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.
What is Quality Assurance (QA)?
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:
- Simulations running: Simulation testing enables you to simulate production infrastructure or user behavior. Some of your tests will fail if you do not replicate specified conditions, and you will be unable to provide entire software certifications.
- Testing of proper software: Testing is one of the significant stages of the software development life cycle. It has become very necessary for every QA to understand the fundamentals of testing software.
- Examining or inspection of code: It’s verification that assesses the accuracy of the code within the product. Understanding the significance and procedures of code inspection can help to create a high-quality software solution that satisfies clients and engages customers.
- Examining or inspection of the design: It’s the verification or checking of the process of test designs of a feature in software after it’s been developed.
The procedures provide a more informed idea of the software’s functionality and quality.
Quality Assurance Team
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.
Factors To Consider While Building A QA Team
Here are some important factors to consider when putting together a quality assurance team.
Developing An Effective Quality Assurance Plan
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.
Recruiting Quality Assurance Professionals
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.
Putting Together Quality Assurance Training Programs
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.
Assigning Individual Tasks For Team Members
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.
Identifying A Project’s Expected End Results
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.
Recommended read: Importance of QA In A Successful Product Launch
Mapping The Team Approach
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:
- Using the test coverage methodology.
- Filling any skills gaps within the team.
- Defining the team member’s roles and responsibilities.
- Assigning individuals as owners to provide leadership.
- Introducing experienced players to the game
- Motivating the entire team to stay on top of the process.
- Organizing one-on-one sessions between team members.
- Investing in quality assurance training to boost output.
What are the Roles in a Quality Assurance team?
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.
Functional Testing Engineers
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.
Test Automation Engineers
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.
Technical QA Leads
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.
Team QA Managers
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 QA Engineers
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?
Obstacles And Advantages Of Creating A QA Team From Scratch
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.
Obstacles Of Starting A QA Team From Scratch
- If you already have some members, it is easier to change and modify an existing QA team than to form a new one.
- Finding, selecting, and interviewing individuals consumes a significant amount of time that may be saved for the project by collaborating with already involved specialists.
- Creating a new team necessitated the development of new communication and coordination mechanisms among its members. The connection between the existing team members is much more confident, comfortable, and steady, which speeds up project completion. In contrast to the new team, the project manager knows which approach to take in the existing one.
Advantages Of Starting A QA Team From Scratch
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.
- You will be allowed to incorporate as many specialists into the team as the project requires.
- You can choose persons who have the exact expertise required for a given type of service.
- You can set up a team budget, time, the complexity of a certain project, and client expectation, and adjust to these parameters already at the team formation stage, rather than during the course of work.
Wrapping Up!
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.
