Nowadays, quality assurance is a crucial part of working on any software. It is undeniably an important element of the development process that shouldn't be skipped, as it ensures that the product is of the highest possible quality. One testing phase after another, be it automated or manual testing, the next steps towards the quality standards are taken.
What exactly is software quality assurance? What does this process consists of? Join me to get all the answers.
What is Software Quality Assurance?
Software quality assurance (or SQA for short) is an ongoing process that ensures software products meet and comply with the quality specifications. SQA consist of activities verifying that everyone involved in the project has correctly implemented all requirements.
What is interesting, quality assurance takes place not only during the development phase itself but also before it starts and after it is finished. The QA team is in charge of reviewing every technical and performance aspect of the product to ensure that everything works properly. If they encounter any problems during the software testing, they can inform the developers and thus allow them to fix the issues before they cause any damage to the project. Without proper QA it is difficult to keep the process of software development consistent.
However, it's good to have a starting point before even beginning the software testing process – a quality control checklist can serve this purpose well.
What are the Software Quality Assurance Process Activities?
If you want to make sure that the quality of your project is high enough, you need to plan how to carry out the SQA first. There are some steps that you should take to ensure your development engineers know their role in the quality assurance process and what actions they should take. If you want to follow all of them, it’s advisable to create a checklist to organise all the responisibilites connected with SQA.
Here's a list of things you need to remember about when creating a testing checklist.
Creating an SQA Management Plan
The foremost activity taking place during creating your QA checklist is planning how exactly the software's functional limits and other properties will be verified. You need to decide how to perform overall quality assurance.
Executing Formal Technical Reviews
Conduct a meeting with the QA team to discuss the state of requirements of the software and the design of the prototype.
Setting Check Points
Create a set of checkpoints to evaluate the software's performance. Having a clear list of requirements can help you keep track of what has already been done and what still needs some work.
Was the security testing done? How about the performance testing? It will be easier to answer such questions when you actually keep track of all stages of the quality assurance process.
Using multi-testing strategy
It is not a good idea to rely solely on one testing method. It is critical for development to remain versatile with various tests, so do not limit yourself to manual testing.
To ensure that everything is of highest quality, quality assurance should be performed in many different ways. The testing process, of course, can be repeated in cycles to ensure that software is fully functional and meets the client's requirements.
Measuring Change Impact
Sometimes correcting an error or adding even a small feature introduces more issues, so consider performing a risk assessment. Constantly measure change impact and check if the development process passes the standards set for the project.
Maintaining Records and Reports
Keeping the documentation related to SQA and sharing the required quality assurance information with the stakeholders is crucial. They should be informed about all the improvements in the process and stay updated.
Covering all areas of work
Be sure that your quality assurance checklist covers information about all components of the software that your QA team will be working on. No requirement or characteristic of the product should be left unattended by the end of the testing phase.
Promoting good relations
Last but not least, remember to promote non-toxic relationships within your development team and be ready for open communication. After all, the QA team is not the only one responsible for the final success of your software, and there's no success without good communication.
Software testers should always remember that they play in one team with programmers – and there's no need for unjustified criticism or malice when discussing issues with colleagues.
Software Quality Assurance Plan – Checklist as a helping tool
All members of the development team can use a quality assurance checklist during all phases of the project's lifecycle.
It can be used to ensure that the software passes all the predetermined requirements set by the organisation. It can also help you in assessing the efficency, usability and performance of the software and detect bugs, deficiencies and security issues.
With SQA checklist, the software quality assurance process can’t go wrong.
