In the software/product development cycle, many companies consider that QA testing is an unnecessary or less important expense. Because of this, when the budgets fail to reach the intensive development projects the first area in which many try to cut costs is QA testing. As testers, we know about this and are used to telling them why this is a terrible idea that is going to handicap their projects. Quality costs money and Quality assurance is the only to know about the system in which you put a huge amount of investment that gives you the best possible capital return. Wonder why your applications are not rated well in the store app? Or why your e-commerce site is not getting sales what you thought it would be? There are many problems but if your feedback says that your system keeps falling down on clients then the problem is with your QA.
QA should be introduced from the beginning when you are thinking of the development process. This is bad if you only start your QA at the end. From the beginning of the testing process, your quality assurance should be your developers’ minds. This does not mean that you need to throw your money on QA from the very beginning but it does mean that the development team should be using the principles of testability from the get-go. This is the best way to reduce the testing time. There is a system during a lifetime that undergoes proper Quality assurance which is created by engineers, who are familiar with and during the development life cycle and they keep the process in mind. Testing also should not be a task handed off to junior engineers, to keep them busy, testing needs to be done from a different skillset that most junior level software employees are not experienced enough to acquire.
The best way to decrease the testing time is to make sure that there is proper communication, within the test team itself and with other departments.
If you would like to save money and testing time on the software, then you can begin with these starting points:
- Does your testing team have a clear aim from the development team and proper communication so that they can discuss their goals?
- If open communication is not an option, are there regular meetings scheduled for testers and developers so that the two teams can check it with one another once in a while?
- For discussing their concerns for the project, do they have regular meetings with their test leaders?
- Can everyone speak to the management about the time concern and do they know their deadlines?
- Are proper test results submitted by everyone, specifically in regards to bug reports?
- Have you thought about traceability, the process that documents which requirements have been satisfied? Similarly, the procedure of bug tracking is clearly communicated?
You should see that these questions have a common context. The best way to decrease the testing time is to make sure that there is proper communication, within the test team itself and with other departments. Sure, these are good test management practices but they are also the best way to ensure that your QA testing efforts are manually possible, which will also make sure a lower price point for the operation as a whole.
