Why is QA Important in Software Development

High quality is one of the key factors that most successful apps have in common. In an extremely competitive digital market, it becomes harder to keep up with the ever-growing customer demands. Besides lots of things, your product should have a seamless user experience and be error-free functioning.

QA is an umbrella term that covers all aspects of guaranteeing a high-quality software product. It includes creating processes for each stage of development to reduce flaws and bugs during the build, as well as measuring the quality of the software.

The QA department is responsible for reducing the probability of bugs occurring during development through carefully thought out processes, as well as identifying any errors that do come up during the build and fixing them. It is essential for creating superior products that are bug-free.

What is QA and why do you need it

According to the definition of TechTarget, QA establishes and maintains set requirements for developing or manufacturing reliable products. A quality assurance system is meant to increase customer confidence and a company’s credibility, while also improving work processes and efficiency, and it enables a company to better compete with others.

Quality assurance, QA, is a necessity because we all make mistakes. Even a giant like Microsoft has 10 to 20 errors per 1,000 lines of raw code. And only through the effective work of QA Departments, users get a quality product. Therein lies the importance of QA processes.

Main Responsibilities of QA in software development

When a team works with a quality-focused approach for creating error-free deliverables, it's called a Quality Assurance team.

The main objective of a QA personnel is to make sure the value of the project isn’t sacrificed while maintaining the timelines or objectives. They provide feedback for improvements and report if the development is moving along the prerequisites of the client or not.

QA teams have, among others, these responsibilities:

• test current products and identifying deficiencies

• investigate product quality in order to make improvements to achieve better customer satisfaction

• automate the testing processes and oversee continuous improvement projects

• identify quality assurance process bottleneck and suggest actions for improvement

• collect quality data and identify key KPIs for product quality

• prepare and present reports and metrics to Senior Management

Why QA brings value to the project

1. Saves Time and Money

If bugs and defects are found in the early stages of development, then you are lucky to spend less money and time to fix them. The investment in time and resources pays off many times.

2. Software Quality and Stability

Everyone wants a successful product that runs consistently without crashing and works reliably, has no bugs and defects. QA processes and testing verify that the system meets the different requirements including, functional, performance, reliability, security, usability, and so on.

3. Reputation

If you want your product to have users, customers, or subscribers, and a lot of them, you must be sure that everything works properly before its release. If not, and the users notice that something works not in the way it should before you do, you are about to lose your reputation and brand trust.

Myths about Quality Control (QA)

Sometimes, the role of a QA gets blurred due to close proximity with the developers. Thus, this gives rise to myths like these:

Testing and QA are the same.

The thin line of difference is that the QA processes and "tests for quality" from the beginning to the end of the software development, whereas the tester checks for the smooth functioning of the product in totality and in parts as well.

QA is involved at the end

The QA should be involved from the very beginning of the project calls. This will give them a clear understanding of the client’s expectations and requirements too. The delay in involving a QA can inversely lead to more delays as a rushed affair never yields the best of results.

Conclusion - QA is Important in Software Development

To summarize, QA plays a huge role in project success. So don’t underestimate its value. Having a QA specialist in your team will make the development more productive and the work of developers more efficient.

Using the best practices of Quality Assurance ensures that the product complies with the requirements and works as it should. In the long run, QA saves you time and money, makes your final product competitive, helps to create and maintain a good reputation.