Definition and Objective

Verification evaluates work products (not the final software) to determine whether they meet the specified requirements. The primary goal of verification is to ensure that the product is being built correctly and adhering to the defined processes and specifications.

Key Activities in Verification

• Reviews: Conducting systematic examinations of documents and design artifacts to identify issues early.
• Walkthroughs: Step-by-step presentations of the design or code to peers for feedback.
• Inspections: Formal evaluations of documents and code by trained individuals to detect defects.
• Static Analysis: Automated tools analyze code without executing it to find potential errors and violations of coding standards.

Benefits of Verification

• Early defect detection reduces the cost and effort of fixing issues.
• Ensures compliance with standards and requirements.
• Improves the overall quality of the software development process.

Exploring Validation: Building the Right Product

Definition and Objective

Validation is evaluating the final software product to ensure it meets the business requirements and user needs. The main objective of validation is to confirm that the product behaves as expected in a real-world scenario and satisfies the intended use.

Key Activities in Validation

• Unit Testing: Testing individual components or modules for correctness.
• Integration Testing: Ensuring that different modules or services work together as intended.
• System Testing: Testing the complete and integrated software to verify it meets the specified requirements.
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Final testing based on user requirements and business processes.

Benefits of Validation

• Ensures the product meets user expectations and requirements.
• Identifies issues that may not have been detected during verification.
• Validates the functionality, performance, and usability of the software.

Critical Differences Between Verification and Validation

Focus and Approach

• Verification: Focuses on process-oriented activities to ensure the product is built correctly. It involves checking documents, design, and code through reviews and inspections.
• Validation: This process focuses on product-oriented activities to ensure the correctness of the final product. It involves actual testing of the software in a real-world scenario.

Timing and Methods

• Verification: Performed during the development phase. Methods include reviews, walkthroughs, inspections, and static analysis.
• Validation: Performed after the development phase. Methods include unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing.

Outcome and Impact

• Verification: Identifies issues early in the development cycle, reducing the cost and effort required for fixes.
• Validation: Confirm that the final product meets user needs and requirements, ensuring customer satisfaction.

The Integrated Role of Verification and Validation in Software Quality Assurance

Verification and validation are complementary processes in software quality assurance. Both are crucial for delivering high-quality products that meet user expectations and adhere to requirements.

Synergy in Practice

• Combined Approach: Implementing both verification and validation ensures a robust testing strategy. Verification activities can catch early defects and issues in the design and code, while validation activities ensure that the final product is functional and user-friendly.
• Continuous Improvement: Feedback from verification and validation can improve the development process, leading to higher-quality software and more efficient development cycles.

Unosquare: Leading in Validation & Verification

At Unosquare, a highly skilled professional team performs our validation and testing, ensuring that every software product we deliver is of the highest quality. These experts are part of our Quality Assurance and Automation Center of Excellence, which maintains our rigorous standards.

Our team includes:

1. Quality Assurance Engineers: They meticulously evaluate software functionality, performance, and usability, ensuring it meets all requirements and standards.
2. Automation Engineers: These professionals develop and implement automated testing frameworks, increasing efficiency and accuracy while reducing time-to-market.
3. Manual Testers: With a keen eye for detail, they perform exploratory testing, identifying issues that automated tests might miss.
4. Performance Testers: They are focused on evaluating the software’s scalability and responsiveness and ensuring it performs optimally under various conditions.
5. Security Testers: They rigorously test the software for vulnerabilities, ensuring it is robust against potential security threats.
6. User Acceptance Testers: These professionals work closely with clients to validate that the software meets their business needs and user expectations.

Trust Unosquare with your Software Testing

Our Quality Assurance and Automation Center of Excellence equips these professionals with the latest tools, methodologies, and training. Our technical expertise ensures our clients receive reliable, efficient software that aligns perfectly with their business objectives. Through our dedicated team and comprehensive approach, Unosquare consistently delivers superior software that drives our clients’ success.

We invite you to contact us and discover how our expertise and dedication can drive your business forward. Contact us today to discuss your project needs and learn how Unosquare can help you achieve your goals. Check out our blog to learn more about how we support our clients and our Design & Development services. 

At its core, software quality assurance is a systematic process that ensures a software product meets specified requirements and is free of defects. Think of it as a proactive approach to produce a high-quality end product right from the start rather than just finding defects after the fact.

The realm of software development has, over the decades, witnessed profound transformations. Yet, as methodologies and technologies have evolved, the mandate for ensuring software quality has remained a consistent imperative. 

By delineating the difference between general Quality Assurance (QA) and its software-centric counterpart, this blog post offers insight into the software testing world and its quality-centric ethos.

QA vs. Software QA: The Difference

“Isn’t all QA related to software?” Not quite. While QA can pertain to any product or service (think QA in manufacturing or food production), software QA is specifically about ensuring software product quality. It’s a subset specialized in the nuances and intricacies of software development.

Quality Assurance (QA) 

QA is an overarching term spanning various industries and sectors. At its core, QA is the systematic process of determining whether products or services meet specified requirements. 

It encompasses activities intended to ensure that processes and procedures are adequate to yield a high-quality product or service. QA is not confined to the tech sector; it applies equally to manufacturing, healthcare, food production, and more. Its primary focus is to prevent defects by ensuring that the processes used to create the output are of sufficient quality.

Software Quality Assurance (SQA)

SQA is a subset of QA. As the name suggests, SQA is specifically tailored to the software industry. It systematically monitors and evaluates the various stages and processes of software development. This ensures that the final software product conforms to quality standards. 

SQA encompasses the entire software development process, including requirements definition, software design, coding, source code control, code reviews, software configuration management, testing, release management, and product integration. We implement SQA to prevent defects in the software development process, but it also employs mechanisms to detect and correct potential issues.

In essence, while QA provides a broad framework for ensuring quality across a spectrum of products and services, SQA is a specialized discipline dedicated to maintaining and elevating the standards of software products. Both share the goal of defect prevention and quality enhancement, but their application domains and methodologies set them apart in the broader quality management landscape.

Why Is a Quality Assurance Tester Needed on a Software Development Team?

The intricate balance between robustness and user-friendliness in software design and functionality requires equilibrium to ensure that software is reliable and sturdy under diverse operational conditions and intuitive and efficient from a user’s perspective. The dual responsibilities of manual and automation Quality Assurance (QA) engineers intersect, each employing their distinct methodologies to achieve these objectives.

Manual QA Engineers: 

Manual testing is inherently human-centric and revolves around the perceptual and cognitive abilities of QA engineers to interact with software just as an end-user would.

1. User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Testing: Manual QA engineers emulate the end user’s behavior to ensure the software is intuitive and user-friendly. They assess the ease of navigation, clarity of instructions, and overall aesthetic appeal, providing the software resonates with its intended audience.
2. Exploratory Testing: This is not a scripted form of testing. Instead, testers rely on their expertise, intuition, and experience to explore the software and identify defects or areas of improvement, which is crucial in detecting usability issues in predefined test cases.
3. Scenario-based Testing: Manual testers execute real-world user scenarios to ascertain if the software behaves as expected, ensuring its functions are reliable and user-centric.

Automation QA Engineers: 

Automated testing leverages tools, scripts, and software to execute tests. It’s instrumental in ensuring software robustness due to its capacity for repeatability and scalability.

1. Performance Testing: Automated tools can simulate thousands, if not millions, of users to test how the software performs under load for use under high-traffic periods.
2. Regression Testing: When making changes to the software, automation ensures that previously developed and tested software functions remain intact and unaffected. Regression testing guarantees that updates or additions don’t inadvertently introduce new defects or re-introduce old ones.
3. Reliability Testing: Through automated scripts, QA engineers can execute the software repeatedly to ensure its stability over time and under various conditions, affirming its robustness.

When manual and automated testing methodologies are synergistically employed, they provide a comprehensive assurance framework. Manual testing ensures the software meets human usability expectations, while automated testing confirms its robustness against many operational scenarios. These QA paradigms fortify the software’s reliability and ensure it aligns with end-user expectations, resulting in a robust and user-friendly product.

The Role of a Software Quality Assurance Engineer

The role of a software quality assurance engineer goes beyond just finding bugs. They’re involved in the entire software development process, ensuring quality every step of the way. They wear many hats, from defining testing plans, selecting tools, running tests, reporting results, and collaborating with developers for fixes. Their objective is clear – ensure that the end product is the best version of itself.

Four Types of Quality Assurance

Quality assurance isn’t a one-size-fits-all process. It has various forms, each serving its unique purpose:

• Process-Oriented QA – Focuses on setting up a systematic approach in software development to prevent defects.
• Product-Oriented QA – Concentrates on identifying weaknesses in the finished product.
• Pre-production QA – Emphasizes ensuring the quality of software design and architecture before actual production.
• Post-production QA – Checks the software’s performance and functionality after its release.

Understanding the nuanced differences and interplay among these types is pivotal for any organization seeking to uphold stringent quality standards in their deliverables. As the software industry continues its trajectory of rapid evolution, these foundational principles of Quality Assurance remain enduring touchstones for achieving excellence in every developmental endeavor.

Tools for Quality Assurance Software Testing

With the tech landscape evolving rapidly, we’ve seen the emergence of various tools tailored to make software testing efficient. Some of the popular ones include:

• Selenium: A powerful tool for controlling a web browser through programs.
• JIRA: Used for bug tracking, issue tracking, and project management.
• TestRail: A web-based test case management tool to manage, track, and organize software testing efforts.
• QTP (Quick Test Professional): An automated functional GUI testing tool.

The imminent future of software testing tools promises a trajectory marked by integration, adaptability, and intelligence. As the tools adapt, so will the methodologies and strategies employed by quality assurance professionals, echoing the broader trends of convergence and automation in the wider tech landscape.

In Conclusion

Software quality assurance and software testing are undoubtedly the unsung heroes of the software development process. They ensure that the hours spent designing and developing a software product culminate in a reliable, high-quality end product for users.

Software quality assurance’s role is beneficial and essential to all digital products. After all, in the race of software products, it’s not just about reaching the finish line; it’s about doing so by producing products that perform as expected.

Let’s Start at the Beginning: What is a Web Application Test?

Web application testing is putting web applications through their paces to ensure they run flawlessly. It’s like the trial by fire for your web application, where various elements such as functionality, usability, security, and performance are scrutinized to identify potential improvement areas. It’s an indispensable phase in the development process, guaranteeing that the final product is polished, secure, and user-friendly.

Breaking it Down with an Example

Let’s illustrate web application testing with a classic example. Imagine you have developed an e-commerce website. The testing would entail checking whether the user can smoothly navigate the categories, add products to the cart, and efficiently complete the purchase. It goes beyond this, ensuring aspects such as website load time, security of payment gateways, and the site’s mobile responsiveness are up to par. 

Through comprehensive testing, you confirm that the user’s journey from landing on the homepage to completing a purchase is seamless and glitch-free.

Mapping Out the Steps in Testing a Web Application

All right, it’s time to roll up those sleeves and delve into the core steps involved in web application testing. Generally, it follows a structured pathway which includes:

1. Requirement Understanding: Before you dive in, it’s vital to understand the specific requirements and objectives of the application.
2. Test Planning: This is where you outline your testing strategy, decide on the tools to use, and establish timelines.
3. Test Case Creation: Develop detailed test cases to cover all possible scenarios and functionalities of the web application.
4. Test Environment Setup: Here, you set up an environment replicating the final deployment setup to conduct the testing.
5. Test Execution: The rubber meets the road in this step, where you execute the test cases.
6. Bug Reporting: Should you encounter any bugs, they are documented in detail to facilitate the development team in addressing them.
7. Regression Testing: After fixing bugs, the application undergoes regression testing to ensure the fixes work harmoniously with existing functionalities.
8. Final Testing and Closure: The last lap includes a final round of testing before signing off and releasing the application into the wild.

Drawing the Line: API Testing vs. Web Application Testing

You may be wondering how API testing fits into the picture and how it diverges from web application testing. Well, let’s clear that up!

API testing is a subset of web application testing that focuses primarily on determining the robustness of the application programming interface (API). Here, the communication and data exchange between different software systems are tested. On the other hand, web application testing has a broader spectrum, covering everything from the user interface to the application’s functionality, performance, and overall user experience.

Tooling Up: Resources for Web Application Testing

Let’s discuss the powerhouse tools that can be your allies in this endeavor. Several tools available in the market can simplify the web application testing process. Here are a few favorites:

1. Selenium: A stellar choice for automating browsers, giving you the leverage to write scripts in various languages.
2. JMeter: An open-source tool that is a favorite for performance testing and analyzing web application’s robustness.
3. QTest: A comprehensive software test management platform that facilitates agile project development and provides insightful analytics.
4. Postman: A versatile tool mainly used for API testing, offering a user-friendly interface to send requests to the web server and get responses.

Web Application Testing in 2024

A Shift Towards Automation

As we inch closer to 2024, it’s evident that automation will continue to reign supreme. Automated testing tools are slated to become even more sophisticated, capable of identifying bugs and inconsistencies with pinpoint accuracy and in record time. Imagine having an AI-powered assistant that can predict potential flaws even before they occur! The year 2024 promises to take the efficiency and accuracy of automated testing to unprecedented heights, making it an invaluable resource in the web development landscape.

Integration of AI and Machine Learning

In 2024, we can anticipate AI algorithms to play a more prominent role in generating test cases, analyzing results, and even predicting potential areas of failure based on historical data. This shift towards intelligent testing will streamline the process and enhance the accuracy of tests, ensuring that your web applications are top-notch and ready to dazzle users.

Rise of Performance Engineering

2024 is gearing up to be the year where performance testing evolves into performance engineering. This approach shifts the focus from identifying bugs to a more holistic view of the system’s performance, including user experience and system optimization. The aim is to deliver functional web applications with exceptional performance and user satisfaction, ensuring your applications are ready to take the world by storm.

Enhanced Security Protocols

In an era where data breaches are becoming increasingly common, 2024 will witness a massive uptick in incorporating security measures within the web application testing phase. Developers and testers alike will employ advanced tools and techniques to safeguard against potential security threats, ensuring the robustness and reliability of web applications. So, gear up to witness a future where security isn’t just an add-on but a fundamental component of web application development.

Continuous Testing and Deployment

Continuous Testing and Deployment will become the new norm in 2024. This approach facilitates a seamless flow from development to deployment, with testing being an ongoing process. It means that updates and enhancements can be rolled out more swiftly, keeping pace with the dynamic demands of the market and ensuring that your web application always stays a step ahead.

A Shift Towards Real-User Monitoring

As we sail into 2024, expect a marked shift towards real-user monitoring within the web application testing domain. This method focuses on collecting data from real users to gain insights into the application’s performance and potential areas for improvement. It promises to bring a user-centric perspective to testing, ensuring that your web application is bug-free and resonates well with your target audience.

Lean on Unosquare’s Testing Expertise

As we tread the dynamic pathways of web development, embracing web application testing as a steadfast companion can lead us to craft functional web applications that offer a fantastic user experience.

At Unosquare, we have over 2,000 completed projects, over 600 engineers, and more than 120 distributed teams. We know what it takes to meet and exceed project needs. Want to learn more about what Unosquare can do for your company? Check out more from our blog here.

What is performance testing?

Performance testing empowers development teams to look at how a system behaves under specific conditions. This testing evaluates things like a system’s reliability and stability. It helps to make sure the software is efficient and user-friendly. By simulating specific scenarios, performance testing can pinpoint issues before they’re user-facing.

Why is performance testing important?

Once you know about performance testing and its role, there’s a new question to explore. What are the outcomes that you can expect when you make it part of your development process? Take a look at some of the key benefits.

Creating a seamless user experience

Performance testing ensures your application remains agile and efficient, but without a clear process to measure performance, you can’t be sure what they will expierence. Continuous testing is what empowers teams to meet those expectations and make their software as responsive as possible.

Optimizing infrastructure costs

Performance testing helps right-size infrastructure investments by providing data to model expected loads. This allows your team to make informed decisions about appropriate server, network, and database capacity needs. Having those clear benchmarks prevents over or under-investment in infrastructure.

Bottleneck identification

Performance testing highlights specific areas, like slow database queries or high memory utilization, that negatively impact overall performance. When those bottlenecks become clear developers can precisely target and address these pain points in the codebase. Proactively managing that leads to more efficient software.

What are the different types of performance testing?

All performance tests aren’t created equal. Here’s what you need to know about the different types of tests and how they can inform your team.

Load testing: Load testing allows you to understand if your application can handle a specific amount of traffic. That helps shape capacity planning.

Stress testing: What’s the breaking point? Stress testing pushes the system to its limits to find the upper thresholds.

Endurance testing: Can the software maintain performance over prolonged periods? Endurance testing evaluates how the system holds up over time under a significant load.

Spike testing: You need to evaluate the system’s resilience when you expect significant load changes. This simulates real-world scenarios of traffic spikes.

Volume testing: This testing ensures the system can handle lots of data without a significant impact on performance. (Think: large uploads or downloads.)

What metrics matter most in performance testing?

Within the various types of performance tests, there are specific metrics that can help you improve development and the end product. Consider digging into these metrics.

Response time: Reveals how long it takes for the system to respond to a request.

Throughput: Looks at the number of requests, often measured in requests per second.

Error rate: Shows the percentage of failed requests over executed requests. Looking for a lower number is the name of the game here. 

Availability: Measures the time the system is operational and available for use. Higher availability is better.

The performance testing process: step-by-step

Not sure where to start with performance testing? Follow this bite-sized guide to get on the path to success.

This is all about mapping the full journey of the performance test. The specific usage scenarios and test cases are determined, the expected workload is distributed across those scenarios, and success metrics are clearly defined in this stage.

1. Planning and design

This is all about mapping the full journey of the performance test. The specific usage scenarios and test cases are determined, the expected workload is distributed across those scenarios, and success metrics are clearly defined in this stage.

2. Test environment setup

This step is critical for accuracy, as requires configuring and deploying the full testing environment. That includes performance testing tools, specified load generation, and datasets to mimic production data.

3. Test execution

Now, you’re finally ready to execute the actual tests and take a closer look at real system performance. This is when bottlenecks or issues are likely to surface.

4. Analysis

What worked and what didn’t? You can analyze the results to identify bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.

What tools are used for performance testing?

Having success with performance testing comes down to having the right tools and systems in place to support you. Each tool serves a unique purpose and it’s important to choose the ones that fit your needs.

These are some of the available options.

• JMeter: Can simulate multiple users and offer a comprehensive analysis of responses.
• LoadRunner: Provides deep insights into application performance and behavior.
• WebLOAD: Simulates hundreds or thousands of virtual users to identify bottlenecks.
• NeoLoad: Optimized for agile teams who need rapid, continuous testing.

Why is it important to continuously run performance tests?

Every software change can impact performance. Regular tests ensure that updates don’t impact the user experience. If there is a known issue, your team will have the opportunity to fix it before it becomes a serious problem.

Consider these examples:

Code improvements can have a positive impact, but they can also reveal new bottlenecks. Code changes should always be tested.

As the user base grows or shrinks, the software needs to adapt. More users means more load testing.

An updated server or a new database can change performance dynamics. Infrastructure improvements require re-testing.

All of these elements will have an influence on the end product and how users experience your software. To meet their expectations, you need to do continuous testing and uncover ways to improve.

It’s your turn to implement performance testing

Performance testing takes time but it also delivers long-term value. The upfront investment pays off when it comes to delivering quality software. Use the knowledge from the guide to make performance testing part of your process. Testing early and often will lead to the best possible results.

Are you looking for more insights? Stay connected to the Unosquare blog for more helpful guides to modern software development, and get in touch today if you need added support for your next project from our experienced and talented development professionals.

User experience can make or break the success of your software. One essential step to making sure your software meets the needs of your users is User Acceptance Testing (UAT). But what does the process look like and how does it work? This blog post will demystify the UAT environment and provide insights into its importance in the software development lifecycle. 

What environments should an enterprise application use?

Before you can implement User Acceptance Testing, you have to understand how it fits into the context of all the necessary environments for your project. An enterprise application should have multiple environments, each designed to serve a specific purpose in the software development lifecycle. These environments include:

Development environment

In this environment, developers write and test their code. It’s the starting point for any new feature or bug fix and is generally not accessible to non-developers. This environment should be isolated from other environments to allow for the rapid development and testing of new code without affecting other parts of the application.

Testing environment

Once the code is complete, it’s moved to the testing environment, where quality assurance (QA) teams test the software to ensure it meets the requirements and that it doesn’t contain defects. This environment should be close to the production environment, including hardware, software, and network configurations for accurate test results.

UAT environment

This is where end-users or stakeholders test the application to ensure it meets their expectations and requirements. It should be as close to the production environment as possible. This allows users to provide valuable feedback on the application’s functionality and usability in a realistic setting.

The UAT environment is almost (if not completely) aligned with the production environment, so any issues can be identified before the application is deployed to production. Performance testing may also be done in this environment, or one that mirrors it, which is sometimes called a staging environment. 

Production environment

This is the final destination for the application. In this environment, the software is deployed and made available to your end users. Maintaining a stable production environment is key, as it minimizes downtime and ensures a seamless user experience.

What’s the difference between UAT and testing environments?

While both UAT and testing environments are used to test the software, they serve different purposes and are used by different teams. The testing environment is used by the QA team to perform various tests, such as functional, performance, and security testing.

On the other hand, end-users or stakeholders use the UAT environment to validate that the software meets their needs. This phase is critical, as every dollar spent on user testing can result in up to $100 in ROI.

Here’s a look at more detailed distinctions between the two. 

Purpose: The testing environment focuses on identifying and fixing defects, while the UAT environment focuses on ensuring that the application meets user requirements and expectations.

Users: QA teams primarily use the testing environment, while end-users or stakeholders use the UAT environment.

Test scenarios: The testing environment covers a wide range of test scenarios, including edge cases and negative testing. The UAT environment focuses on real-world use cases and user workflows.

Test data: The testing environment often uses a limited data set to perform tests, while the UAT environment should use real-world data to provide an accurate representation of the user experience.

How do you build a UAT environment?

Once you understand the importance of UAT testing and where it fits into your process, what do you do next? To build a UAT environment, follow these steps:

1. Set up your environment

Create a separate environment that closely matches the production environment. This includes hardware, software, network configurations, and data. This way, the UAT environment will provide an accurate representation of the production environment, which allows users to test the application under realistic conditions.

2. Implement access controls

Ensure that only authorized users can access the UAT environment. This helps maintain the integrity of the UAT process and prevents unauthorized access or changes that may impact the environment.

3. Use the right version

Deploy the latest version of the application to the UAT environment. This way, users are testing the most up-to-date version of the software that includes any changes or bug fixes made during the development and testing phases.

4. Choose your data wisely

Prepare test data that accurately reflect real-world scenarios. This may involve anonymizing or masking sensitive data, while still maintaining the integrity of the data set. This allows users to test the application using realistic data and provides valuable insights into how the application will perform in the production environment.

5. Create a documentation plan

Establish a process for reporting and tracking issues identified during UAT. This may involve using a bug-tracking system or other project management tools to log, prioritize, and address issues as they arise.

UAT Checklist: A quick guide for success

Need an actionable plan that you can use to help your UAT go off without a hitch? Use this easy-to-follow checklist.

• Define clear UAT objectives and criteria
• Involve end-users or stakeholders early in the process and get their input on test scenarios
• Develop a detailed test plan that includes test scenarios, test data, and expected results
• Ensure that the UAT environment closely resembles the production environment
• Train end-users or stakeholders on how to use the application and perform UAT
• Execute the test plan and document the results
• Address any issues identified during UAT and retest as necessary
• Get sign-off from end-users or stakeholders once the application satisfies your criteria

It’s time to take effective UAT practices to your project

Implementing UAT can help your company create a high-quality product that delights your users and meets their requirements. Ultimately, a well-executed UAT process will help you minimize risks and increase end-user satisfaction. That sets up your application for long-term success.

Stay connected to the Unosquare blog for more helpful guides to modern software development, and get in touch today if you need added support for your next project from our experienced and talented development professionals.

Quality assurance plays a critical role in the success of any software project. We know that every development process looks a little different, but one thing is clear. QA and testing are an absolute must, and while at times used interchangeably, these concepts are not the same.

Are you trying to make sense of all things QA and testing? We’ve got you covered. This post will explain what quality assurance in software development is and what you need to know to make it work in your organization.

What is quality assurance in software testing?

Here at Unosquare, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of QA. (You can read more about that in this post about quality assurance.) Quality assurance testing, while related, serves a different purpose.

It’s a part of the process that ensures that companies’ software meets high standards. QA used to be something that happens much later in the development cycle. Software would be developed, then sent to QA for feedback, then, QA would send their comments back to the development team so that they could fix any issues that were uncovered.

QA testing for software is all about delivering the best possible outcome for the customer. Finding bugs is only one part of this equation. In QA testing, organizations are looking for anything that may impact the effectiveness of the software or negatively impact the experience the end-user has with it.

How do you perform quality assurance in software development?

Here’s one reason why these two concepts, QA and QA testing, often get confused: they complement each other. The quality assurance process is known as the Deming cycle (or the PCDA cycle) and consists of four components: plan, do, check, & act.

To overcome the confusion, let’s take a look at what happens during each step in this process:

Plan

First, companies need to establish standards, goals, and objectives for their QA processes. Doing so will help teams understand what to expect.

Do

Next, organizations focus on what will go into the creation and testing of the product. This is where your team needs to follow the plan you set out in the first step in the cycle to move towards the final product.

Check

Have you met the goals you set out to achieve? This step aims to answer this question, and it’s where QA testing comes into play. You may uncover issues that require your team to take a step back, and problem solve. Your team may also take note of any lessons learned at this stage.

Act

Finally, during the last stage, teams execute the actions necessary to meet your goals and make any changes required.

QA testing requires you first to establish your quality standards. Then, ensure that those standards are met through the tests you carry out. This is key because it requires your team to always have quality in mind.

Six different types of software testing

QA testing may also look different depending on your goals and the types of tests your team needs to carry out. Take a look at these other software testing methods.

Functional tests

Functional tests focus on the business requirements of an application and exist only to verify the output of the action. Functional tests don’t check a system’s intermediate states when acting and are going to be carried out by manual/functional Quality Assurance professionals.

Performance testing

Performance tests check the behavior of the system when it’s under significant load. These tests help you understand the stability and availability of your software both development. Both quality assurance and software engineers can be involved in performance testing

Smoke testing

Smoke tests are basic tests that check the basic functionality of the application. The goal is to ensure that the significant features of your system are working as expected, and this work is attended to by manual/functional QA.

Unit tests

Unit tests require testing individual methods, components, functions of the software’s classes or modules. These tests are typically inexpensive and can be done quickly. These tests are typically carried out by software development engineers or software development engineers in test (SDET).

Integration tests

Integration tests verify that different services your application uses will work well together. Integrations tests are more expensive to run because there are multiple parts in these tests, and your application must be up and running. Similar to unit tests, software development engineers perform integration tests.

End-to-end tests

End-to-end tests replicate a user behavior with the software in a complete application environment. This could be as simple as loading a page, or it could be more complex, depending on what you’re building. Though separate, this can sometimes be considered as part of integration testing.

What is the difference between QA and UAT testing?

While these terms can be confusing, it’s essential to understand the differences between QA and UAT. Quality assurance ensures that the software is free of errors and bugs. User acceptance testing ensures that the software provides the best possible user experience and meets their expectations.

Comparing quality assurance, quality control, and testing

Now, let’s look at the differences between QA, quality control, and testing. All of these components must come together to create the best possible software.

Quality assurance is the constant monitoring of development processes and outcomes to ensure that your team is doing their best work and providing the best possible end product.

QA testing is done to detect and solve technical issues in the source code. It also assesses the overall product’s usability, compatibility, security, and performance. This requires you to have an experienced team in place to execute correctly.

Quality control is a process where businesses seek to ensure that product quality is improved and maintained. This also means that errors are significantly reduced or even eliminated. This is applied to the product once it is complete to ensure that it meets the standards you set out to reach.

Looking augment your team with Quality Assurance delivery professionals? 

QA testing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You can choose to outsource to a company with excellent quality assurance delivery professionals. Here at Unosquare, we have over 2,000 successfully completed projects, over 600 engineers, and more than 120 distributed teams. We know what it takes to meet and exceed project needs. Want to learn more about what Unosquare can do for your company? Check out our blog here.

Quality can be a subjective topic. One person’s trash is another’s treasure. But when it comes to software development, there needs to be some clarity as to what constitutes a high quality product or service. 

The most straightforward way to evaluate software quality impartially is to ask whether it meets the expectations it sets. In other words, can the software actually solve the problem it was designed to address, and is it behaving in a manner that is consistent with its claimed performance characteristics? 

To answer those questions and ensure they are delivering high quality products and services, software developers rely on robust Quality Assurance (QA) programs that continually analyze and improve the processes around their production workflow.

What is Quality Assurance in Software Testing?

Quality Assurance (QA) in the software industry (also known as SQA), like in many other fields, is a process-focused methodology that scrutinizes how a product or service is made to find inefficiencies and faults in the development process. There are two mutually non-exclusive categories of SQA:

– Defect Management: Quality is determined by identifying defects (e.g. bugs, errors, missing features, broken code, etc.) and then cataloging and categorizing them by their severity so that corrective action can be taken in a timely manner.

– Attribute Analysis: The major attributes of the product are broken down (e.g. functionality, reliability, usability, efficiency, maintainability, portability, etc.) and each evaluated individually.

Quality assurance testing refers to the actual process of analyzing the real world impact of a quality assurance process to determine how it is improving the software and its development framework. The keys to comprehensive QA for software testing include:

– Testing environments that touch on every facet of the product

– Unambiguous product performance and quality standards

– Automated testing of high risk issues and categories

– Prioritization of corrective action based on the severity of the errors

– Accurate simulation of real world usage of the product

What is the Difference Between Quality Assurance and Quality Control?

Quality assurance occurs before and during the development process. Quality Control (QC) doesn’t take place until after the project is completed. It is the final evaluation of the finished product to ensure it matches the standards established for it at the onset. 

The goal of QC is to ensure that any issues that slipped through SQA are identified and remediated. Simply put, QA examines processes to prevent problems before they occur, whereas QC is directed at outcomes to catch and fix problems before the end users take delivery.

What is a Software Quality Assurance Plan?

SQA plans are the codification of process objectives and the actual steps taken throughout the development cycle to ensure progress moves in alignment with the project’s overarching goals. SQA plans differ, but many will include, at a minimum:

– Quality audits

– Declarations of best practices and prefered processes

– Lists of acceptable tools and development platforms

– Resources for training team members to meet the appropriate quality level

– Guidance regarding the prioritization of discovered issues

What Are the Software Quality Assurance Industry Standards?

Particularly for heavily regulated industries like finance, healthcare, and government, customers expect independent verification that their software vendors are following industry-accepted practices for SQA. There are numerous such standards and certifications, but the following three are the most common:

– ISO 9000: Part of a family of quality management systems established by the International Organization for Standardization which sets basic requirements intended to assure product quality. Of the seven Quality Management Principles (QMP) in ISO 9000, the fourth, QMP 4, requires certified organizations engage in a process-based approach to product development — meaning clearly defined steps are taken and repeated in a predictable pattern.

– CMMI: The Capability Maturity Model Integrated is a program administered by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA). Many government contracts for software require CMMI certification because it creates a stepwise framework for converting disorganized activity into an actively managed process. It tracks progress through five levels:

1. Initial: Unpredictable, poorly controlled

2. Repeatable: Some processes are instituted

3. Defined: Processes are recorded at an institutional level

4. Managed: Processes are analytically vetted to determine their efficiency and efficacy

5. Optimized: Processes are improved upon based on data feedback

– TMM: The Test Maturity Model functions similarly to Capability Maturity Models, but focuses more directly on testing environments. As such, it has a strong tie to QC and is frequently deployed to test a product before it goes live.

Why is Quality Assurance Important?

In the modern, digital economy, where user switching costs are often low and customer loyalty is extremely hard-won, companies that don’t produce high quality products rarely last very long. 

Quality assurance practices not only meaningfully improve the performance of software products and services, they extend their capabilities, reduce inefficiencies in the development process by saving wasted time and effort on duplicative effort and the pursuit of dead ends, and give end users confidence that the company, brand, or app they are patronizing is the right choice for their needs.

Effective QA practices also have broader implications for the organizations that leverage them. Namely, they facilitate the transfer of vital institutional knowledge and prevent critical information from being siloed in one person, team, or department. Organizations that establish, record, and preserve their QA planning and implementation documents are continually building a foundation for iterative growth as they hone their processes through trial and error — which is how virtually all great products are made and improved.

Need help with your upcoming software project?

At Unosquare, we train our developers, Scrum Masters, QA Experts, and business analysts on the Agile Philosophy of software development. The principles of adaptability and collaboration are the keys to success for the kind of rapid software development produced with our distributed teams. 

By focusing on communication, feedback, and flexibility, our Agile teams produce working results, frequently focus on the highest-priority features, and make continuous, meaningful progress on software projects. To learn more about what Unosquare can do for your organization, check out our blog.

Before a product release, there is a critical step that no team should overlook: Quality assurance. Here at Unosquare, we understand the importance of QA and the elements of the testing strategy that can help you put your project on the path to success. Keep reading to find everything you need to know about QA testing and what steps you can take to create an application that meets quality standards.

What is Quality Assurance?

QA assurance for apps is really a form of quality control, delivering the best possible outcome for the end-user of your web app. Organizations are looking for anything that may impact the effectiveness of the software or negatively impact the experience that people have with the application. This testing phase can make or break the way your application performs.

As we walk through these best practices, we have a series of tips about QA and how it fits in the development cycle. After you’re done checking out this post, you can find information and learn how to keep quality assurance in mind by reading additional posts on the Unosquare blog.

Benefits of Quality Assurance Testing for Web Applications

There are many benefits to defining and carrying out a QA process for web applications. Before looking at different testing requirements, we’ll put the “why” of QA in context. Here are three of the top reasons why you can’t afford to overlook quality assurance:

Improves Performance and Quality

Much like studying before an exam gets students the grade, good QA testing ensures that you put out a top-notch web application. This is the phase where you get a sense of how the application performs, what you can do to improve product usability, and any changes that may be necessary before releasing a version of your application. 

Secures the Application

Security issues are a top concern for customers and companies alike as the number of threats we have to contend with increases. QA testing can help you identify and manage any potential vulnerabilities in your application before they ever have a chance to wreak havoc. 

Reduces Time and Expense

Research shows that 75% of a developer’s time is spent on debugging. (That’s 1500 hours a year!) All that time adds up and can cost your organization a lot of money. If you can catch as many bugs as possible early on, you can more easily free up time and resources that would otherwise be spent debugging down the line. Testing reduces errors and the costs associated with resolving them. It can also help you sort out or uncover potential problems with code quality. 

6 Best Practices for Quality Assurance in Web Applications

Now you know a little bit more about how QA plays a role in helping you deliver high-quality products. Next, let’s take a look at a handful of best practices and testing activities you must take into consideration as part of your QA process.

1. Start QA Early

In some cases, the perception around QA is that happens late in the development process, testing before a deployment or release. However, it’s in your best interest for your development team to understand that the goal is to test early and test often. This is the best way to keep your product on track, ensure it meets your business requirements and avoid performance issues.

2.  Functionality Testing

It’s no secret that you have to make sure your app works before you send it out into the world, but proper QA takes this a step further. Check all of the different components of your web app, including links, forms, and workflows to ensure that everything is working the way it needs to. Every element of the app matters, as they all come together to create an experience for your users.

3. Performance Testing

Being confident that everything in your app works is a good first step. However, you also want to see if it can perform as expected under pressure by stress testing. You may find that when you do load testing, you may find that your app crashes under different kinds of conditions. Understanding and addressing that at this stage will make your app more stable going forward.

4. Ensuring Browser Compatibility

It’s likely that people will access your application from several different browsers and apps. To provide the best possible user experience, it’s important to ensure that your application is responsive on all common browsers. That way, end-users won’t have any problems with access or experience technical issues.

5. Usability Testing

Your application can only do well if your target audience can actually use it without getting lost. Does the app meet quality requirements for the user? Are the features you put into the app to help users actually working as you intend them to? Is there anything that may have gotten lost in translation that you should address? These are important questions to ask before releasing your web app.

6. Making QA a Team Effort

The purpose of QA is simple: to improve overall product quality. It’s important that everyone, including every party that has any involvement, is on the same page about QA and why it’s so critical. Make everyone aware of the testing effort and bring your team, employees, contractors, and any potential partners together on this initiative. This will make all of your testing processes easier and more productive. 

This team effort involves the your engineering counterparts as well. The best results will come from a collaborative approach and QA’s understanding of the requirements for the end user. Keeping an open line of communication with the development team will help ensure a successful development cycle.

Ready to augment your team with quality assurance delivery professionals?

Don’t stress over the ins and outs of quality control. QA testing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You can choose to outsource to a company with excellent quality assurance delivery professionals. Here at Unosquare, we have over 2,000 successfully completed projects, over 600 engineers, and more than 120 distributed teams. We know what it takes to meet and exceed project needs. Want to learn more about what Unosquare can do for your company? Check out our blog here.

CAREERS IN TEST AUTOMATION: THE CURRENT LANDSCAPE

While there isn’t much data out there about this specific role yet, there are a few points we can look at to understand what’s ahead. For example, a Bureau of Labor Statistics report projects that software engineers’ employment will grow 22 percent by 2029.

This rapid growth indicates that professional quality assurance engineer jobs will increase as well. More quality assurance engineers, and test automation professionals will have to review the code written by software developers.

If that alone isn’t enough, there’s even more great news for those who want to enter this space. Compensation data also shows that people working in these roles can also make a great living. According to data from Glassdoor, the average salary for QA software automation engineers and similar job titles is close to six figures per year.

THE SKILLS YOU NEED TO GET STARTED

Once you know about the automation QA landscape, it’s time to consider what skills you will need to succeed. What follows is by no means an exhaustive list, but it is essential to have knowledge and skills in these areas before applying for roles in the field.

1. Plan and Execute Tests

Unsurprisingly, it’s vital that you’re able to execute tests. Test execution includes creating plans on how to perform different kinds of tests. That skill will serve as your foundation as you make your way up the ladder and move towards software automation QA.

2. Automation

Next, you need to understand software testing automation, including the different tools available to you and how to use them. You should also be able to create your automation scripts using open-source tools. Note that tools and strategies evolve. That means this isn’t just something you should know about before you jump into these roles. It’s something that you must continue to gain knowledge on throughout your career.

3. Agile Software Development

Agile, in some form, is the prevailing software development methodology for project management. We’ve covered agile many times here on the blog, and it’s popularity and growth are consistent. Since this method is considered the best practice for software project management, it’s critical that you understand it. There are specific agile testing practices that you should be aware of to stay on the cutting edge of what’s happening in the industry.

CREDENTIALS THAT CAN HELP START YOUR CAREER

Take a Software Boot Camp

Coding boot camps can be a great alternative to college for those that don’t want to pursue a degree. Instead of spending four years in college, you can spend less than a year learning the practical skills you need to get an entry-level position.

Software Testing Certifications

Earning a certification is another way to stand out from a pool of applicants and gain the skills that you need for the job. These certifications may take around the same time to complete as a coding boot camp or longer, depending on your specific program.

Get a Computer Science Degree

A degree is the most traditional way to get into the field. One study shows that 58.8% of test automation leads have a bachelor’s degree, and 38.5% of test automation leads have master’s degrees.

THE CAREER PATH YOU CAN EXPECT

Level 1: Entry Positions

In an entry-level position, your primary focus is likely to be executing tests. This time gives you a chance to gain in-depth knowledge about test case management. Be sure to take this time to learn what it means to have a portfolio of tests, how you report on them, how to record your results, and how you keep the entire process organized. Your learning will work to your benefit as you move along on this career track.

Level 2: Moving On Up

You’ll move into more professional levels as you gain experience using tools and executing tests. At this level, you’ll learn your domain, about your company’s software, and testing strategy. Be sure to leverage this. In this stage, you want to be moving toward participating in testing strategy and test case design. Your role will start expanding once you participate in these more strategic goals.

Level 3: Expert Status

Here, you’ll start to look beyond testing strategy and test case execution. With this knowledge, you are looking at how initiatives fit into the overall business, increasing efficiency for your team. Test automation will come into play for you at this stage, and you’ll be working in the role you have laid out in your career track.

Here’s one thing to remember: It’s not uncommon for the line that separates development and testing to become blurry. It’s essential to embrace this. Being flexible, adapting, and collaborating with others in your organization will ultimately make you a more valuable resource. It will also help you reach your career goals.

FINAL THOUGHTS: THE AUTOMATION QA CAREER TRACK

Quality assurance is an essential part of the software development process. If your goal is to start working in automation QA, taking the steps above and understanding what’s happening in the space will help you get there. It’s an exciting time to be in software.

Here at Unosquare, we’ve successfully completed over 2,000 projects. We also have over 600 engineers and more than 120 distributed teams. We know what it takes to meet and exceed project needs. Want to learn more about us? You can go here to check out our blog.

Quality assurance plays a critical role in the success of any software project. We know that every development process looks a little different, but one thing is clear. QA and testing are an absolute must, and while at times used interchangeably, these concepts are not the same.

Are you trying to make sense of all things QA and testing? We’ve got you covered. This post will explain what quality assurance in software development is and what you need to know to make it work in your organization.

What is quality assurance in software testing?

Here at Unosquare, we’ve talked a lot about the importance of QA. (You can read more about that in this post about quality assurance.) Quality assurance testing, while related, serves a different purpose.

It’s a part of the process that ensures that companies’ software meets high standards. QA used to be something that happens much later in the development cycle. Software would be developed, then sent to QA for feedback, then, QA would send their comments back to the development team so that they could fix any issues that were uncovered.

QA testing for software is all about delivering the best possible outcome for the customer. Finding bugs is only one part of this equation. In QA testing, organizations are looking for anything that may impact the effectiveness of the software or negatively impact the experience the end-user has with it.

How do you perform quality assurance in software development?

Here’s one reason why these two concepts, QA and QA testing, often get confused: they complement each other. The quality assurance process is known as the Deming cycle (or the PCDA cycle) and consists of four components: plan, do, check, & act.

To overcome the confusion, let’s take a look at what happens during each step in this process:

Plan

First, companies need to establish standards, goals, and objectives for their QA processes. Doing so will help teams understand what to expect.

Do

Next, organizations focus on what will go into the creation and testing of the product. This is where your team needs to follow the plan you set out in the first step in the cycle to move towards the final product.

Check

Have you met the goals you set out to achieve? This step aims to answer this question, and it’s where QA testing comes into play. You may uncover issues that require your team to take a step back, and problem solve. Your team may also take note of any lessons learned at this stage.

Act

Finally, during the last stage, teams execute the actions necessary to meet your goals and make any changes required.

QA testing requires you first to establish your quality standards. Then, ensure that those standards are met through the tests you carry out. This is key because it requires your team to always have quality in mind.

Six different types of software testing

QA testing may also look different depending on your goals and the types of tests your team needs to carry out. Take a look at these other software testing methods.

Functional tests

Functional tests focus on the business requirements of an application and exist only to verify the output of the action. Functional tests don’t check a system’s intermediate states when acting and are going to be carried out by manual/functional Quality Assurance professionals.

Performance testing

Performance tests check the behavior of the system when it’s under significant load. These tests help you understand the stability and availability of your software both development. Both quality assurance and software engineers can be involved in performance testing

Smoke testing

Smoke tests are basic tests that check the basic functionality of the application. The goal is to ensure that the significant features of your system are working as expected, and this work is attended to by manual/functional QA.

Unit tests

Unit tests require testing individual methods, components, functions of the software’s classes or modules. These tests are typically inexpensive and can be done quickly. These tests are typically carried out by software development engineers or software development engineers in test (SDET).

Integration tests

Integration tests verify that different services your application uses will work well together. Integrations tests are more expensive to run because there are multiple parts in these tests, and your application must be up and running. Similar to unit tests, software development engineers perform integration tests.

End-to-end tests

End-to-end tests replicate a user behavior with the software in a complete application environment. This could be as simple as loading a page, or it could be more complex, depending on what you’re building. Though separate, this can sometimes be considered as part of integration testing.

What is the difference between QA and UAT testing?

While these terms can be confusing, it’s essential to understand the differences between QA and UAT. Quality assurance ensures that the software is free of errors and bugs. User acceptance testing ensures that the software provides the best possible user experience and meets their expectations.

Comparing quality assurance, quality control, and testing

Now, let’s look at the differences between QA, quality control, and testing. All of these components must come together to create the best possible software.

Quality assurance is the constant monitoring of development processes and outcomes to ensure that your team is doing their best work and providing the best possible end product.

QA testing is done to detect and solve technical issues in the source code. It also assesses the overall product’s usability, compatibility, security, and performance. This requires you to have an experienced team in place to execute correctly.

Quality control is a process where businesses seek to ensure that product quality is improved and maintained. This also means that errors are significantly reduced or even eliminated. This is applied to the product once it is complete to ensure that it meets the standards you set out to reach.

Looking augment your team with Quality Assurance delivery professionals? 

QA testing doesn’t have to be overwhelming. You can choose to outsource to a company with excellent quality assurance delivery professionals. Here at Unosquare, we have over 2,000 successfully completed projects, over 600 engineers, and more than 120 distributed teams. We know what it takes to meet and exceed project needs. Want to learn more about what Unosquare can do for your company? Check out our blog here.