. They also make sure that nothing like this ever occurs. In addition, there are other systems like Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and ISO 9000 certifications to manage quality. Abiding these standards will ensure that the topmost quality is delivered to the end-users.