The Role of Testing and Quality Assurance in Software development and Its Importance for Business

Software solutions are embedded in our daily life and complex business processes. It helps us control, monitor, and automate various spheres and activities: from the check-in process at airports and controlling industrial machines to organizing well-timed medication intake.

A variety of businesses are built around software products and their prosperity greatly depends on the product’s quality and customers’ feedback.

Improper the testing process or avoiding the quality assurance stage stymies the successful launching of your product and can even affect your business as well. According to the report made by Capgemini, Sogeti, and Micro Focus Research, there is a considerable percentage of failures in performing software testing in 2013-2018 years.

Besides, according to the research conducted by Tricentis, there was a loss of  $2.84 trillion in 2018 and it was caused by software products of inferior quality.

Software testing and quality assurance ensure that your product is developed according to your technical requirements, satisfies end-users’ expectations, and is secure in ultimate use.

Let’s shed some light on the basic methods and types used in software testing and quality assurance and their place in the development process.

Quality assurance and testing in software development

Quality assurance and software testing are two different processes. Software testing deals with validating and verification of meeting technical requirements. In other words, it ensures that a software product performs the functions properly, has all the necessary features and technical characteristics and is free of bugs.

Software testing is a part of the Alpha testing process that is performed in a lab environment and conducted before Beta testing.

In spite of the technical aspects of a software system, there are other significant things that should be tested: meeting software specifications through user’s feedback. It happens during the stage of Beta testing that real users perform.

In so doing, it allows for receiving feedback from customers and establishing trustworthy relationships with them. Additionally, this type of customer validation helps to reduce future software product risks.

However, before entering upon quality assurance phase, your product should go through thorough software testing.

Types and levels of software testing process

Your software product can be validated and verified through Manual and Automation testing. The advantage of the Manual type is the possibility to test your software system from the user’s perspective since Manual testing is performed without using special tools.

As for the Automation testing, it is the next step after Manual testing. At this stage, a specialist writes scripts and uses various automation tools that allow for double-chicking the system. Automation testing provides high accuracy and reduces time and cost.

Besides, there are several approaches to the testing process. Software testing can be performed using Agile, Waterfall, and Iterative models.

• In the Waterfall model, software testing is performed by following the 5 steps: requirements, design, implementation, verification, and maintenance and a tester strictly keeps this order. This model doesn’t imply any flexibility, however, it provides an easy and efficient testing process.
• The Iterative model implies repeated testing of the software system and using attained results in the next steps. In this way, a software product undergoes small, gradual tests, changes, and updates. It allows doing changes at each step considering the immediate results.
• The agile method is the most flexible one as it allows you to make changes and test them immediately along with the development process. Hence, it takes more time and cost, however, it is the best method for reducing product risks.

So, software testing is a significant aspect of your business development and software development in general. A properly tested software product can help you win the market and users’ trust and lead your business to prosperity.