QA Process: A Guide To Setup

roceImagine constructing a house but skipping the inspection for half the foundation. Would you feel confident living in it? That’s exactly the gamble you take when your software lacks a thorough QA process.

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the QA process, its importance, and the steps and techniques that make it effective.

What is Quality Assurance (QA)?

Quality Assurance (QA) is a systematic process to ensure that software meets defined standards of quality. It focuses on preventing defects in the development process by implementing and refining workflows, practices, and testing strategies.

QA vs. QC: What Are The Differences?

QA ensures processes lead to quality, while QC verifies the product meets quality standards. Both are essential for delivering reliable software.

Here’s a simple comparison table for you:

Why is a QA Process Important?

1. Business Value: Fixing bugs post-production is costly and time-consuming compared to detecting them early during development. QA minimizes risks and reduces overall costs.
2. Customer Satisfaction: QA ensures a seamless user experience, which boosts trust and enhances brand reputation by delivering reliable and functional software.
3. Compliance: QA helps meet industry standards and regulatory requirements, avoiding legal risks and ensuring the software adheres to necessary guidelines.

The Full QA Process

The QA process, at its core, is the software testing life cycle, which consists of 6 crucial steps:

1. Requirement Analysis
2. Test Planning
3. Test Case Development
4. Environment Setup
5. Test Execution
6. Test Cycle Closure

1. Requirement Analysis

In this phase, testers collaborate with stakeholders to gather and document requirements in a Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM). This document forms the foundation for a robust testing strategy.

Key Roles Involved:

• Product Owner: Defines the business goals and problem to be solved.
• Developer: Creates the solution based on specifications.
• Tester: Validates the solution and identifies defects.

Clear communication is critical. Using approaches like Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) can simplify requirements and reduce ambiguities. Feasibility assessments also occur here; if constraints exist, they’re addressed through discussions with stakeholders to adjust expectations or find solutions.

2. Test Planning

Once requirements are clear, the Test Planning phase begins to formalize the testing strategy.

Key Elements:

• Test Objectives: Define focus areas like functionality, performance, and security.
• Scope: Identify in-scope and out-of-scope features.
• Resources: Estimate tools, team, and budget needs.
• Timeline: Set milestones aligned with the development schedule.
• Test Approach: Choose techniques (e.g., black-box, white-box) and types (e.g., regression, smoke).

A contingency plan is essential to handle unexpected challenges.

Learn more: How to write a test strategy document?

3. Test Case Development

Testers create detailed test cases based on requirements and plans.

Example Test Case:

Effective test cases are clear, actionable, and focused on expected outcomes. Tools like Katalon Studio or Selenium simplify test case creation and tracking. 

4. Test Environment Setup

The test environment simulates real-world conditions for accurate testing.

Example Setup for Mobile Testing:

• Development Tools: Android Studio, Xcode.
• Physical Devices: Various iOS/Android models.
• Automation Tools: Appium, Katalon Studio.
• Simulators/Emulators: Virtual devices for quick configuration testing.

Ensuring the environment closely mirrors user scenarios is crucial for reliable results.

For example, these are the test environments you can use to run your tests with in Katalon Studio:

5. Test Execution

There are 2 approaches to test executions:

1. Manual Testing: testers execute test cases manually without using automation tools. It's best for exploratory testing, usability testing, or scenarios where human intuition is crucial.

   • Advantages: Flexible and allows real-time adjustments.
   • Challenges: Time-consuming and prone to human error.

2. Automated Testing: test cases are executed using automation tools/automation scripts. These tools/scripts command the system to perform the action on behalf of the human testers. It's Ideal for regression testing, performance testing, and repetitive tasks.

   • Advantages: Faster execution, consistent results, and supports large-scale testing.
   • Challenges: High initial setup cost and maintenance effort for test scripts.

Both approaches are often combined in a hybrid strategy to maximize efficiency and coverage.

A test case has 5 different statuses as it goes through execution:

1. Untested: Not executed yet.
2. Blocked: Dependencies prevent execution.
3. Failed: Actual result differs from expected.
4. Passed: Expected outcome achieved.
5. Skipped: Irrelevant to the current cycle.

Learn more: Best practices for test execution

6. Test Cycle Closure

After all test cases have been executed, the focus shifts to analyzing the outcomes and creating the Test Report.

The report provides a summary of key findings, including:

• Execution Environment: Information on operating systems, devices, and browsers used during testing.
• Test Log: A detailed timeline of test executions and their outcomes.
• Test Results: Visual data such as pass/fail ratios, performance metrics, and execution times.
• Comparative Analysis: Insights comparing results across software versions to highlight improvements or regressions.
• Recommendations: Practical suggestions for debugging and enhancing future development.