In order to eliminate errors when creating IT solutions, businesses turn to the expertise of IT companies. QA testing services are now provided by dozens of companies of various sizes – from small to the largest. However, not everyone understands the importance of testing in product development. Here we are going to figure out why QA is important and how it can save money on software development.
Table of Contents
Who are QA engineers?
The purpose of the QA engineers is to help build a quality product. Their job is not just about exploring bugs and testing. The main target of a QA specialist is to prevent bugs and, therefore, ensure the high quality of the product and the process of its development. This is a fairly general definition, so in this article, we will try to talk about some details that will help you realize the value of QA.
It is noteworthy that QA engineers want the product to be user-friendly both in terms of functionality and design. To do this, QA engineers need to work closely with all members of the product development team to regularly check the product against given requirements.
Now let’s look at all the stages at which QA engineers are needed, their roles at these stages, and the significance of their work for business.
When do you need QA engineers?
QA testing allows you to eliminate many errors and shortcomings that appear during product development. The participation of QA engineers is important at every stage of this process, let’s look at them.
Gathering requirements
This is probably the most important step. At the first meeting, customers describe in general terms what they want. They describe the functionality of the application or service and what features it should have, but rarely mention the technologies that should be used in the product.
In many companies, the analysis of functionality requirements is the responsibility of business analysts. However, these specialists cannot guarantee the compatibility of the technical aspects. Therefore, at this stage, in addition to business analysts, other specialists are also involved, including QA experts. The tasks of the latter include:
- Analysis and decision on whether the requirements are compatible with each other, and whether they can be implemented within the same system.
- Assessing which solutions will work and which won’t.
- Planning the required test methods
QA experts work with business analysts to find out what software product can meet the needs of the user.
Test planning
At this stage, QA specialists determine the testing strategy. The definition of strategy refers to the estimated time and effort for the entire project. After analyzing the requirements, specialists create a document known as a test plan. It includes the expected results of the project, its scope, and purpose, and defines the testing environment.
Without this step, the testing process would be full of unexpected obstacles and unforeseen circumstances. QA experts should draw up and document an action plan to follow a strict sequence of actions. Otherwise, the process can get clumsy.
Test development
Once we have a test plan, we can start setting up the testing environment and creating test cases. A test case is a set of steps that you need to perform to make sure that the product does not have errors and that it works according to the requirements. After that, you can think about the acceptance criteria – the technical standard that a software product must meet in order to be considered successful.
Completion of the tests
This stage is considered by many to be the only task of QA engineers – the execution of all test cases according to the plan. If any part of the system works well, we mark it as having passed the test. In this way, we can make sure that we don’t miss anything and that we get a quality product in the end.
If the test case fails, then there is an error in the code, and QA engineers send a report to the developers so that they check what is wrong.
Report on the result
After testing the product, it’s time to discuss what was good and what was not so good in order to improve further test cycles. To ensure that bugs are quickly fixed without any misunderstandings on the part of the developers, each problem found should be well documented.
Why do you need QA engineers?
It doesn’t matter how simple a product may seem, because its quality is based on a ton of work done. You know about test cycles, so we can briefly consider why every team needs QA:
- Safe product.
Let’s imagine, you have a payment system, and it works fine. A customer pays for the service and gets it. However, you have not checked all possible cases, and the money does not go to you, but to a random bank account. Such a shortcoming can be very costly.
Saving money
It is much more expensive to correct a mistake than to prevent it. Fixing one bug can lead to others, so your problems will multiply quickly.
- Protection.
If a buggy product is released and users are not happy with it, it will be difficult to convince them later that the problem is solved and they can use it again. The first impression is hard to change, so provide a quality product. If it has not been tested far and wide, then the product may not work properly or not work at all. Testing requires theoretical knowledge, so it will be difficult to ensure quality if you are not a professional.
- Process control.
If the development process is not controlled and goes against the established requirements, the final product can be very different from the planned one.
Final thoughts
Given the complexity of modern software, it is difficult to imagine a situation where the development process does without any testing at all. Implementation of testing at each stage of development allows you to improve the quality, safety, and performance of the product. Testing allows specialists to make sure that the system correctly performs all the functions designated for it. It is not so easy to test a system without special skills, even an experienced developer is hardly able to do it. For this reason, on the best teams, QA and developers work together; they can combine their skills to create a quality product. If you want to develop a reliable software contact the Intellectsoft company. With its QA services, you can establish control over your product’s life cycle, and monitor every development stage.