Do you know what will get you more projects? Word of mouth. This is the universal truth for software developers. Seamless and glitch-free software experience created with the help of Artificial intelligence can win you accolades. But if it goes south, it can turn the tides against you. That is why, if you are into custom software development, you need to check the quality of the software.
In this article today, We will learn, what is qa in software development, its importance, roles, benefits & last but not least, its steps.
So, without further adieu, let's get started!
Just like quality assurance marks on food items and products increase their credibility, if a software wins a quality assurance certificate, it suggests that it is reasonably bug and defect-free. Not only this, the company has delivered it within the stipulated timeframe and specific budget, and the software fulfils all the quality requirements cited by the customer.
QA is a broader concept encompassing the process of improving and ensuring the overall quality of the software, like looking after the required improvements, standards & preventive measures, which is much more than manual testing.
On the other hand, software testing process is the subset of QA, which involves testing activities to identify bugs and defects using different testing tools before the product or service goes live.
In short, the former handles the entire quality management, whereas the latter is one of its key activities.
As discussed above, QA is about improving overall processes of product development lifecycle and best practices used to develop software, whereas quality control is where the defects of the product are identified and corrected.
It's crucial because it ensures that the products meet the highest standards & requirements, resulting in product quality improvement and user satisfaction.
Issues and defects are identified at the early stage of the development process, which in turn reduces the cost of fixing problems and reduces the risk related to software failures.
In addition, it also enhances trust and reliability helping businesses achieve their objectives.
It plays a vital role in every phase of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), From requirement analysis to post-release maintenance.
QA will ensure that the software requirements are clear & testable, product design and development meet the highest standard, and conduct rigorous testing to identify and resolve defects before deployment.
In short, its job is to make sure that the end product meets the desired quality standards and procedures, performs reliably & matches or exceeds the user's expectations, supporting the project's outcomes.
Software Quality Assurance refers to a set of activities that should be carried out during the process to ensure the high quality standards using Quality attributes approach. This aspect is wholly focused on the process because if the process is correct, the process's result will most likely be satisfactory.
This aspect focuses on the final product. First, it checks defects in the final product. This way, it ensures that the software delivered to the client is glitch-free.
Software quality standards chiefly focus on functional quality and structural quality.
Functional quality suggests that the design of the software matches applicable requirements and specifications.
Structural quality stands for non-functional requirements such as software maintenance, robustness, correctness etc.
These days, software development companies in the USA prefer performing SQA before delivering the product. The process comprises five significant aspects, also called the pillars of software quality assurance activity.
Determine the SQA process before you start the project. This will help you determine the best suitable software engineering activities for the project. It will also help you understand the skillsets of your teammates.
Is the project heading in the right direction? Set checkpoints to evaluate performance from time to time.
In the software world, it is said that a code is guilty until proven innocent. So, one should not rely upon a single testing approach. Multi-testing strategy refers to the method of testing the software from multiple angles.
Even the smallest of corrections in the code has its repercussions. Evaluating the change impact helps in understanding the outcome of the changes made. This may help in delivering error-free software solutions.
SQA team is not nagging just for the sake of it. It is essential that the programmers understand this, and there is good compatibility between the SQA team and programmers. Their bonding can affect the final product positively or negatively.
Here are some of the key benefits of Software Quality Assurance (SQA):
Here are the steps of the quality assurance process:
1. Requirement analysis: This is done to make sure that the requirements are clear, complete and testable.
2. Test planning: Developing a comprehensive test plan that includes scope, objectives, resources, schedules, and testing strategies.
3. Test Design: Design documents and requirements are considered to create scripts, scenarios, and test cases.
4. Test Environment setup: The testing environment gets set up to simulate the product environment.
5. Test execution: Here the tests are run and documented according to the test plan & in the process defects or issues are identified.
6. Defect tracking: A bug management system is used to report, track, and manage defects, which then get resolved by the development teams.
7. Re-testing and Regression Testing: Issues get scanned to verify whether it is fixed & that the new codes implemented do not adversely affect the existing functionality.
8. Performance monitoring: Involves testing metrics such as speed, scalability, and reliability under various conditions.
9. User acceptance testing (UAT): Involves a validation process that confirms that the software products meet a user's expectations, enhances user experience, and meets the requirements through end-user testing.
10. Feedback and improvement: Feedback collection from testing phases, analyzing results, and creating improvement plans for future projects.
11. Release and post release testing: Support product deployment and conduct a test once the product is released to ensure continued quality and check if any issue persists in the live environment.
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