In today’s fast-paced digital world, there’s not a single idea for which a product is not available. If you want to launch a new product, know that you will not be the first one to enter the market. The competition is fierce with so many alternatives already present. So, the first criterion to launch a product based on a novel idea has already been proven bogus. What matters is the next step. Your differentiating factor is quality. This is what separates one product from another. How easy is it to use, how simple is the workflow, how good is it to handle high traffic, and how does it perform under stressful conditions? These are a few of the most important questions that surface when the quality of a product is to be tested.
Moreover, for a QA, it is not just enough to learn the technical aspects of the role. They need to cultivate a mindset that prioritizes quality over any other factor. Then that mindset manifests itself in all the actions a QA takes to enhance the quality of the product. This article will explore the essential characteristics a QA must develop, along with the best practices they should adopt for delivering a high-quality product.
Deeper Essence of QA
When it comes to QA, the first thought that comes to mind is that it is all about testing. Well, that is true, but not completely. QA has more elements present in it that make it stand out from the rest. Like your appraisal parameters at the job, QA also has two levels of checks: meeting expectations and exceeding expectations.
Meeting Expectations
When a software is expected to execute just the desired functionality successfully, it meets the expectations. QA testing for this standard would check every element of the software, from functional to UI elements. They check if the buttons are working properly, the page is being displayed correctly, the images are loading correctly, the alignment, the font, and so many other things. Most of the QAs get so overwhelmed with the multiplicity of the checks they perform that they cannot imagine anything beyond that.
Exceeding Expectations
Here comes the next level of QA when they can exceed expectations from the product. Once all the basic functionality and performance have been tested, there’s more that a QA can contribute. When they test the product from a user’s perspective, a lot many ideas for enhancement can show up. E.g., they can suggest simplifying the workflow by removing unnecessary steps or merging a few, enhancing the design to make it more intuitive, improving the layout, menu to group them more logically, and so on. When a QA examines a product from the user experience point of view, they can suggest changes that can take the product to a whole new level.
Hence, meeting the expectations is about building trust and reliability of a product, while exceeding the expectations is about achieving excellence.
Best Practices for Enhancing QA
QA strategy is much more than writing test cases. The core concept gives weightage to the stages of software development, choosing a type of testing, and enabling cross-collaboration. Let’s discuss them in detail.
Shift-left Testing
It is the first principle of QA that the sooner a bug is caught, the easier and cheaper it is to fix it. Any bug leakage can cause cascading effects on the later stages. That’s because of the progressive dependencies that get built upon each other. Hence, the best strategy is to involve QA during the first stage of development: Requirement Gathering. Here, a QA can question the logic and feasibility of the requirements and refine them at the first stage itself. This would save time for the cases when requirements are found to be unfeasible during the development stage.
Planned Automation
Automation is no doubt necessary for a modern testing environment. But an effective strategy requires it to be implemented thoughtfully. Instead of relying completely on automated testing, a right balance between manual and automated testing should be followed. Automation is good for routine tasks and repetitive testing, like regression testing. It frees up the tester’s bandwidth so that they can focus on high-value tasks. But a manual approach is still required for performing exploratory testing, which falls outside the automation limits.
Risk-based Testing
Most of the AI-powered test automation tools come with a predictive analytics feature. testRigor, as a QA testing software tool, is one such product. Its most important benefit is that it can predict high-risk areas by studying the application and its historical patterns of defects. Using this information, QAs can prioritize high-risk areas to be tested more thoroughly and with utmost care. If the testers are working on tight deadlines, and quality cannot be compromised for speed, then a risk-based testing approach must be followed.
Cross-collaboration Testing
Modern AI-based testing tools can generate test cases through simple commands. This means the technical barrier is no longer relevant in such a case. And this facilitates cross-functional collaboration because everyone can test the software from different perspectives. Non-technical members of the team, like QA analysts, Product Owners, Business Analysts, and Program Managers, can run their own test cases on the product without needing any testers to write scripts. This way, the product is tested from all angles, and that contributes to building a robust product.
Closing Reflection
When it comes to QA, it is not just about delivering a product, but trust. QA must understand the weight of responsibility that falls on their shoulders. The development, design, and architecture of the product are all necessary for sure, but QA is the last door that opens directly to the customers. If customers fail to get the expected response from the product, the whole point of assigning a QA goes for a toss. A wrong approach in development can still be compensated during the later stages; if the QA strategy is weak, it has a direct impact on the business. And that’s mostly about fixing the errors.
But what makes a QA stand out from the rest is their approach to achieving excellence. If they can suggest some highly effective changes in the product that make the life of a customer easier, it shows up clearly during real-life usage. When a customer feels that some features of the product are just outstanding, they know that there was someone behind the business who gave deep thought to it. To a QA, it might look like a thankless job, but their continuous efforts keep accruing for a rewarding growth in the end.
