The Importance of Software Quality Assurance in this year: Ensuring High-Quality Products for a Competitive Market

Ensuring Competitive Edge: Vital Role Of Software Quality Assurance

Today, we will be discussing software quality assurance. Well explore what it is, why it is so important, and its best practices.

Youll probably agree that quality assurance is one of the most important processes in software development.


Definition of Software Quality Assurance

Definition of Software Quality Assurance

What is Software qa QA or SQA is an ongoing process to ensure that the software product meets the companys established and standardized quality standards.

SQA is a series of activities that verify that all project participants have correctly implemented all processes and procedures.

SQA is an ongoing activity applied throughout the entire software development cycle. It is relevant to the work environment in parallel with software development.

Software quality assurance inspects each phase for issues rather than completing quality checks.

SQAs ultimate goal, to identify and fix product flaws before the public, is to reduce headaches for developers. Software Quality Assurance (Software QA) is a method to ensure that software products meet predetermined standards.

Software QA does not only play a role in software development; it is an integral part of the entire software development cycle.

The business analyst must check software QA to ensure that all software meets the defined standards. Each software QA process block is tested individually to detect problems before they become major problems.

Externally, businesses assess efficiency, reliability, and cost of maintenance. Software QA processes test internal characteristics such as structure, complexity, and readability.

These are the common characteristics of all software quality assurance processes

  1. A clearly defined approach to quality management

  2. Formal technical Interview reviews

  3. Multi-testing strategies

  4. Software engineering technology that is effective

  5. A reporting and measurement mechanism

All software quality assurance programs must contain these ten essential elements:

  1. Software engineering standards

  2. Audits and technical reviews

  3. Software project manual testing to ensure quality control

  4. Analysis and collection of errors

  5. Management of change

  6. Education programs

  7. Vendor management

  8. Security Management

  9. Safety

  10. Risk management

Quality assurance and software testing are not the same things, although many developers use them interchangeably.

Software testing falls under the umbrella of software quality assurance. Software testing is a process that finds bugs and errors in software. Software testers discover the problems, but they dont fix them.

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Software quality assurance professionals ensure that the product meets company standards and exceeds client expectations.

This includes more than bad code.


What are the Chief Components and Activities of Software Quality Assurance?

What are the Chief Components and Activities of Software Quality Assurance?

Each company may have its standards and procedures, but these are the common activities for software quality assurance operations.

  1. Make an SQA Plan. This will be covered in more detail later.

  2. Establish checkpoints. The team evaluates each stage through specific checkpoints. Regular quality inspections are conducted throughout the entire life cycle.

  3. Techniques in software engineering: Software engineers use software engineering techniques to create high-quality specifications.

    Designers may use FAST (Functional Analysis System Technology) or interviews to gather information. After gathering the necessary information, developers can estimate the project using techniques like Functional Point (FP), Source Line of Codes(SLOC), and Work Breakdown Structures (WBS).

  4. Formal technical evaluations: FTRs assess the products design and quality. These reviews include meetings with technical staff to discuss the softwares actual quality requirements and the prototypes design quality.

  5. Put a Multi-Testing Strategy in place: Dont rely solely on one testing strategy. Instead, use multiple testing strategies to test the product from different angles.

  6. Respect the process. Design professionals must adhere to established processes and use only prescribed procedures.

  7. Controlling Changes. To control changes, designers use both automated tools and manual procedures. This stage involves evaluating the changes nature, validating the change request, and controlling their effects.

  8. Measure Change Impact. The team will fix any defect in the product. The products functionality has been altered.

    The QA team needs to determine how the new change affects the product and whether it is compatible with other project parts.

  9. Software Quality Assurance Audits are performed. This audit compares all phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) to the established process.

    This audit also identifies non-compliance and ensures that all parties are notified of any QA issues.

  10. Keep records and reports. Quality assurance projects require documentation. Documentation can include audit results, change requests, and test results.

    This information should be shared with all stakeholders.

  11. Maintain good relations. Ensure that both the QA and development teams work together and get along well. These teams can often develop superior or cliquish attitudes.

    This behavior should be discouraged.

Read More: Definition, Methods, and Types of Software Development


The SQA Plan

The SQA Plan

The SQA plan was mentioned earlier but is so complex that it deserves its section. A software Quality Assurance plan, also known as SQAP, is a collection of procedures, techniques, and tools to ensure that the product or service meets the requirements outlined in the software specification.

The SQAP lists the SQA responsibilities of the team, the SQA work products, and any areas that need to be reviewed and audited.

These sections are included in the SQAP:

  1. Scope

  2. Refer to

  3. Administration of software configurations

  4. Reporting problems and taking corrective actions

  5. Tools, tech stack and methods

  6. Control of code

  7. Records: Maintenance, collection, and retention

  8. Methodology for testing


SQA Techniques

These are just a few examples of SQA implementations by quality assurance professionals.

  1. Auditing.

This involves QA professionals inspecting work to ensure that all standards have been met.

  1. Reviewing.

Both in-house and external stakeholders meet to review the product and make comments. Finally, they get approval.

  1. Code Inspection

This formal code review uses static testing to identify bugs and other defects. The inspection must be done by a qualified peer or mediator, not the original code author.

The inspection follows established rules checklists, and entry and exit criteria.

  1. Design Inspection.

A checklist is used to inspect the design. It covers the following areas:

  1. Design requirements and general requirements

  2. Interface and Functional specifications

  3. Conventions

  4. Requirement traceability

  5. Interfaces and structures

  6. Logic

  7. Performance

  8. Recovery and handling of errors

  9. Testability and extensibility

  10. Coupling, cohesion

  11. Simulation.

Simulating real-life conditions to simulate system behavior.

  1. Functional Testing

This is a type of black-box testing in which the QA person checks what the system does without worrying about how it got there.

  1. Walkthroughs.

Developers lead the development team through the product during walkthroughs. The members can then ask questions, offer alternatives, and comment on possible errors, standards violations, or other issues.

  1. Stress Testing

It is impossible to tell how well a program runs when it is running under high-demand conditions.

  1. Six Sigma

This quality assurance philosophy is well-respected and strives to produce flawless products or services. Six Sigma is committed to ensuring no defects in products and services.


There are many software quality assurance methods.

There are many software quality assurance methods.

Software quality assurance can be done in two ways:

  1. Approach to Software Quality Defect Management

  2. Approach to Software Quality Attributes

Software Quality Defect Management focuses on managing and counting defects. Generally, defects can be classified according to their severity.

Software development teams use defect leakage matrixes and clear, concise control charts to improve the software development process.

Software Quality Attributes: The approach helps software engineers evaluate the Performance of a product.

This approach directs the engineers attention toward several quality factors.

Although some attributes might overlap, these five quality characteristics are essential.

  1. Reliability: Reliability is the systems ability and willingness to work overtime in different environments.

    The application must always return the correct results.

  2. User-friendliness: Software programs should be simple to use and understand. Usability refers to the ease and effectiveness with which the product can be used.

  3. Efficiency:This software QA attribute shows how efficiently the system uses all available resources.

    This is measured by how long it takes to complete any task.

  4. Maintainability. It shows how simple it is to maintain different versions of a system and support upgrades and changes cost-effectively.

  5. Portability: This software quality assurance attribute shows that the system can run efficiently on different platforms, such as data portability, viewing, and hosting.


Why is the importance of software quality assurance?

Why is the importance of software quality assurance?
  1. Its time-saving and cost-saving: The importance of quality control ensures that developers catch errors and bugs in the early stages.

    They spend less time fixing them.

  2. A stable and competitive software product. Software architects carefully vet every block of the software development process against industry standards.

    Granular testing to ensure high-quality products.

  3. Your companys reputation is protected: Businesses must ensure that their products work properly before they release them to the public.

    It will significantly impact your brands image and reputation if customers find the errors in the product before you do.

  4. Security: Software Quality Assurance helps organizations ensure that their applications are secure, efficient, and fort worth.

  5. Customer satisfaction Your software project application must meet all customer requirements. It must work without interruptions.

    Software quality assurance processes will ensure your product meets all expectations.

Effective QA management is key to creating high-quality software. It provides the tools and methods to build bug-free products.

Software quality management encompasses three key aspects: quality assurance and quality control.

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is a part of quality management and includes a set of planned organizational actions.

These actions are designed to improve software development and introduce standards of quality that will prevent errors and bugs in the product.

Software quality Control (SQC): This is a part of quality management and includes activities focused on meeting quality requirements.

QC refers to product-oriented activities that verify the quality of software products before they are released. Software quality assurance is responsible for software quality control.

Testing aims to identify and solve technical problems in the softwares source code and assess the products usability, security, and functionality.

It is not only a key part of quality control but also an integral part of the software development process.


Here are four ways to improve your software testing process

Here are four ways to improve your software testing process

1. Plan the testing and quality assurance processes

It is important to plan, define, and document test processes. Documentation is the key to effective communication within the software development team.

Effective planning involves the creation of test and quality plans for projects. Lets look at the most important types of documentation that support the quality assurance process.


Check your policy

The most important document at the organizational level is a test policy. It outlines the companys test principles and main test objectives.

It explains the process of testing and how workplace success and failure are measured.

Although there is no one way to test policy creation, it usually includes the following:

  1. What testing means to a company?

  2. The organizations objectives should be tested

  3. Software testing in projects: General guidelines and criteria

  4. To clarify the usage of these terms in other documents, we have defined them.

  5. A list of tools that can be used to help with the testing process

  6. Metrics and methods for evaluating the efficiency of testing

  7. There are many ways to improve your testing process.


Plan for quality management

The quality management plan describes the products quality level and how it will be achieved. Although it is not required, it can help you plan all tasks necessary to ensure that your project meets customer expectations and needs.

This plan serves two purposes: to assist project managers and to organize the process by clearly defining roles, responsibilities, and quality standards. It should also describe the softwares quality requirements and how they should be evaluated.


The quality management plans key components are:

  1. Qualitative objectives

  2. To ensure a satisfactory quality level, key project deliverables and processes must be reviewed

  3. High-quality standards

  4. Actions for ensuring and controlling quality

  5. High-quality roles and responsibilities

  6. High-quality tools

  7. Plan to report quality control and assurance issues


Test strategy

A test strategy is a product-specific document that derives its information from the Business Requirements Specification.

A project manager or business analyst usually creates a test strategy to describe software testing methods that will be used to meet testing objectives. The projects business requirements drive a test strategy. This is why it is compatible with the responsibilities of a project manager.

These are the main components of a test strategy:

  1. The scope of testing

  2. Test objectives

  3. Budget limitations

  4. Status reporting and communication

  5. Industry standards

  6. Metrics and measurement testing

  7. Tracking and reporting of defects

  8. Configuration management

  9. Deadlines

  10. Test execution schedule

  11. Risk identification

The test strategy can be part of a projects test plan if it is small. For a larger project, however, the PM must create a test strategy that is a separate static document from which each test plan may be further developed.

These are the questions that a good test strategy document should answer:

  1. What product is it?

  2. Which part of it should be tested first?

  3. What should they look like?

  4. When should testing start?

  5. What are the criteria for starting and ending?


Test your Plan

A test plan describes the scope and objectives of testing, as well as how they will be conducted. It also describes the scope and activities of testing.

It outlines the testing scope and activities. This plan helps to control risks. An experienced person, such as a manager or QA lead, should write a test plan.

A good test plan should contain the schedule for all testing activities to ensure that your team is on time. The test plan should also define the roles of each team member, so everyone knows what they are responsible for.

Because of the differences in processes and tools used to manage test plans, there is no one way. The IEEE standard 829 states that a test plan document must contain the following information.

  1. An identifier for a test plan

  2. References (list of documents related to it)

  3. You can test the product and its variants.

  4. Software risks

  5. To be tested

  6. Not to be tested

  7. Approach (Strategy).

  8. Criteria for item passing or failing

  9. Suspension criteria

  10. Deliverables (test plan document, test cases, tools, error logs, problem reports, etc) (test plan document, test cases, tools, error logs, problem reports, etc.)

  11. Software, hardware, and tools for testing environment

  12. Schedule

  13. Training and staffing needs

  14. Responsibilities

  15. There are risks

  16. Approvals


These are key guidelines to make the test plan more efficient:

Keep your test plan short.

Avoid repetition and irrelevance. It should only contain pertinent information.

Please be specific

Include all details, e.g., To make it searchable, include all details (e.g., editions and versions).

Create a test plan

It is a living document and must be updated frequently on an as-needed basis.

Discuss a test plan with your team

This will provide them with information about your testing process. Your teams testing quality will be determined by the quality of your test plans.


Case studies

Software testing improvements cannot be made without the preparation of test cases. The definition of a test case was provided by ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board), the world leader in the certification of software testing competencies.

It is one of the most important tools used by testers. This information is included in the standard test case:

  1. The ID of the test case

  2. Test case description

  3. Prerequisites

  4. Steps to test

  5. Test data

  6. Expected outcome

  7. Actual results

  8. Status

  9. Created by

  10. Date of creation

  11. Executed by

  12. Date of execution


These are some of the best practices for writing test cases.

Determine testable specifications Determine the purpose and scope of testing before you start the test process.

Customer requirements. Test case specialists must have a thorough understanding of the features as well as the user experience requirements.

Every test case should be written with the clients requirements at heart.

Be punctual. It is best to start writing test cases in the design and early requirements phases.

This will allow QA specialists to determine if all requirements can be tested.

Clear and simple. Test cases must be easy to understand. Each test case should only contain the relevant experience and necessary steps.

It doesnt matter how often or by whom the test case will be used. A test case should have one expected result and not multiple.

Unique test case names. Every test case should have a unique title. This will allow you to classify, track, review, and revise test cases in later stages.

Test cases must be easily modified if requirements change.

2. Use test-oriented software development management.

Software quality can be improved by using test-oriented management methods. Extreme programming (XP), a software development method that strives to produce more flexible software that meets changing requirements, is one way to do this.

This article will provide more information about extreme programming principles and values. Well be focusing on two XP practices closely connected to testing.

  1. Test-driven development

  2. Pair programming


Test-driven development

TDD (test-driven development) is a software development method in which test cases are created before the code is implemented.

TDD uses a test-first approach that relies on repeating a short development cycle. It states that each new feature starts with writing a test. Before writing enough production code to meet the test, the developer creates an automated test case.

The test case will initially fail. Next, you will need to write the code that passes this test. Once these steps are completed, a developer will refacsoftware quality assurance to the code to pass all the tests.

Excellent quality. Products based on TDD are often much better than those made with other methods.

Debugging costs are minimized by running tests from the beginning of a design cycle.

The simplicity of code. Engineers spend more time aligning code requirements with particular tests.

It has positive effects on productivity. TDD provides fast feedback on fixing a bug or introducing it.

Full-stack Developers fix bugs as soon as they notice them.

Executable documentation. Users can see the tests as an example of how the code should work.


Programming in pairs

programming in pairs is an extreme programming technique. This development method requires two engineers to work together on one computer.

The Driver writes the code while the Navigator watches and offers suggestions. They can swap roles at any moment. Software produced by two developers on the same computer will be of significantly higher quality.

Higher code quality will result in lower debugging and restructuring costs.

Read More: Role of SDLC in Effective Software Development


Benefits of pairing programming

Excellent code quality. Fewer mistakes and bugs are introduced to the code because problems are detected before or during code writing.

Increased knowledge sharing among team members. More people will know how the product works. If one pair leaves, the other person who knows the code will remain.

Clear code. This code will be shorter and more clear.

This can be used to test the product. Pair testing is a technique that combines the experience and knowledge of two testers.

This can result in increased productivity.


3. To test early and often, use a shift-left approach.

We have already discussed a test-driven programming approach in an extreme programming framework. This idea is reflected in the shift-left testing approach.

It suggests that testing activities should be conducted from the beginning of the development process rather than as the last step, as traditional methods usually suggest.

Planning an early testing strategy

You can slow down development by putting off testing until the last week. To detect and fix bugs as quickly as possible, it is a good idea to plan a testing schedule in the early stages.

Reviewing requirements

However, the shift-left idea doesnt always bring all testing activities closer toward the beginning of the cycle.

This can engage testers in communication and analysis with customers and other stakeholders.

Testing frequently

It is possible to validate and improve the system by performing smaller tests during development.

Automating tests

Automating the testing process whenever possible and maximizing test coverage will help speed up and improve it.

Continue reading to learn more about continuous delivery and test automation.

Preventive instead of reactive

It is possible to shift left and focus on problem prevention instead of fixing. Testers can work with developers to help them code or test their builds before they go live.

Testers can also join discussion sessions and ask questions to get rapid feedback that will influence development decisions.

Team collaboration

Agile works best when cross-functional teams collaborate closely and members have broad vocational skill sets. Developers and testers -- as well as developers -- are involved in the testing process, creating a testable product.

It is important to remember that there is also the shift right strategy. This involves post-production testing on a fully built product.

This involves receiving feedback from real end users and improving the product quality based on these reviews.

4. Perform formal technical reviews

Software engineers perform a formal technical review (FTR).

This process identifies and corrects logical and functional errors in the early stages of software development. FTR is a meeting in which certain roles are assigned to ensure that software complies with predefined standards.

A mature product is the best time for an FTR. It all depends on what type of review you are doing. For a typical FTR, a group of engineers must be assigned specific roles, such as producers, reviewers, or speakers.

A review report should be prepared at the end of every meeting to answer these questions:

  1. What was the review?

  2. Who has reviewed it?

  3. Which conclusions and which decisions were made?

FTR is a type of review that includes the following types:

An author of a product gives a presentation during a formal review. The primary objective of the meeting is to present the product to other reviewers.

All participants must accept the product, make suggestions, and agree to time frames.

A walkthrough is an informal meeting in which reviewers look at the products source code, design, and requirements.

To find bugs in the code, a walkthrough meeting takes place. The code author is often available to answer any questions.

A product inspection is a session where the products additional properties are determined according to the specifications.

Inspections can be used to improve initial standards or to check for any bugs that may still exist.

Formal technical reviews can help to avoid errors and minimize the chance of making mistakes in implementation. This also allows a production team to review the entire products features.

It makes development easier.

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Final thoughts

Final thoughts

Software quality assurance covers all aspects of software development. This is the best way for businesses to ensure that every aspect of their product has been tested to the highest standard before they release it to the public.

Before you can ensure software quality practices you must hire skilled developers who can build the product.

With developers.devs Intelligent Cloud, you can find and hire software developers worldwide.

Developers. Dev helps you screen potential candidates and allows businesses to quickly hire remote software developers for their teams.


References

  1. 🔗 Google scholar
  2. 🔗 Wikipedia
  3. 🔗 NyTimes