Quality-driven apps have become all-important to ensure security, usability, credibility, and functionality of businesses. A single flaw in the app is not at all accepted by the users, which makes QA testing of the applications vital. However, the apps released into the market most often experience quality problems. The quality problem is not raised because of the lack of QA resources, but it’s due to the absence of proper planning and implementation.
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It indicates app’s quality is ensured only when the software quality assurance process is incorporated strategically. In this blog, we will discuss the challenges associated with the QA process to their resolutions along with a few tips. Let’s dive in!
What is a QA process?
In the software development cycle, the QA process is a key element that assures that the software product meets the business goals by scheduling it from the beginning. QA process is the step-by-step approach that starts from the requirement gathering/analyzing to the final product release to meet the customer expectations. It helps in identifying the areas for improvement and optimization so that the final product/service will be tried and tested entirely before it’s available to the end user.
What are the challenges in the traditional QA process?
The software quality assurance process is not a bed of roses. It comes up with a set of challenges that the QA team faces. Take a glance at all those challenges:
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution
The same QA process doesn’t work for all types of applications as creating specifications matching the app’s requirements is important. With several types of testing available, it’s important to first understand the testing types and then identify which is more relevant for the app’s testing.
It’s time-consuming
QA process is a time-expensive process where testing activities eat up a lot of time as test cases are written from scratch despite using automated tools. When the app is continuously tested and updated, it extends the development time.
Blurry expectations
When project expectations are not clearly defined, then test cases written related to an unclear app’s objective won’t bring the expected results. The miscommunication around project expectations results in flawed software testing and a product that stakeholders won’t anticipate.
Lack of automation
Automated testing helps a ton QA and testing time in getting a quality product tested in reduced time and effort. However, using automation tools requires QA automation services and test automation services from a team of experienced and skilled QA and testers that have a great knowledge of when to use automation testing and when not.
8 Ways to Improve QA Process
The Software QA process goes through a well-thought, well-organized set of planned steps to achieve quality outcomes. The test plan is modified based on the software testing needs. Here, we have summarized the tips to improve the QA process which will result in high-quality products/services.
1) Start Early
Start involving the QA team from the very beginning phase of the Software Development Life cycle, which keep the QA and Development team on the same page. It also helps in clarifying queries regarding the requirements which can be functional, technical, and business requirements, which in turn helps the QA team in understanding the scope.
One of the fundamental keys to building a successful project is clear and effective communication between all design, development, and testing team members. Involving QA Team in Requirement Discussions, application designs, and requirement-defining sessions, and different meetings enable them to accomplish the following tasks fairly.
Ø Prepare test strategy document.
Ø Prepare a test plan document and effort estimation of software testing.
Ø Testing team planning for testing activities.
Ø Test case writing.
Ø Test scripts writing for automation testing.
Ø Preparation of bug reports.
Ø Bug management through bug reporting tools
2) Testing Scope should be clear
Agile software development is well-famous in the IT industry that’s facilitating changing project requirements in the middle of the project. however, the unclear scope and frequent changes in the project scope during SDLC create misunderstandings between the development team and the QA team regarding project requirements.
Defining the project scope ahead of software development improves the Software testing process as the testing team has a pretty good understanding of software testing from the get-go. It enables the team to decide which tests need to execute to produce better results.
3) leverage test design techniques
Exhaustive testing is a good approach to increase test coverage, but the principles of testing won’t allow the same. That’s where the test design technique stands out as the best solution that helps in reducing the number of test cases while increasing test coverage. Testing the right things not only affects the return on the testing investment but testing them in the right way also makes a big difference.
The test design technique is a procedure for determining test conditions, test cases, and test data required during software testing. It aims to provide suggestions on test quality and risks that require the tester to collect information about the system’s behavior. It answers the following set of questions for the testing team-
– Which different test cases (what to test and what not to)?
– How to stimulate the system and with what data values (System behavior based on input data)
– How many test cases are there (basically the volume of test cases that determine testing efforts)?
– And how do we get these test cases?
Test design techniques facilitate Boundary Value Analysis, Equivalence Class Partitioning, Decision Table Testing, State Transition Diagram, All Pair Testing, and Cause Effect graph method to get answers effectively.
4) Review when 20% of cases are written
Test cases review is one of the important parts of the QA activities. Generally, when the same test cases are written, the QA team copy-paste a couple of steps. During copy-paste process, the mistakes are also copy pasted, which leads to wrong test case creation along with missing scenarios and coverage.
So, if test cases are reviewed when 20% of test cases are written, then the reviewer can identify mistakes proactively and the team will make corrections so they will not be repeated further. This helps in avoiding repetitive mistakes and reduces the time to review comments closure.
5) Ensuring QA Team gets enough time for test activities
The time crunch is one of the common challenges for QA that they face during software testing, which affects product quality drastically. In agile development, at first, requirements are defined, then the product is developed, and later it comes to the QA team before UAT and deployment.
In UAT, dates are fixed but due to many known/unknown issues, the development cycles extend and that leads to a time crunch for software quality assurance activity, which eventually negatively impacts testing quality. So, allocating enough time to perform the following testing activities is imperative to ensure a defect-free product.
Ø Analyze every user story closely.
Ø Provide test effort estimation for each task.
Ø Explore testing technologies for fast work.
Ø Plan software testing resources.
Ø Record the mistakes. Do retrospectives.
Ø Avoid repetitive tasks.
6) Regression Test planning
Whenever changes are required in the software, the development team makes changes in the code to fix the issues, and then the modified build is sent to the testing team to validate defects are resolved. Sometimes, changes in coding influence other areas of the software that are less often tested.
QA team resolves unexpected issues while ensuring software quality with regression testing. It assures the management team, developers, testers, and clients that the new addition or modification in features won’t impact other functionalities. It helps in detecting the issues initially and builds client confidence that they will have bug-free software products.
The mobile app testing services from professional software development companies always prioritize regression test cases help in achieving an effective result in a pre-defined time and getting quality results.
7) improved collaboration between Development and QA team
Stellar communication plays a vital role in making development-related things smooth and making the office’s environment healthy. With the right tools in place, the QA and Development teams have crisp and clear communication in different phases of the software development life cycle.
The improved coordination between QA and Development team will make activities like defect retesting, and regression testing more effective and faster. The unmatched mobile app testing services based on flawless communication and collaboration among the entire development and testing team drive enormous success to business software.
8) Get the most out of the test management tool
Test management tools are software products that help QA teams plan and manage the testing process. Such platforms are easily integrated with test automation frameworks, bug-tracking tools, CI/CD tools, and others.
The test management tools help the testing team with testing activities planning, requirements collection, storing testing information and results, designing test cases, managing test case environments, creating test execution reports, providing visibility by tracking KPIs, and enabling data sharing between team members and across different teams.
With a wide range of test management tools available in two forms- open-source and commercial, the company will choose the tools that suit their app testing needs and budget.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, recruiting more QA resources is not a solution to bring winning outcomes with QA and testing process. Instead, it requires optimizing the QA strategy before the project rolls onto the development floor.
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The aforementioned tips for optimizing the QA process result in effective testing, wide test coverage, reduced defect leakage, on-time delivery, effective regression, and increased customer satisfaction, which is the ultimate goal of the QA process.
Still, if you are not able to optimize the QA process on your own, the mobile app testing services from a reputed mobile app development company would help you.
