In any product, the functions it provides are essential. But the performance of the product and the overall quality of the experience are what keep the user going. Companies gain a competitive advantage when they can deliver high-quality products, shortening time to market and increasing ROI. Complex applications require complex QA testing services, so you may find it useful to visit https://litslink.com/services/quality-assurance and learn more about QA for performance-critical apps. Moving from QA to QE will help you achieve this goal, and in today’s dynamic environment, this leap is essential.
While agile development model is a flexible and collaborative way to manage a software project, the transition from QA to QE can help to release a product with improved quality and increased value for clients quicker.
Why Quality Engineering?
Currently, the method of software development has shifted towards agile and DevOps processes to release the product quicker and get to market faster. With Agile and DevOps processes on the go, software testing uses a shift-left approach. In such conditions, testing is performed in parallel with software development to ensure that quality releases and bugs are identified more quickly.
DevOps, CI / CD, and agile development processes have changed the quality assurance, so QA teams have less planning time due to consistent releases during sprints and try to run testing in time.
QA teams today need to think more realistically and creatively than ever before. Therefore, QA changed to QE to enable faster releases and ensure high standards in the software development process well suited for agile and DevOps procedures.
Same Goal, Different Focus
Both processes are designed to improve product quality, but they are different.
QE is a proactive process that ensures that all necessary techniques, procedures, standards and methodologies are followed during product development to deliver a defect-free result. QA means a quality control process that ensures that a product meets previously established requirements. In other words, it is the process that ensures the expected product quality.
The focus of QE will be on the prevention of defects in the product being developed, while QA will focus on the final product quality and elimination of deficiencies.
The importance of QE
Let’s say you go online to find an online confectionery store. Firstly, you make your choice based on the attractiveness of the design. However, while browsing the site, you find a huge number of bugs: the basket does not display the number of sweets you want to buy; every time you try to enter your contact information, an error notification pops up; and other stuff like that. So, it is highly likely that after a few tries, you will simply close this online store and find another.
Today, with products constantly evolving as smart products and applications, QA teams often don’t have weeks to analyze requirements and create test cases. They need to think smart on the go and quickly develop test plans as products evolve. The situation described above explains the importance of processes such as QA and QE. Through these procedures, bugs in software products can be avoided before release, and the best results can be ensured.
Testing at all stages of development can significantly improve the quality, reliability and performance of the product. During testing, the team makes sure that the software product properly performs all documented functions and does not do what it should not.
To ensure the high quality of the final product, it is critical to include testing in the software development lifecycle. Of particular importance is the introduction of testing precisely at the early stages of work on a project, since this approach can significantly reduce the cost of eliminating detected errors.
Six Factors to Shift from QA to QE
Workforce Transformation
To manage the transition from QA to QE, you need to know the capabilities of the team. In addition to the quality of the product itself, the effectiveness of the QA process itself and the testing team must be measured. Continuously optimizing and improving the quality of work requires knowing where we are now, what keeps us moving forward and what throws back.
It is important to evaluate your existing test teams to retrain them to make a successful transition from QA to QE. This includes changing the mindset of the team, updating their skills and tools, and transforming the culture as a whole.
Upstream Testing
Testing itself will have to be turned upside down. Testing is not a separate phase and occurs concurrently with development. This is achieved by incorporating feedback and ongoing integration throughout the development life cycle.
Automation Framework
Having an automation infrastructure is the key to moving from QA to QE. Automating routine testing processes is already common practice, but there is room to significantly expand the role of automation in testing. So, the goal is continuous testing with overlapping test levels.
Corporate CI / CD
The Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) pipeline can save you a lot of time and effort in error-prone manual deployments. It works together with a bottom-up testing arm to ensure quality right from the start of the software development lifecycle.
Crowdsourcing
Crowdsourcing enables organizations to expand their digital services portfolio, meet current requirements, and accelerate the development processes. Organizations using crowdsourcing get access to the best ideas and only pay for the result that suits their needs.
Results-Based Model
Adopting a results-based model increases efficiency while reducing operating costs. By using measurable performance metrics, you can align your QE process to your desired outcome and move away from more expensive managed power models. With performance-based models, you will pay for results, which will provide transparency and make a win-win situation that increases your rewards and reduces risks.
So, QE ensures quicker releases and ensures that a high-quality product is provided to end-users. Consider these factors as you move from traditional QA to QE, and depending on the maturity of your organization, their applicability will vary.
