The days of your quality team simply being asked to click a long list of regulatory compliance checks are long gone. Modern quality assurance teams are held accountable for providing a balanced scorecard of indicators ranging from increased efficiency to increased profitability, as well as waste reduction activities to enable growth.
Establishing a Quality Assurance team is still viewed as a non-value added overhead rather than a long-term investment with a direct impact on the bottom line. Teams must be structured to fulfill goals. What the structure looks like might have a big impact on your results as a company and as a department. While there is never a “one size fits all” approach to excellent team structures, there are some best practices that can be seen to work well in the organization, they tend to coincide with the size and stage of growth of the company.
If you want to better understand the QA process, and the factors and criteria to consider while building a QA team from scratch then you are at the right place.
Let’s get started.
Quality Assurance (QA) is the process of developing and maintaining standards for product development. Members of a QA team guarantee that the products that consumers receive regularly meet or exceed their expectations, which helps to improve brand recognition.
Businesses will automatically realize improvements in their workflows as they collaborate with their QA teams to build standardized practices. The QA process in software development frequently involved the development of specific metrics and designs, such as:
The procedures provide a more informed idea of the software’s functionality and quality.
A quality assurance team validates quality criteria through actions. This usually entails planning, observing, and evaluating. Establishing standards and processes, defining job descriptions, and hiring competent team members to accomplish suits are all part of putting together a dependable quality assurance team. QA teams also help to create consumer trust, in the long run and stay ahead of the competition by creating better products. Having a high-quality product makes it much easier to establish long-term, mutually beneficial business connections.
Here are some important factors to consider when putting together a quality assurance team.
Creating an efficient QA team entails developing a plan to guide the execution of quality assurance initiatives. Every project begins with a plan, and so should the formation of a QA team. This will assist in the identification of requirements such as standard tools required for project execution, team duties, product quality targets, how to implement quality assurance strategy, and how to analyze the outcomes. The framework will specify the order of communication, the division of roles, the support and solutions to difficulties and disagreements, as well as the coordination and analysis of finished work.
Providing quality assurance training programs for members of a QA team will provide such a team with improved QA abilities required to prevent faults in products and services. That said, another important thing to consider when putting together a QA team is finding qualified QA personnel. This will aid in the formation of a professional QA team with a clear job description and responsibilities. When experienced professionals are hired and the roles of each team member are clearly defined productivity increases. Hiring experienced QA personnel is thus an advantage.
It is essential to organize both online and offline QA training sessions for QA team members. Quality Assurance training will assist QA team members in learning the latest concepts and trends to stay up-to-speed with the industry. Every member of the QA team must participate in a quality assurance training program that will help them develop superior QA abilities, whether they are included in a QA testing online program or moving on to obtain quality assurance testing certification.
Once the personnel for a QA team has been determined, the next step is to assign particular responsibilities to each member of the team. Efficient division of work is decisive in helping to create a successful team, thus giving sub-task to each member of a QA team will assure a high level of output. Duties are given so that each part of a quality assurance process, such as manual and automation testing, is performed by individuals who understand what has to be done.
A quality assurance team that has completed Quality Assurance Training should be able to determine the project’s expected end result. As a result, when assembling a team of quality assurance professionals, the project’s aims and objectives must be obvious to them. This will assist members of the QA team in determining whether a project was successfully finished and whether the resulting products and services met the customer’s expectations. A Quality Assurance team that understands which aim they must achieve will become very effective in providing service that meets the expectation.
Mapping out a team’s methodology provides a thorough insight into the team’s ability as a QA team lead. This involves determining the team’s skill set and experience to provide a service. Building a quality assurance team will not be complete unless the team’s strategy, which includes carrying out various activities, is mapped out. Among the tasks are:
Your QA team will consist of multiple individuals, each of whom will play an important role in the process. Working together, these many jobs contribute to the greatest possible quality assurance monitoring.
Manual software quality assurance testing is the responsibility of the manual QA engineer. This includes using the software from the end user’s perspective to ensure that your team fulfills its functional and non-functional goals. These engineers examine the software’s speed and integrations, as well as the regression tests as well.
These testers work in the product life cycle’s pre-and post-release phases. They not only hunt for bugs before release, but they also continue to test software to identify consumer concerns. For example, they could look into reports of an app shutting or freezing while customers are using it.
Your automation engineers will work alongside your manual engineers. These experts are in charge of any automation testing for your program. They build automated software testing scripts based on the criteria established during the process’s “create tests” step. Automation QA engineers, for example, may examine the software’s speed and integrations. Some great options for the automation side of this equation include Selenium, Appium, and our own QA Touch.
When errors develop during the testing process, technical QA leads to assist the QA team in monitoring documentation and directing the team’s activities. For example, this job will provide documentation outlining how the team intends to monitor and test the program, as well as their testing schedule throughout the development process.
The QA managers are in charge of the entire group. They assist the team in functioning efficiently and ensuring that the set processes are followed as anticipated. The manager will occasionally audit processes and paperwork, train other team members and guide the team to work well together. The team manager, for example, may assist in the organization of meetings to discuss the progress of specific software development and the testing process, as well as to maintain the quality assurance process going ahead successfully.
Performance engineers ensure that software operates even when it is at its maximum capacity. They test the program for bugs that may suggest problems if the user load unexpectedly increases. In other words, if the previously mentioned fitness app becomes really popular, how well will it perform with a huge number of users using it at the same time?
Every coin has two sides, likewise, you should know the challenges every work or task brings for you in the future. So, Let’s have a brief look at some of the advantages and disadvantages of building a QA team.
Because you formed a team for a certain sort of activity, you will need to modify the team’s coordination from one type of task to another.
As said earlier, each coin has two sides, and it’s up to you to decide whether to develop a QA team for your project or to postpone product quality assurance (at your own risk., of course!).
Building a QA team can be difficult, but the rewards you will receive should inspire you to do so for your organization. A quality assurance team is essential if you want to maintain high standards and meet the expectations of your customers. In reality, it can aid in beating market competitors, increasing the overall profit of the organization.
As a result, the requirement to build an efficient QA team comprised of the tools that have obtained a quality assurance testing certificate (passing the positive test run). As an individual, you can get in touch with DCKAP QA touch to understand more about quality assurance and see how well it works for you and your entire QA team.
Shivani is a Technical Content Writer at DCKAP with over three years of experience. After graduation, she landed her first job as a technical writer with QA Touch. She plays an active role within the QA community and manages QA Touch community events. She has developed a unique blend of technical expertise and creative writing skills in collaboration with QA experts.
