How Can Quality Assurance Influence the Development of Software?

The digital revolution has entailed the building of myriad software applications working in tandem with hardware systems to deliver a better customer experience. The demands of the market notwithstanding, a software application needs to stand tall on the crucible of customer satisfaction. The latter can only be achieved when a software application is validated for Quality Assurance. The importance of QA is felt all across the business since attributes/outcomes such as trust, credibility, customer satisfaction, and even ROI are determined by it.

A company with a suspect quality software application does not make much headway in the market as far as gaining customer approval is concerned. Remember, a marketing blitz can make the much needed initial noise about a software application in the market, but its real worth is only felt when customers start using it. If the quality of the software application does not inspire confidence then no marketing push can change the opinion of customers.

Moreover, a bad quality product or service can lead to a spate of customer complaints. These complaints can overwhelm the departments of a company, and if not handled properly, can lead to dire consequences such as:

• Customers suing the company for damages
• Falling foul of regulatory authorities
• Inviting censure or penalties from regulatory authorities/courts
• Courts decreeing the company to make good the losses suffered by customers
• The capital outgo in paying damages can hit the company’s balance sheet even leading to its ruin

Businesses should aim at preventing the above mentioned consequences by putting in place a rigorous software quality assurance process. Moreover, given the role of software applications in everyday affairs – buying groceries, making reservations in trains/aeroplanes/buses, or booking cabs and hotels among others, Quality Assurance has assumed an increased salience. Furthermore, if the above mentioned activities are not enough, the advent of advanced technologies like the Internet of Things and prevailing security challenges have necessitated the building of bug free software.

The changing dynamics of the digital environment entail rising customer expectations, the advent of new technologies, and the availability of myriad devices, platforms, browsers, networks, and operating systems. Addressing such changing dynamics has led to the development and adoption of new QA paradigms such as Agile and DevOps. The new paradigms emphasize the testing of products during the development stage only. Hence, it calls for realigning processes such as development and testing and making them work together rather than in distinct silos.

How can software quality assurance services help in software development?

Shift left testing leading to better quality: Traditional software quality assurance services involve the testing of specific features and functionalities of software at the end of the development process. The bugs thus found by the testing team in such a process are difficult to be eliminated post integration. The process often leads to missing the turnaround time and increasing the cost of development. However, by employing the Agile way of QA software testing, codes are tested in the development sprint leading to better identification and elimination of glitches.

Accelerating time to market: The quicker the glitches are found and eliminated, the faster the codes can be integrated into a software suite and deployed. In a scenario of shifting customer preferences, reaching the market early with good quality software is critical for a business to beat the competition.

Streamlining the departments: A software quality assurance company should ensure the seamless functioning of its processes and departments. It is often seen that the objectives and workflows of individual departments do not always align with the overall business objective of the company. This leads to departments often working at cross purposes resulting in a lack of focus and cohesion and the frittering away of resources. However, implementing DevOps can lead to the building of a quality culture wherein each and every department viz., development, testing, and operations, can work with a singular purpose. The DevOps methodology of software development and testing ensures Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD) of software to the satisfaction of the end customers.

Test Automation: The manual way of testing the software does not improve the quality of software significantly. This is due to factors like visual fatigue or the lack of attention span that testers encounter while conducting comprehensive but repetitive testing. This is where test automation can work wonders by validating most of the codes. It involves the writing of automated test scripts and the use of virtual users to test a thousand line of codes quickly.

Conclusion

Quality has become the single most important attribute in the success of a software. It determines whether the software is accepted by the customers or not. Its role in increasing productivity, enhancing efficiency, and reducing waste is all encompassing. Thus, software quality assurance must be made an integral part of the software development process.

Diya works for Cigniti Technologies, Global Leaders in Independent Software Testing Services Company to be appraised at Cmmi-Svc v1.3, Maturity Level 5, and is also Iso 9001:2015 & Iso 27001:2013 certified.