How to ensure the best from your software quality engineering methodology?
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| Software Quality Engineering |
The objective to attain commercial success
through digital transformation initiatives has led companies to stick their
neck out with new products at a much faster rate. This is also the outcome of
an increasing customer appetite for new products with cutting edge technology. However,
while doing so, maintaining consistency in quality can be a difficult proposition
unless software quality engineering is incorporated within the SDLC. This is
due to the fact that the traditional model of software quality assurance suffers
from several inadequacies.
A classic example of inadequate software quality
assurance is Heathrow’s fifth terminal baggage system fiasco. The baggage
handling system at Heathrow’s terminal 5 went haywire post inauguration where luggage
of thousands of passengers went missing, flights cancelled, and the British
Airways lost around 16 million pounds. A closer analysis of the situation led
experts to believe that lack of software testing was responsible for the
glitches.
There are myriad examples of software glitches
leading to unforeseen but dire consequences in an increasingly tech driven
world of ours. To lessen or do away with such eventualities that can lead to a heavy
economic or social impact, shift-left testing as a part of software quality
engineering should be the key.
Quality engineering is about ensuring that a
software product meets its quality parameters effectively and adequately. To
achieve the same, there has to be a three pronged approach straddling technical
(the types of tools and programming languages to be used,) strategic (the type
of methodology and workflow to be selected) and personnel resource (selecting
the team, skill sets and training) aspects.
The way to achieve enterprise quality
engineering is by following procedures such as:-
·
Automating the entire test
sequence and integrating the same in the overall SDLC.
·
Using resources that are
scalable, reusable and that improve the efficiency of the software quality
engineering services.
To achieve an impeccable software qualityassurance approach is as important
as the technology and personnel that are part of the whole process. Quality
engineering should lead to agility in the process - right from the conceptual
to the delivery stage. It should invariably produce better quality products in
the quickest possible time.
Ways to
enhance the software quality engineering strategy
Work on
Agile: The demand to churn out quality products into
the market in double quick time has brought the Agile methodology in the
lexicon of QA. This mainly deals with shift left testing where development and
testing are not mutually exclusive processes, but are concomitant to each
other. It requires planning in sprints where testing is executed alongside
development leading to a better test coverage area and identification of
glitches. To achieve the best test outcome based on Agile methodology, the
collaboration between the development and testing teams should be made more
cohesive by choosing a robust test automation framework.
Work on
DevOps: Where Agile comes a cropper as far as ensuring
continuous quality and delivery is concerned, DevOps fits in with its emphasis
on a seamless collaboration between the Development and Operations team. As an
integral part of the software quality engineering services, DevOps looks at
upholding the quality of a product during its entire lifetime. Here, the focus
is more on offering a high user experience by taking care of the post delivery
glitches promptly.
The need has arisen as the performance of a
product should be consistent across frameworks, platforms, devices, operating
systems, and networks. The complex IT infrastructure that is part physical and
part virtual has meant there should be a greater collaboration between various
stakeholders. The collaboration should be in terms of quality monitoring,
reporting and provisioning of test environments.
Test
automation: The best way to ensure a good user
experience is by delivering quality products that have the best navigational
and security features, aesthetic quality, and yes, devoid of glitches. The only
way to ensure quality across environments and networks is by expamding the test
coverage area through test automation. However, it requires the correct
selection of an automation tool (open source or licensed) with features that
facilitate the writing of automated test scripts.
Conclusion
The outcome of a quality engineering strategy
depends on the successful execution of a number of strategies such as Agile
testing, DevOps testing, test automation, service virtualization, test
management, etc. The success of this strategy can lead to the development and
delivery of better quality products and in the process achieve a better user
experience.
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