The Importance of Quality Assurance in Software Development

Introduction:

Quality assurance is a process in software development that ensures high product quality. It helps to check the defects, test the performance, and maintain products according to the standards through quality control. SQA (software quality assurance) is essential for testing the software including detecting bugs, correcting errors in software, testing performance, reducing costly rework, and quality checks. It is a process that helps to take charge before any major issues in a software project

Why quality assurance is important? Here is a list of key values of quality assurance in software development:

• Detects Bugs Early On
• Improves Product Quality
• Increases Customer Satisfaction
• Saves Time and Money
• Beneficial For Long Run
• Increases Company Reputation

Role of Quality Assurance (QA) in The Software Development Lifecycle

• Analysis
• Requirement Specification
• Design
• Development
• Testing
• Implementation/ Development

What is Software Quality Assurance( SQA)?

Software quality assurance is an ongoing process of software development life cycle (SDLC) that not only tests the software determining its errors or bugs but provides a solution to run the code efficiently. It assures the quality and then compliance with software development by checking the implemented standards are correct and working better before handing over the project.

The Process of Quality Assurance

The process of quality assurance is an ongoing activity that works continuously with the software development phase. The QA engineer’s team put effort into determining the product quality and executing the strategy for stepping into the quality assurance process. Here is a comprehensive process for assuring software quality. Let’s discuss it to understand the concept clearly!

Quality assurance process steps:

• Examine the Requirements

  Analyzing the requirements of the project is the initial step to ensure its quality as required. This step focuses on functional and non-functional elements to assess the scope of the project and its credibility. This helps QA engineers for better treatment and bug prevention at the very first stage. Required features and standards should be known before the production phase to prevent buggy codes.

• Test Plan and Strategy

  Planning is the next step when assuring quality in software development. After examining the requirements, the QA team gets involved in making the plan and strategy for the process of testing the quality of the product/software. This plan helps to set the goals for achieving high-quality products that are under development. The skilled quality assurance developers plan for testing, scope, budget, and deadlines in this process to meet the expectations of customers and users of that product.

• Test Design

  The next step is designing the product and implementing the strategies and requirements of customers or organizations. The quality assurance engineers create tests to analyze the design and functionality of the product. This step also includes sorting out the steps to be taken for software testing. If the automation is included in the product then the automation test scripts will also be performed. This test case design helps to get the data for further processes.

• Execution

  The execution process of quality assurance for software is crucial to carrying out the tests to the final stage. This leads tests to the functional and non-functional phases of the quality assurance process. This step needs a proper production environment that is maintained for testing accurately. The options for manual and automated tests are implemented as required. The QA developers ensure the quality when executing the tests for any products.

• Defect Management

  This step leads to the final identification of bugs in software or products. Defect management is a process that helps resolve the error by reporting back to the developer team. After resolving the bug, the QA specialists re-check the test to ensure the performance by testing validation, regression, detrimental effects, and functionality. After checking all the tests for quality assurance, the defect management then decides to develop software that is free of errors, and bugs, and performs better.

• Configuration Management & Reporting

  The last but not least step is configuration management and reporting. It is a process of quality assurance that helps to maintain a product’s functionality and quality throughout the software development life cycle. It covers test data, converges of density, test execution metrics, and other key performance indicators. It helps to keep your software quality as standard by determining the insights of the product quality, taking serious steps, and facilitating the continuous process of quality assurance. It ensures there are no illegal alterations or codes by removing all the bugs and mistakes.