Software development includes quality assurance, and the QA team is crucial to the process. They monitor each procedure to make sure there are no slowdowns, and they report any problems they discover so that they can be fixed before the release.
According to Dimensional Research, 95% of people who have a bad experience with a product will be more likely to share their negative experience with others. And on the contrary, if they have a positive experience with a product, only 87% of people will share it with other people. This is why quality assurance is important, because bad news is spread faster than good.
Even if you are working on a small project with only a few team members, it’s worth your time to form a QA team from the beginning. This will help you avoid problems as early as possible, making your lives as developers easier and your product better. Let’s take a look at why you should never release and implement software without having a separate QA team to test it first and what tasks this team should undertake.
Quality Assurance Definition
To have a better understanding of the role and value of the QA team, let’s take a look at the definition of Quality Assurance, or often shortened to QA. QA is the procedure used to verify that a product complies with the necessary specifications and is suitable for the purpose for which it is designed.
The process of quality assurance usually consist:
- The usability, efficacy, stability, and safety of the program are all verified throughout the QA process.
- Checking the program’s compatibility with the hardware, OS and any other programs it needs to operate with is another aspect of QA.
- QA searches for and removes errors before the application is made accessible to customers.
In order to do this, QA teams employ a range of testing methodologies, including non-functional testing, dynamic testing, and static testing (reviewing code without running it) (testing performance, security testing, etc.).
QA must be a part of the software development process since it may raise the standard of the final product and assist in avoiding costly errors. Since they need to comprehend the technology in order to test it properly, QA teams frequently collaborate closely with developers.
The Value of Quality Assurance
Any business ought to include QA and QC (Quality Control) tasks. They guarantee the highest quality final result while still meeting the client’s needs. Without these processes, there would be a greater chance of program defects, bugs, faults, errors, and other issues. All of those issues will cause you to invest extra time, resources, and labor to fix them.
Do you remember the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 case back in 2016? Numerous models of the phones are so overheated that a number of them have even exploded. Although only 28% of their users have a negative impression of the brand due to the accident. These people might not use the product again, and they might also share their experience with other people. This can result in fewer sales and lost clients.
We may conclude that neglecting product quality hurts your brand and loses you more money. As a business owner, it is your obligation to be sure that your QA team is planning and assessing each aspect of your product in order to give the best product to your clients.
To dispel some misconceptions and myths about quality assurance, we encourage to look the interview with a head of quality and engineer department.
The Explanation of Positions and Obligations in QA Team
One QA team may include QA engineers, QA team leads, QA architects, QA analysts, QA managers, and other jobs depending on the scope of the project. And often times, one person can do multiple works of several positions. Let’s try to evaluate the importance of each position on the QA team listed below.
QA Engineer
A software company’s reputation is based on the quality of its completed products and how well it can solve problems for customers. The job of QA engineers is to make sure that the service or product being developed satisfies the needs of the client in order to deliver faultless software. The appropriate testing strategy must be used to evaluate the product and identify any potential flaws or faults.
Main Obligations:
- Conducting tests and identifying problems.
- Analyzing bugs and errors throughout the test
- Making a detailed report and listing improvements.
- Suggesting software improvement solutions.
- assists the developer in enhancing and improving applications.
Required Skills:
- Expertise in testing and developing software in great depth.
- Outstanding attention to details
- Outstanding intellectual and problem-solving abilities
- Strong communication abilities both in writing and speaking
Test Analyst
The role of a test analyst is to facilitate the QA process from design to recording of test cases and reporting. They could also be in charge of designing test tools and figuring out how successful testing is. The test analyst makes the decision of the item and approach to test initially. The QA engineer depends on the test analyst to organize the information in order to help their work.
Responsibilities:
- creating, implementing, and recording thorough test strategies.
- running tests on current hardware and software to identify flaws and limitations
- identifying and resolving problems
- respecting and keeping up with established quality assurance procedures.
- locating excessive elements and features that can be removed.
- drafting and maintaining operating procedures and user documentation.
Required Skills:
- logical analysis and the capacity to organize information
- understanding of the software development life cycle.
- proficiency in gathering and capturing project specifications, as well as working with big volumes of data.
- producing technical documents and evaluating it.
- a desire to research novel items and technology.
- efficient communication and coordination at work
Test Architect
In complicated situations, a test architect aids in maintaining an effective and long-lasting test architecture. A test analyst concentrates on putting business requirements into practice whereas a QA engineer is in charge of the practical aspect.
Responsibilities:
- creates suitable test plans, technological methodologies, and evaluation methods.
- Keep up on the most recent approaches and procedures in the test automation field.
- Create, oversee, and maintain excellent test systems.
- Determine the test systems’ architectural needs and limits.
- Record and monitor test architecture risk factors.
Required Skills:
- Understanding of scripting languages, testing procedures, and best practices.
- building frameworks for automation.
- testing very complicated microservices-based systems.
- Designing a test strategy, managing test data, and testing environments.
- good organizational, managerial, and communication abilities.
Test Manager
A test manager’s obligation is to confirm that the QA procedure is functioning according to plan. They will also be in charge of establishing and setting the project schedule, assigning resources, tracking project progress, and resolving issues as they arise. A test manager ought to be well-versed in the testing procedure and familiar with the various QA tools employed in software or system development.
Responsibilities:
- creates a work plan for everyone and develops the project’s test plan.
- establishes measures to gauge the caliber of the job and maintains tabs on everyone’s progress.
- forecasts the labor and testing cost.
- monitors the operational procedure’ testing phase.
Required Skills:
- Ability to communicate effectively.
- Skills in solving complex problems.
- Analytical Modeling & Priority setting Of Business Cases Under Close Inspection
- Exceptional time management abilities and a computer background.
QA Team Lead
As the manager of a number of testing teams, the QA team lead is in charge of making sure that all testing is carried out efficiently and on schedule. They will also need to coach and educate testing teams on the most recent testing techniques and resources. A QA team lead needs to have a solid understanding of both the trial procedure and the trial technologies used in software establishment.
Responsibilities:
- Creates a job list for everyone and a test approach for the project.
- Establishes measures to gauge the effectiveness of the task and monitors everyone’s progress.
- Budgets for testing and estimating effort
- Supervising the testing phase of the production flow
Required Skills:
- Understanding of various management strategies and experience managing teams.
- Excellent understanding of the conceptual and practical basis of various exam kinds.
- Study of the requirements before designing test cases and producing test documentation
- Basic understanding of programming and markup languages.
What Type of QA Team Should You Hire?
A small project like a startup application may be completed by a single QA engineer, while enterprise software development and other big projects will require a larger team. Consider using individuals with varied skill sets to test various areas of the product. QA engineers should be highly analytical, detailed, and knowledgeable about a variety of software testing methodologies. They must possess the acute perception to identify even the tiniest problems, the tenacity to locate every system defect, and the communication abilities to share their observations with the entire team.
Internal Staff
One of the greatest options is to have internal QA engineers work full-time for the company, especially if the software product has a protracted lifespan. Since internal staff members are knowledgeable about the product, maintenance is made simpler. Considering monthly salary even if there is not much work to do, this hiring approach may also be costly. Additional expenses include things like health insurance, vacation time, and other benefits for employees.
Outsourcing Experts
If you opt to outsource your application development or only quality assurance, search for a reputable custom software development company and provide them with a thorough explanation of your needs. Once a team has been assembled that satisfies your requirements, work may begin. An expedient starting point is provided by this option. But most outsourcing firms want to take on the entire project. Outsourcing professionals is therefore the best option if you want to outsource the whole development process.
Full-Time Contract Employee.
When you need an engineering team or specialized QA expertise for a specific period of time, hiring a full-time contract employee can be a terrific option. The highest rating goes to those who work in software QA, and you may hire them by utilizing a staff augmentation strategy. This method is also less expensive than hiring an internal team because you don’t have to pay additional bonuses and you have developers that are only focused on your project.
Freelancers
Hiring freelancers is less expensive than other recruitment strategies, but it’s the least reliable way to locate a professional. Although hiring freelancers is straightforward, the procedure may eventually prove to be onerous. It might be difficult to find great QA engineers because almost everyone will declare themselves to be experts. Second, if another client makes a better offer, an engineer may abandon a project in the middle. It could be a good short-term solution when you need extra power to perform tasks, but it’s not always the best choice in the long run.
3 Major Advantages of a Specialized QA Team
QA is a challenging role to fill. Finding personnel with the requisite technical knowledge and interpersonal abilities is tricky. Alongside the increasing complexity of modern software projects, it’s super important for organizations to hire QA professionals who are dedicated solely to testing software.
QA professionals who work as part of a separate QA team can help developers create better software faster by facilitating communication, identifying risks earlier in the development process, and providing additional insight into user requirements. Having an independent QA team also has several other benefits. They include:
Allows you to properly evaluate the product
One significant disadvantage of having the same teams handle both testing and development tasks is that they are sometimes too busy to spend enough time evaluating products. The developers will probably spend less time testing the completed product when they are in charge of both developing the initial concept and doing so.
This is a difficulty since it may result in a test procedure that is not as comprehensive, in which team members might not identify important bugs. Having an independent QA team can help mitigate this issue because testers don’t have to spend time creating the system they’re testing. This gives them more time to thoroughly examine the product, also report any bugs they find. A separate QA team is an essential part of the software development cost estimation process.
Provides an unbiased opinion about the product
People who both create and test a product often have an inherent bias towards it. This can make it hard for them to provide an unbiased opinion about the product. Having an independent QA team can help ensure that stakeholders receive an unbiased opinion about the product.
If developers are also in charge of testing the product, they could be tempted to ignore certain defects or downplay the severity of others. This could be because they want to get their product out the door as soon as possible or because they’re too close to the work to spot problems.
Having an independent QA team can help avoid this problem. Testers who don’t have as much insight into why features were created won’t be as inclined to overlook bugs or under-report their importance.
Allows you to focus on developing new features
A separate QA team allows developers to focus solely on creating new features. This is important because it allows developers to maintain the momentum needed to complete complex projects. If the same team members conduct coding and QC/QA activities, they might lose some momentum in finishing the project because they have to shift their focus to testing.
Having an independent QA team can help avoid this issue since testers can focus on testing while developers focus on creating new features. This allows both teams to maintain their momentum throughout the development process.
Quality Assurance with the SumatoSoft Company
We, at SumatoSoft, provide full-cycle software development and every phase of the development as a separate service. We have an expert team of specialists focused on releasing high-quality products. We start quality assurance with the development of a QA strategy that contains up to 10 paragraphs. We accumulated and analyzed knowledge and experience in software development and quality assurance in 10 industries for 10 years. Our background counts 150+ projects. We are worth your trust and time. Contact us to get a free consultation on your product.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
A successful QA team has a variety of qualities that make them successful. First and foremost, the team must be made up of people with excellent technical abilities and a solid grasp of quality assurance ideas. The team should also be able to collaborate and communicate well while working successfully as a unit. Thirdly, the group must be proactive and capable of foreseeing any problems in advance. The group should also be capable of adapting to change and having a flexible mindset.
Every software development project must have a QA team to be successful. Assuring that the program satisfies all client or customer criteria falls within the purview of the QA team. Additionally, they check the program for faults and defects. To ship a top notch software without a QA staff would be exceedingly challenging.
In an agile context, the QA role might include both testing and software development. To produce the software and complete the task in accordance with the client’s brief, programmers and QA are expected to actively participate. During the development cycle, QA aids in the proactive addressing of problems and potential defects in an application.
Basically, the QA process is comprised of five major phases: finding, planning, designing, implementing, and optimizing. The QA team assists in defining both non-functional and functional system requirements and evaluates how well they align with corporate goals.
Combining quality assurance with quality control, or QA/QC, ensures that goods and services are up to par with customer expectations. Quality assurance is the process or collection of activities used to gauge and ensure the quality of a product. The goal of QC is to find production problems in finished products that can reduce consumer pleasure.
The project should begin QA activities right away. Setting the bar for obtaining excellence is more advantageous the earlier it is done. In the event that the QA operations are delayed, the costs, time, and efforts are quite difficult.
Summing up
Software development is a complex process that requires a lot of time and effort, so it’s important to have a separate team to test the product before it’s released. You may detect faults earlier and improve your product by using a QA team. Additionally, you’ll save time and effort because you’ll have ample time to completely test the goods before selling it. Finally, it will increase the dependability of your product and free up your time to work on adding new features.
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