How To Set Up Software Quality Assurance Process will be described in this article. Software QA procedures are important because software development is more than just creating programs to do particular tasks and testing them for errors. A new software product is a way for organizations to change the way they operate now or make a significant move in the direction of process optimization to ensure better business results. It demands the writing of very good code and the supply of a stable, error-free solution.
How To Set Up Software Quality Assurance Process In 2024
In this article, you can know about Software Quality Assurance Process here are the details below;
“Determining bugs is just one part of the entire quality assurance process and software testing.” The QA and testing team’s mission is to help web developers provide the best product within the projected time period by locating any issues that could prevent software functioning properly or have a detrimental effect on the user experience.
There is no denying that software quality affects customer satisfaction and retention. A well-tested software program ensures that users won’t have a negative experience due to an undetected bug or fault.
A website or program that has production-level bugs will become more apparent as more users utilize it. It is imperative to have a well-established quality assurance procedure because it will raise the probability that end users will give the product a low rating.
Software Quality Assurance Process: Definition, Function, Setup, and Stages
So let’s get into detail about how to set up a software QA process in a development company in this article.
What Is Quality Assurance?
Prior to delving into the configuration of the QA process, let us first define quality assurance precisely.
The easiest way to define quality, which is very hard to measure, is “fit for use.” It all boils down to meeting the needs and expectations of the customer regarding the product’s functionality, dependability, durability, and cost.
A confident declaration of a product or service is all that constitutes assurance. It is the guarantee of a positive result for an item or service. It ensures that the product will function flawlessly in accordance with requirements or expectations.
“Quality assurance in software testing is a technique to the ensure the quality of software goods or services provided to the clients by a business.”
The goal of the quality assurance improve the efficacy and efficiency of the software development process while adhering to the requirements set forth for software products. Another name for quality assurance testing is QA.
FGunctions Of Quality Assurance
The following are quality assurance’s five primary facets:
- Technology transfer: This procedure comprises trial-and-error data collection, analysis, and acquisition of a product design document. The documentation is given out, examined, and accepted.
- Validation: This creates a master plan for the validation of the entire system. Approved test criteria are used to verify procedures and products.
- Documentation: This procedure controls the sharing and archiving of documents. Every document alteration must adhere to the appropriate change control procedure. approving all types of records.
- Product success and quality assurance are ensured by the QA team’s planned course of action.
- Plans for raising the caliber of the output: In order to increase output, the team conducts tests, audits, process monitoring, and product evaluations.
Why Should The Software QA Process Be Setup & Used?
“To ensure the product is created correctly and with the fewest possible iterations is the goal of quality assurance for software testing.”
Testers that have a good QA process have a comprehensive awareness of the features, a clear definition of the requirements, and a plan of action.
Remember that testing should support development, not come after it. Testing should happen in tandem with development rather than waiting until the website or app is complete. Code must be tested before being committed to the repository. Put another way, the QA process needs to be carried out using Agile principles.
It is necessary to understand the components of a thorough, complete Quality Assurance pipeline before launching a QA procedure.
How To Setup QA Process From Scratch?
I’ll go over each of the procedures below in case you’re willing to start from scratch while setting up QA processes for your business.
How to establish QA procedures from scratch:
- Establish a team for software quality assurance.
- Align the QA process with your business objectives.
- Recognize and adhere to the QA process building phases.
- Take care of the different tasks, such as determining the best software, tools, and techniques, so that your team can proceed through the process without any major problems.
Now let’s begin by going over each of these suggestions in more detail.
1. Create A Software Quality Assurance process Team
To analyze your current QA issue and create the company’s quality assurance process vision from the beginning, you can hire a qualified and experienced quality assurance specialist.
Hiring a capable QA Team Lead to assist you in choosing the best applicants for a future QA team would be the next step. The features and commercial goals of your software product have a big impact on the specific tasks and duties of QA.
A QA engineer, a test automation engineer, a test manager test analyst, a test architect, and a QC engineer may all be necessary for your project.
With all of these individuals on your team, creating and establishing the QA process won’t present any problems.
2. Align Your Business Goals With The QA process
The current phase of your product’s development has a big influence on your quality assurance plan.
Following verification of the product concept, you can start the quality assurance process at the software development stage. You can also start laying the groundwork for your quality assurance strategy by creating a long-term perspective notion of the product quality that spans one to two years.
Under the objectives of your business, a QA analyst can create test cases, generate documentation, and establish a testing plan based on the current functionality. You can then employ QA engineers to do both automated and manual testing after that.
The more features and complexity you add to your software, the more test cases you need to update and review. A DevOps specialist could also be used to expedite the testing process.
Stages to Build And Setup The QA Process
1. Analyze The Needs And Requirements
Fixing defects discovered during testing is more expensive than just avoiding them throughout the requirements design phase. QA specialists should be involved in the analysis and definition of functional non-functional software requirements.
QAs need to be given requirements that are clear, comprehensive, verifiable, and consistent. As a result, the QA team may more easily create tests that are specifically tailored to the software being tested.
2. Plan The Tests
During the requirements analysis process, knowledge is gained and utilized in test planning. The test plan should include the project budget, the testing strategy, the testing scope, and the timeframes.
The appropriate types and degrees of testing should be specified when allocating resources and tasks to individual testers. It should also include protocols and instruments for monitoring flaws.
3. Create The Tests
QA teams now have to develop checklists and test cases covering the software requirements.
Every test case needs to contain conditions, data, and the steps necessary to confirm its functionality. Every test must also specify the desired test outcome so that testers have something to compare actual results to. Also check Occupational Safety Software
It is recommended that QAs start modest amount of exploratory testing in order to familiarize themselves with the software. This would make it easier to create appropriate test scenarios.
If an automation strategy has been outlined in the test scope, this is also the step for creating QA scenarios for automation testing.
Getting the staging area ready for use is another task during this stage. In terms of specific hardware, software, and network configurations, this environment ought to be quite similar to the production environment. For example, databases and system configurations must to be meticulously modeled.
4. Conduct Tests And File Defect Reports
Unit tests are the initial type of testing that developers perform. The quality assurance testing team then conducts tests at the API and UI layers. Manual tests are carried out in accordance with previously prepared test cases.
Every bug that is found is added to defect tracking system for the effective defect management. Test automation engineers can also use automated test frameworks such as Appium, Cypress, or Selenium to run test scripts and generate test summary results.
5. Run Regression Tests And Retests
After faults have been found, reported, and fixed, QAs retest the functionalities to make sure they didn’t miss any anomalies. To make sure the fixes don’t interfere with the functionalities that are already in place, regression tests are also carried out.
6. Launch Release Testing
After developers submit a release notification with a list of features that have already been implemented, fixed bugs, recurring issues, and limits, the QA team has to figure out which functionalities are affected by these changes. Next, the team needs to modify the test suites to take the features of the new release into consideration.
Smoke tests must also be performed QA team to ensure that every build is stable. Test suites are rerun and a final report is generated if the test is successful.
Set up QA process for Agile environments
Use these simple strategies to align the QA process with the principles of Agile development:
1. Make QA results-focused
Agile development approaches emphasize completing smaller goals in fewer phases and at a faster pace. Similar tactics must be utilized in QA procedures to make them faster, more dynamic, and laser-focused on certain objectives.
2. Make transparency a priority
Transparency is beneficial to any growing approach, but Agile success requires it above everything. The testers need to have a clear understanding of the program’s expectations, the features that will be evaluated in each sprint, and what constitutes “excellent results.” Teams are able to collaborate, test more rapidly, and provide outcomes on schedule as a result of this clarity.
3. Make quality control testing a continuing process.
It is best to postpone testing until the very end of the development process. As mentioned earlier, tests have to be executed after every code commit. Every sprint needs to have it done in a way that makes it possible for teams to identify issues early on.
4. Introduce DevOps
By applying Agile principles to QA and Ops teams, DevOps optimizes the build, validation, deployment, and software development processes.
- It also removes conflicts between the QA and development teams, among many other advantages.
- provides greater control over the production environment for developers
- raises the frequency of deployment
- lowers the freshly released software’s failure rate
- lengthens the typical recuperation period
- decreases time to market and speeds up and improves the quality of software deployment
Recommended Tools for Quality Assurance Testing
Every QA team needs right tools to the ensure that the testers are fully testing the program and are not missing bugs that users may find in production. Let’s talk about testing on real devices first.
Regardless of the sort of test, QA teams require access to genuine devices for testing. Public release of a website or app is contingent upon passing extensive user testing. Real device testing, whether automated or human, needs to be carried out.
The most contemporary technology and the necessary infrastructure are provided via a cloud-based solution, which does not require an internal lab. Teams of any size should be able to accomplish more with the help of technology without sacrificing effectiveness or accuracy.
QA teams can use TestGrid’s software testing features to add as many people as needed to a plan. Teams can have an unlimited number of people on their planks. Every tester has access to over 100 genuine browsers as well as the most latest versions of well-known devices and browsers.
With integrated tools for creating sub-teams, allocating licenses, and enforcing access control among teams, this will guarantee no delays or interruptions and simple team administration.
The following are other programs and equipment that help effective QA operations:
Google Docs: It makes it simple for people and teams to share project material, such as checklists, test plans, and test data.
- Jira: It assists with bug tracking, task ticket creation, and assigning tasks to designated individuals.
- Zeplin: This is a useful platform that designers may use to exchange and receive design documentation.
- One of the greatest tools for automating website testing is Selenium.
- Cypress: This program is great for analyzing websites.
- Once more, Appium is without a doubt the greatest tool for automated app testing.
Best Practices For Setting Up QA Process
- Select a team member to the serve as the owner of quality. Select an individual or team to oversee the development of a QA plan and the setting of testing priorities.
- Give testing tasks top attention. It will help to avoid bottlenecks during the software development process.
- Use quality control in accordance with your development methodology. In an Agile project, quality assurance should start concurrently with development.
- Create your process using a plan as a guide.
- Prioritize manual testing before utilizing automation.
- Utilize bug-tracking software to record every mistake you find.
- Accept new technologies. Always seek out cutting-edge instruments and equipment that might enhance the quality assurance procedure.
Common QA Process Issues
When establishing the method for quality assurance testing, several issues could come up:
1. Where and how should test documentation be kept?
Usually, a quality assurance testing specialist oversees multiple projects concurrently. It is imperative to classify and store test data and documentation securely in that scenario.
While Google Drive is initially functional, managers would be better off moving the data to a more experienced test management provider as projects and team members grow.
2. How to train the new QAs every time?
As a QA department grows, new hires need to be trained and educated about the protocols, ongoing projects, and other team-related information.
Make a knowledge base with details on the tools, usual bottlenecks, best practices, and the QA flow utilized on projects used by that particular quality assurance testing team.
A fresh QA engineer has simple access to all the data in one location upon joining. But bear in mind that you should continuously sending in new data in case the QA procedures alter.
3. How to ensure thorough testing using the QA Process?
Testing particular features or functionalities may take longer when many projects are being managed, which could lead to errors finding their way into the production environment.
To prevent such omissions, create a helpful software testing checklist that outlines precisely what has to be tested, checked for, and confirmed. Also check SOP Writing Software
4. How should the QA changes be handled?
Say a QA has to take a leave of absence in the middle of a big project they are working on. Now, the project needs to be turned over to another QA engineer, who might need to familiarize himself with the software’s or the project’s organizational structure.
Instead of having to go over the structure and flow of each project again when a new team member arrives, it is easier to just create a map of it. A new project participant just needs to refer to this map in order to understand the product and the processes required for evaluating it.
Access restrictions, document version controls, and user management are useful tools for handling this problem.
Conclusion
The goal of quality assurance is to ascertain the product’s usability. As a result, the organization needs to follow policies and update its standards on a regular basis. It mostly focuses on the caliber of goods or services we provide to customers at the time of software implementation or subsequently.
Establishing a QA team may be challenging, particularly for new businesses, and the task is needlessly complicated in the absence of any kind of pre-established framework.
We also hope that after reading this post, you have a clear idea of how establishing a QA process will aid in creating the necessary workflows, enable teams to work as productively as possible, complete projects on time, and demonstrate clear success.
Therefore, in order to build up the QA process to raise your development budget expenditures and guarantee the quality of your software is maintained, you must have access to trustworthy topic experts.
You can “head over to our blog section here” to learn more about the subjects connected to quality assurance and software testing.
What is Quality Assurance?
To find out more, visit the subject topic in this article. “Quality assurance, or QA, is the systematic process used to evaluate whether a good or service complies with specifications,” to put it simply.
Common Problems in QA Processes?
When developing and establishing the QA process, there are a lot of concerns and issues that may come up. Some of these include where to store documentation, how to train new QAs when they join, how to manage changes in the QA team between projects, etc.
To help you read and solve such issues more quickly, we have previously addressed these questions in the text.
Why should QA Processes be implemented?
As we’ve already covered, a successful quality assurance process gives testers a precise description of the requirements, a thorough grasp of the features, and a roadmap for the project’s progression. With this information, they can navigate the project and conduct testing as effectively and efficiently as possible while keeping an eye out for any potential software bugs.