Best Practices for Quality Assurance in Software Development

Best Practices for Quality Assurance in Software Development

Need to test your app?

Click here and Contact Us!

Software development can be complicated, often involving a high level of knowledge and expertise. And even for those with development experience, working out all of the issues within an application to ensure that the client is provided with an acceptable solution can be difficult. It is for this reason that many software development companies use a QA or quality assurance team for testing apps. Here are the best practices for quality assurance in software development.

What is Quality Assurance (QA)?

In essence, QA is simply a means of making sure that the demands of the client are met with a high-quality product. Assessing the quality level is typically the job of the team member that is filling the QA role. The primary goal for a quality assurance professional is to ensure that the end product is not hindered by any defects introduced during the development phase. In most cases, software that has been developed for a client will be given to the QA analysts for testing before it is deployed.

Why are QA Best Practices Important?

There is an array of reasons that utilizing the best practices during software development is important. First and foremost, the QA role will have an arsenal of automated tools that help in working out issues within the software. These tools can be used to assess scripts, validate applications, and provide an overall structure for the engineering workflow.

Another thing that makes the QA role valuable is their understanding of the code that is being used in the application and this can help them to identify trouble spots that must be worked out before delivering the product to the customer. Once the QA department has discovered a section that may be problematic, they can review the code and make educated decisions on the steps that should be taken to remedy the situation.

QA Leads to Lower Development Costs

It is no secret that software development is a time-consuming and expensive process. Any unwanted delays or coding issues can end up costing significant amounts of money and may deter clients. And while some may argue that it can be expensive to retain personnel for QA purposes, their role within a software development company is vital. After all, it is always better to provide a client with software that has been thoroughly checked for quality issues, than to give them a program full of glitches.

In Summary

There are few roles in the world of software development that are as crucial to the success of the final product as that of a QA professional. By allowing the QA team to test code scripts before they are received by the client, you will help to ensure that the software will function correctly once it has been deployed. In addition, the QA role can actually lower costs by detecting issues before they are noticed by the customer. When you are having an application developed, make sure that it has been put through the proper quality assurance steps. A new tendency is to stop separating the QA role completely from the Developer role, so developers themselves test the software and help maintain automated tests up to date, achieving the required testing and making sure no issues are kept before delivering the solution to users.