Most of the software related startups fail due to poor quality of the work. Not many of us realize, but quality assurance plays an integral role in the success of the software development process. Stringent quality assurance tests should be implemented to ensure the standard of the services being provided. Effective measures are mandatory to prevent the product’s poor quality, so end customers get what they expect. A small mistake can cause a significant financial loss, which can be difficult to overcome.
You can easily find a list of startups who were doing tremendously well in terms of development but went down the drain due to poor quality management. Project lead needs to straighten up their priorities and deal with every aspect in a vigilant way. If you release a bug-infested product, your product will be discontinued in no time. Poor quality brings a bad reputation to the company along with appalling user-experience.
Best Practices to Improve Software Quality
There are few important points which can help you to improve the quality of the product being developed. Test case management, technical reviews, test plans, test strategies, and optimized automated tests are considered most important among all other activities.
Test Strategy
It is the outline that defines objective, scope, and method of software testing. This piece is derived from the business requirement specifications document. This document is usually created by the business analyst or the project manager in which they define testing approaches and through which big testing objectives are achieved.
Components of Test Strategy:
- Scope
- Objectives
- Roles and responsibilities
- Budget criteria
- Communication and Status Reporting
- Industry Standards
- Testing Metrics
- Measurement Metrics
- Defect Reporting
- Deadlines
- Risk Identification
Main purpose of the test strategy is to develop an understanding regarding targets, approaches being followed, tools used, and timings at which activities will be carried out. Something which is easy to understand and is actionable can be considered as a good strategy. It helps the team to understand and analyze the requirements.
Test Plan
A test plan is all about
- What to test?
- How to test?
- When to test?
- Who will do the tests?
Scope and testing activities are mentioned in this plan, it ultimately helps to get over all the risks, which might result in poor quality. If QA lead or project manager works around the test plan then thorough details are considered, which can save the time of testers while performing their duty. All necessary activities and roles are defined in it, which are assigned in accordance with the process, standards, and tools being incorporated. There is no fixed standard that can be followed to create a test plan. But one thing is for sure, a good testing plan will eventually result in better and controlled performance of the Quality Assurance team.
Test Case Management
Test Case Management consolidates multiple aspects of software testing in one place to perform the duties in a much more organized way. It will not only allow the entire team to communicate in one place but would be time-saving too. Selecting a test case management tool is a task in itself as you need to look out for something which meets your current and future needs. Normally a free tool can assist you with:
- Capturing test requirements
- Designing test cases
- Mapping test cases
- Generate test reports
Technical Reviews
Formal Technical Reviews (FTR) should be performed in the initial stages of software development to ensure that requirements are being met. Once the product is mature, it is an ideal time to conduct FTR meetings in which assigned people of the project can discuss the progress and requirements of the product.
At the end of such meetings, a report is generated which answers the following questions.
- What was reviewed?
- The person who reviewed it?
- Findings and decisions
Technical reviews help in highlighting errors that may have a logical effect on the product. It helps the team altogether to understand the product in a detailed way, so that they make calculated development.
Optimized Automated Tests
One thing which guarantees to speed up the process and ensure fruitful results is automated testing. A wide range of automated testing tools is available, which can be used to make the software testing process a lot more organized and manageable. Key benefits of automated testing are:
- It saves time.
- Improve Quality
- Testing cost is reduced
- Time-saving
- Improved Testing Coverage
- High ROI
Conclusion
If you are in the software development market, then there is no other option available except providing products of high quality. It will not only impact your business’s integrity but will also bring financial benefits. People who try to save the cost of testing end up paying a lot more than expected. Consider the above-mentioned points to ensure the best quality of your products.
