QA Best Practices to Accelerate Testing and Improve Software Quality

Testing is inevitable in software development. An inefficient testing process can delay the product launch. The QA team should have an effective testing strategy that produces excellent results and can accelerate the testing process and improve the overall software quality. One of the primary things that you should do is categorize the software bugs or defects based on the level of severity and priority. This would make things very sorted and lead to an impeccable product.

In this blog post, we have listed six QA best practices that will help you make your QA process quick and efficient, and result in a quality software product.

1. Having Separate Teams for Security and Performance

Security and Performance are two distinct aspects of an application and thus testing them requires two distinct skill sets. Also with time, new technologies evolve and security threats become more harmful, thereby making the software vulnerable to attacks. It is therefore recommended that both areas be addressed separately. This will also lessen the load on the team members and won’t dilute their capabilities.

Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About Penetration Testing

2. Interact With End-Users

Who better than end-users to find issues in your application! The testing team should interact directly with the ideal app users, doesn’t matter whether they are inside the organization or outside. This approach will help you see the product from the end-user perspective and you can identify what issues they face or get troubled by while using the application. Based on their feedback, you can more aptly test the app and suggest adjustments to the development team. When testing in production, create test accounts in your production systems so you can simulate live, real-world software in a test environment.

3. Prioritize Significant Code Changes

Another Quality Assurance best practice is to prioritize code changes. Instead of testing everything, which will be an arduous task, check what significant code changes have been made and then prioritize them accordingly. This should be followed by prioritizing defects based on the severity and urgency level. Go after the critical defects first that need to be addressed as early as possible.

Read: The Ultimate Guide to Regression Testing

4. Prepare a Clear and Thorough plan

Develop a blueprint of your test plan that covers every related information as to what will be tested and by whom, resources required, deadline, what’s the acceptance criteria, and the current status. Ensure that every member involved in the QA team is well aware of his/her roles and responsibilities, and is provided with all the resources they require. Also, conduct meetings at regular intervals. Testing timeframes should be aligned with project timeframes, and QA specialists must possess a thorough understanding of project requirements.

5. Automate What Can Be Automated

Automate tests that are repetitive and time-consuming. This software testing best practice can be a great way to improve your workflow and productivity. See what areas can be automated. Automation testing (also known as test automation) offers several benefits over manual testing, though this doesn’t mean that you automate everything. This would incur a lot of time in building scripts and tests and you will have to monitor them constantly. Keep a balance and focus on quick and small wins. See if a thing indeed requires it to be tested manually or will an automation tool do that job easily.

6. Documentation

All the bugs that the testing team encounters should be well-documented and reported to the development team so that they do not miss anything. Documentation helps to keep everything in check and makes further stages of the project relatively easy. If a bug reoccurs after being fixed earlier, the particulars will help developers fix the bug comparatively faster than before as they would be aware of what they need to do to fix it again. What’s important, however, is that the documentation is of high quality. Everything needs to be well-defined and easy to understand. If testers themselves report the bugs in a vague manner, app developers and project managers will spend more time clarifying the bugs rather than fixing them.

7. Consider Potential Risks

Considering associated risks beforehand helps prevent quality issues. For that matter, you should manage, plan, design, and execute testing activities based on software risks. Analyze the functional modules of software under test based on the defects’ probability and the impact they could make and then classify the modules accordingly.

If QA isn’t your core competency, you can always look to outsource QA services.

8. Conduct External Quality Reviews

Having a second person to look into your product can be of great help in software development. Invite a professional from outside and get your software application reviewed. A fresh pair of eyes will look at your product from a different angle and assess it more thoroughly, technically. He would likely compile a report where the good and bad parts of the application would be highlighted. This could comprise the tech stack, code structure, speed, size, code styling, etc.

The QA professional would provide you with a general overview and make some recommendations, which the team can take into consideration and implement in the project.

Summing Up

Follow these QA best practices and we are sure it would bring you some fruitful results. As you put these into practice, allow your QA team to experiment with the latest technologies and foster a culture of innovation where they can try out and implement new ideas. It is very likely that the testing team will find some ways to significantly reduce testing times, which will ultimately provide more time for either additional testing or other testing activities. All things combined will eventually lead to higher-quality software that meets the expectations of your client and exceeds the needs of your end-users.