You're Not Taking Quality Assurance Seriously Enough!

Have you ever seen a badly designed sign-up page or been forced to use an app hobbled by poor UX? How did those interactions make you feel?

If you said “disappointed,” then you know how users would feel if your product had a similar issue. According to a report by Synopsys, the cost of bad software quality in the United States alone is estimated to be north of $2 trillion.  

To build secure, high-quality software, you should address the weaknesses and vulnerabilities in your product as soon as possible. If you don’t, and you start with a bad design, the final product will almost certainly reflect this.

In this article, we take you through what quality assurance (QA) means in software development, why it matters, and how Salsita can help conduct QA throughout your software development journey.

What is QA?

Software quality assurance is an essential part of how businesses ensure the quality of the app development process and the products they deliver to their customers. QA also helps optimize and ensure compliance with the client’s software requirements, scalability needs, and security standards.

It entails rigorous testing to identify problems early, allowing for the delivery of a high-quality product. To ensure quality, QA testers evaluate all processes and verify that the software runs smoothly and meets user requirements.

Why Should You Involve QA in Your Project?

Yes, there are web and app development tips to follow when building your product, however, even great software products would have a higher chance of failure without QA.

QA engineers should be part of the process from day one, understanding the product and its purpose. The QA team collaborates with developers, participates in team meetings, identifies testing strategies, encourages testability, and suggests monitoring and testing tools.

But why have QA involved in your project from the beginning?

Save time and money: Defects in your app can affect productivity and result in your clients and users losing money. When this happens, you may have to compensate for the losses. QA can help prevent this by discovering potential bugs or issues.

Reduce unforeseen emergencies: There is a lot at stake with any software product. A single error can cause system failures, leading to downtime, communication errors, or even data loss. If you handle software that deals with sensitive information, then you need to perform thorough QA testing before going live to prevent unpleasant consequences or regulatory penalties.

Retain customer loyalty: QA testing reassures your clients that the app will function as expected. That becomes more pivotal if you aim to build customer loyalty and develop a long-lasting relationship with your customers.

Deliver better UX: User experience can influence the success or failure of a product. Having slow or error-prone software may lead your customers or users to a competitor. For this reason, your product must undergo rigorous testing by an expert team to ensure reliability and usability.  
Read more on mobile app design best practices for the UI/UX for your product.

Maximize productivity and efficiency: Software defects can lead to frantic communication or quick fixes, both of which makes things worse. These defects can also be time-consuming and tricky to resolve. By leveraging thorough and organized QA testing, you can increase efficiency and productivity.

Salsita Software’s QA Philosophy

Salsita offers QA in conjunction with software implementation that starts as early as the project does. Let’s look at some of the QA testing practices that Salsita applies.

Functional Testing

Functional testing is one of the most crucial QA tests. It helps determine whether a product is meeting business expectations by ensuring that all features are working correctly and delivering the results users expect.

Salsita checks each module, conducting tests, and overall system checks. The tests can be either automated, using frameworks like Cypress and WebdriverIO, or supported by a test management system like TestRail. Similarly, Salsita provides a complete software QA testing environment as part of your project’s continuous integration process that you can run independently to launch tests and review results.

Performance Testing

Yes, your idea is innovative and your UI is gorgeous, but all of this means nothing to users if your app lags and fails to load. This is non-functional testing that measures the performance of the software and looks for ways to improve it.

The Salsita team can assist you in solving all performance issues in your application, including: simulating large user loads, recommending improvements, and giving you information about the app’s limitations, like optimal loading times and scalability limitations over time.

Mobile Testing

Mobile testing is the process of ensuring that a mobile app is evaluated for its usability, functionality, and consistency. Despite the impact of mobile test automation, manual testing is still necessary.

Salsita puts a lot of time and effort into testing mobile applications. That includes cross-platform testing, user experience testing, functionality testing, and integration testing.

Usability and User Testing

An app’s UX goes a long way in ensuring customer satisfaction. Is the app easy to use? Is it visually appealing? This process involves incorporating external testers to obtain optimum feedback and suggestions and, ultimately, avoid bias.

Salsita provides usability and user testing by involving a QA engineer who is not attached to the project or by setting up user testing sessions for external test users. During these sessions, the QA team evaluates and monitors the behavior in terms of both the ease of use and any difficulties encountered.

Penetration and Security Testing

Most apps are subject to a series of security checks against common vulnerabilities. To start, you’ll want an application that follows the OWASP security standards and testing guides.

Salsita adheres to these security standards by using penetration testing tools such as Kali Linux, Burp Suite, OWASP ZAP, and more. In addition, Salsita conducts internal training on the latest security testing trends and measures, ensuring that QA engineers and developers stay up-to-date on the best standards and guides.

The Roles of a QA Team

QA Lead: Responsible for the creation of test plans, testing management, overseeing quality delivery, leading and managing the testing team.

QA Engineer: Executes and evaluates the system, documents results, and reports the status to the QA lead. They are responsible for ensuring high-quality final products by working closely with the client, development lead, business analyst, and the testing team.

Achieve Optimal Value with QA

With a thorough QA testing process, you’ll have a product that meets your expectations in terms of performance, functionality, and UX. QA is an essential part of the software development process. It’s crucial to note that testing and monitoring must continue even when the app is live. That way, you can improve the product quality, enabling a continuous development process.

Salsita Software has extensive experience in delivering high-quality software applications with alluring UX and top-notch performance. We strive to deliver the best products and services to our clients, thanks to an efficient QA team and experienced professionals.

Are you looking for a reliable software development partner that delivers high-quality products with a reliable and expert QA team? Get in touch with Salsita today to learn more about our approach to QA testing.