Now that on an everyday basis new software is being introduced to the market, it is giving rise to dog-eat-dog competition. One must be willing to provide high-quality software to stand out in the market. To establish this, quality assurance has become the nut and bolt for a flourishing empire.
Building the foundation of an effective and efficient software quality assurance setup is a tedious task but when precisely done, it will help in the long run.
Before we jump into more details, let us first see what software quality assurance is and why your business needs it.
What Is Software Quality Assurance?
SQA or software quality assurance is an auditing approach to check if the software so prepared stands upon the prerequisite standards or not. The guidelines are set up beforehand by the companies and the International Organization of Standard (ISO).
There are a few types of ISO standards that the product must comply with, such are:
- ISO 9001:2015: includes vendor management. It is meant to be compiled by industries too.
- ISO 27001:2013: includes information security management system (ISMS)
- ISO 14001: 2015: includes environment management system
The software quality assurance runs prior to, during, and post the software development process.
Software quality assurance setup is not a single approach rather It is the amalgamation of the two concept:
- The defect management approach
- The attribute approach
Why Is Software Quality Assurance Important?
A credible quality assurance system helps to develop high-quality software. A finely created software brings about various following advantages:
- It is going to save you a lot of time: finding defects at the initial stage, eradicates further time consumption especially when the software is in the final stage. Fixing the errors in the full-proof products is like starting afresh.
- Saves you overhead cost: mistakes that are found at a much later stage will cost you more. This is why identifying the software bugs and quality issues in the early stage helps to save on software development costs.
- Quality assurance equals a safer application: quality assurance is a broad term. Under this, it also ensures a sort of data leak or any other type of malfunctions that may occur in the future. So the quality assurance restricts the possibility of such.
- Enhances user experience: when a defect-free software is delivered on time, is going to enhance the customer’s experience.
Key Elements And Activities Of Software Quality Assurance:
The quality assurance structure of the different companies follows different protocols and operations, however, there are some common software quality assurance operations that most company follows:
- Formulating and setting SQA plan and working through with the guidelines according to it.
- Setting up the checkpoints: The quality assurance team sets up some checkpoints for the product development team to follow through at every stage. These checkpoints need to be inspected from the beginning to the end of the software development cycle.
- Setting up software engineering techniques: when clearly mentioned about the engineering part of the SQA, it enables the designers to produce high-quality software while keeping in mind the specifications.
For an example:
The designers will collect the information based on the acronym FAST (Functional Analysis System Technique). When the required information is gathered, product estimation can be measured by using techniques like Functional Point (FP), Source Line of Codes (SLOC), or Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).
- Organizing formal technical audit: here the quality and the design for the software formation get reviewed. This discussion takes place between the technical team as well as the SQA team to set out the expected quality standards with respect to what we are providing, hence bridging the two out.
- Involving a multi-testing concept: a single set of testing is not always a good approach, rather testing the software from a different perspective lays down the existing and potential malfunctions.
- Carry out process adherence: the designers must comply with the existing staff and guidelines for a smooth workflow.
- Understanding change influence: when faults and errors resurface, it requires fixing from the team hence altering the original product. The new changes made must be kept in check whether it is complementing the overall product or not.
- Regular quality testing audits: this process, it checks out the whole software development life cycle steps that underwent during the production of the software. This testing resurfaces the non-compatible issues and also about the insight of the responsible parties that acted upon it.
- Preparing proper reports and records of the overall process: logging each step, as well as the whole process, will cut down any future confusion. Such reports consist of the final result, changes made at each step, test results, and review reports by various teams. This documentation is generally shared with the stakeholder.
- Healthy atmosphere: since in the software quality assurance process, various teams work together as one, keeping a healthy atmosphere among them is the key to a smooth development process.
Who Is Responsible For Software Quality Assurance?
Software quality assurance setup is not a one-way road rather it consists of a complex infrastructure. Different teams align up to develop a software that takes every individual to take charge of their set of responsibilities.
The software testers have a huge role to play in software quality assurance infrastructure. Their main aim is to ensure that the software is bug-free before its launch in the market.
We may think that software testers and developers are supposed to be the profession that may fall under the same category. Alternatively, software testers jot down the faults and errors so found during the process of several sets of a software in a format of a report then it is submitted to the software developers that are expected to execute the new changes to be made to fix the error.
Software testers focus on the testing part as well as on the quality control aspect of the cycle that ensures whether the software is meeting the project’s expectations as an end result.
Software developers write the kind of code that runs smoothly while fixing the errors meanwhile by the clear inspection of the software testers, creates a mechanism that would produce a high-quality software.
Role of project managers in software quality assurance
Not only these two teams but project managers are also a part of the software quality assurance process. They might not write down the codes themselves or identify the bugs, yet they are in charge of various crucial responsibilities that fall under the department of SQA. Such responsibilities may include coordinating with the client’s requirements with the software assurance team, time management, and task management.
That is for sure that software quality assurance is rather a logic-driven cyclical, hence making it a shared responsibility of everyone at the end of the day.
Conclusion
A precisely developed software quality assurance infrastructure is all that you want to produce a highly efficient and quality-driven software. A software quality assurance system does not only save you a ton of money and time but also helps you gain customer loyalty and build trusting relationships hence improving customer experience.
The introduction of new and improved technology and tools have managed to make it an easy and effective SQA process.
Therefore, SQA is the tool that ensures that the clients are receiving exactly what they have hired us for.
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