March 11, 2024
There’s a lingering perception in the software industry that quality assurance (QA) is a process that kicks in before the software product or service is about to be released to customers.
Indeed, there are QA testers in most sizable software development teams tasked with finding and fixing bugs, identifying problems with the user interface and user experience, and ensuring the customer’s requirements are met.
But successful quality assurance should start right from the very beginning of the project before the software development lifecycle even begins. QA is as much about preventing problems as it is about discovering them. It’s proactive, rather than reactive and is especially important in ensuring that outsourced and offshored software projects stay on track and deliver their desired outcomes.
QA in Four Dimensions
At Accelerance, we think about quality assurance in four dimensions: information, people, process, and technology. Before anything is built or even conceived, we are asking questions like:
- What information do we need to develop and document a set of clear and accurate requirements?
- Who do we need on the team to ensure the project is successful?
- What processes will be put in place to keep this project on track and on budget?
- What tools do we need to use to get the job done?
QA is about delivering the right solution, the right way, at the right time, by asking these sorts of questions upfront. Getting it wrong at the start can have a chain reaction all the way through the development process.
If you get the requirements wrong, you will end up with a product that isn’t fit for purpose. If you have inexperienced people on a project that requires skilled hands, quality will suffer.
Quality assurance is equally important for in-house and outsourced software development. But it really comes into its own in an outsourcing arrangement. When your teammates aren’t in the same room, or even the same country, it is imperative that you properly document everything, to communicate effectively, and to be disciplined in your approach.
The informality and unspoken assumptions that exist in tight-knit internal teams, won’t work in outsourcing arrangements. Outsourced software projects are therefore often higher quality as a result.
If you take QA seriously from the get-go, you set yourself up for success. Too many businesses overlook QA and relegate its role to the end of the software lifecycle process. By that stage, some problems are unfixable.
Quality Assurance or Quality Control?
Throughout the lifecycle of a software project, there are many things you can do to ensure quality remains high. They are things that I would consider to be quality control (QC) rather than quality assurance but are nevertheless essential to the process.
Here are five things essential to keeping an outsourced software project on track to deliver its desired outcomes:
- Regular communication
Maintain open and regular communication with the outsourcing team using various channels like video calls, emails, and project management tools. Effective communication helps manage expectations, track progress, and build strong relationships - Collaborative tools
Use collaboration and project management tools like Jira, Trello, or Asana to facilitate communication, monitor progress, and track changes. These tools enhance communication, project management, and collaboration between your organization and the outsourcing team. - Code reviews
Conduct code reviews to ensure the produced code meets quality standards and aligns with requirements. Code reviews act as a critical quality gate in outsourcing to maintain software quality - Automated testing
Encourage the use of automated testing tools to validate software functionality consistently. Automated tests quickly identify bugs, regressions, and performance issues. - Manual Testing
Complement automated testing with manual testing to address usability concerns and handle unpredictable scenarios. A balance between automated and manual testing is crucial for comprehensive quality assurance.
At Accelerance we live and breathe quality assurance. It starts with us vetting thousands of software development firms worldwide, choosing just the top 1% to recommend to our customers. We then work with our clients and software partners to put the quality assurance measures in place to ensure success. Get in touch to find out more about how we can help you achieve higher-quality software development through outsourcing.
