On top of delivering a project on time and within budget, developers must test for quality assurance upon completion to ensure stakeholders' expectations have been met. However, testing for quality after a product is built, usually results in far too little, too late. The agile model of software development encourages practicing quality assurance throughout every phase of the project. The agile way also prioritizes quality by making it the responsibility of every team member, not just the QA testers. As a result, the QA team coordinates efforts with the development team at each iteration, providing continuous testing. Implementing a feedback loop is a fundamental step in the quality assurance process. In order to guarantee that the product meets all of the requirements (feature functionality, design, reliability, usability and efficiency), it can be helpful to enlist the perspectives of those with varying backgrounds. This can include those proficient in testing, business and or development. Quality assurance testing can be both manual and automated. While both approaches are proficient at mitigating bugs, automated software testing is often more beneficial in that it is quicker and more effective at checking for code correctness. It's important to remember that the goal of Q & A testing is to find faults within the software so that an error-free application can be delivered to the client.
The following are integral software testing methods when best practicing quality assurance:
1. Test Driven Development (TDD)
TDD works by building a project's code around the QA tests. The programming team first designs and builds tests for functional code, and then creates code that will pass them. This development method helps everyone gain an understanding of the code's purpose before development; guaranteeing the initial functionality of the code and effectively building in quality.2. Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
Similar to TDD, in that the test is written before the code, BDD tests the behavior of an application under specific conditions. This is done with the end user in mind. As development progresses, BDD often proves to be more reliable than TDD. BDD is also written in English instead of code, allowing for a more streamlined feedback loop.3. Acceptance Tests
Acceptance tests are simple pass or fail tests that check whether or not a feature behaves as it should. These are often automated to meet customer and business requirements.Regression Tests
Once one feature is functional, regression tests ensure it's stability throughout the software's other modifications. As more features are built, these automated tests check that the others aren't being negatively affected as a result.4. Exploratory Tests
Exploratory tests are usually manual, in that a human operates the software looking for unknown unknowns. These tests are meant to identify new situations that the development or QA teams haven't thought of. Once a product thoroughly meet's it's intended purpose and performs well under pressure, the QA testing is complete.At Number8, we believe in developing software that is user-friendly, reliable and completely functional. As a result, we are always recruiting talented QA professionals for quality assurance jobs on our team. To learn more about how we can help you complete and successfully launch your software project, contact us at 502-212-0978
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