When it comes to managing your time expectations with regards to support and development, one of the most important aspects you need to understand is QA testing. QA (Quality Assurance) testing plays an integral role in any quality web project, and it is a service that you should ensure that you’re receiving from your web development team!
In Part 1 of this series, we gave a brief overview of QA testing, and in this blog, we will dive a little deeper so that you can gain a deeper understanding of the process and how it may add extra hours to web projects.
What Is Involved With The QA Process?
There are many steps involved in the QA process, and the process could look different when comparing different web projects, but the general process for QA testing includes:
#1 Review
The very first step of the QA process is reviewing all documentation for clarity, redundancy, completeness, and verifiability, among other factors. This is an inspection stage where the architecture and technology are inspected for errors. The key benefit of this stage is that any major issues will be picked up early on and will be easier to fix than if they were found later on.
Specialised software and knowledge is used in this step, as well as every other step.
#2 Prepare Test Cases
Test cases are used to test all the different actions involved in a website. The preparation stage includes determining how many test cases will need to be performed, as well as the writing of these cases.
#3 Design Test Cases
There are a wide variety of different tests that need to be designed, run, and have the results examined thoroughly. Some of these tests include:
- Smoke testing – the initial tests, after which all other tests can be done
- Integration testing – ensuring that all website components work in cohesion
- Performance testing – which includes load testing as well as stress testing
- Security testing – which will determine the strength of your site’s protection
- Cross-platform testing – making sure that the site and software works well across a variety of browsers
- Regression testing – this is the most important type of testing when it comes to making changes as regression testing detects any changes in code that has already been tested.
Some tests can be automated, but the longer a project takes, the more automation will be required. It is important that there is always someone checking the results of these automated tests.
#4 Tracking Bugs
The main thing that is tested for in all of these tests is bugs. Bugs have the potential to slow down a site’s performance or cause other, larger issues. If bugs are not picked up in the initial stages of your site design, or as changes are made, they could cause major damage.
Step 4 is where all bugs are reported and measured and where plans to eliminate them are conceived. There is specialised software that allows bugs to be easily tracked. All of the issues are listed in order of priority, and the team gets to work on fixing them as quickly as possible.
#5 Verifying Bugs
No bug or issue can be deemed fixed until it has been completely verified. Whenever something has been fixed, it needs to be recorded, checked and verified by various QA team members.
#6 Maintenance
Once a site has been fully completed, there is still regular maintenance QA testing that is required in order to ensure that your site runs in an optimal condition. Maintenance may also include any changes and updates you wish to implement.
Are There Any Ways To Boost QA?
When a process takes as long as the QA process does, people will always be looking for ways to boost the speeds. There are very few ways in which the QA process can be hastened besides working on multiple processes at one time, although this will require a larger team and may cost more. The automation of tests is one other way in which time can be saved.
By choosing a reputable and respected web design Tweed Heads company, you can decrease your chances of having to endure long waiting periods for poor quality work. A good web development company should give you accurate timelines so that you’ll be able to manage your expectations effectively.
Looking for a reliable web design, development and support company that can meet all your needs and ensure that you are only supplied with quality changes?
Get in touch with the team at Big rock Graphics today. We’d love to hear from you!