(Newswire.net — March 11, 2019) — Quality assurance is a crucial part of any software development process. There are plenty of situations when software flaws have caused huge money losses or even led to casualties. The structural quality of software will usually depend on skilled expertise and code review, analysis and refactoring. At the same time, the software’s compliance with functional and design requirements can be assured through a set of dedicated quality management activities, which includes, quality control, quality assurance, and testing. So, what is quality assurance in software testing and why is it important? This article will go over why this aspect of the software testing process is critical.
What is Quality Assurance in Software Testing?
Quality assurance, quality control and testing are often used interchangeably, but they represent different aspects of software quality management. Despite sharing common goals of delivering the best quality software products, they use different approaches to the task. Differentiating the terms makes it easier to better answer the question: what is quality assurance in software testing?
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance includes activities that ensure procedures, processes and standards are implemented in context to verification of intended requirements and developed software. When it comes to quality assurance, the main focus is on procedures and processes rather than actually testing the system.
Quality Control
Quality control includes all activities that ensure developed software is verified with respect to documented requirements. The focus here is on actually testing by executing the software with the aim of detecting any defects or bugs by implementing procedures and processes. Unlike quality assurance, quality control deals with product-oriented activities.
Testing, on the other hand, includes all activities that ensure all errors, bugs or defects in software are identified. The focus is on actual testing, which means it deals with product-oriented activities.
Audit and Inspection
Audit
This is a systematic process aimed at determining how a team or organization conducts the actual testing process. It’s an independent evaluation of the processes involved when the software testing process is being carried out. According to IEEE, it refers to a review of the documented processes implemented and followed by an organization. Types of audit include Internal Audit, Legal Compliance Audit and System Audit.
Inspection
This refers to a technique that involves formal as well as informal technical reviews of any artifact by identifying any gaps or errors. In other words, this is a formal technique of evaluation in which software designs, requirements or codes are critically examined by a group or person other than the author to detect violations of development standards, faults and any other issues.
Formal inspection meetings may include: Inspection Meeting, Planning, Overview Preparation, Follow-up and Rework.
Testing and Debugging
This involves identifying errors, bugs or defaults in software without making any corrections. This is often carried out by professionals skilled in quality assurance and is performed in the testing phase.
Debugging
Developers identify, isolate and fix the problems or bugs. This is part of Unit Testing or Box Testing and can be performed in phases while fixing reported bugs or when conducting unit testing as the software is being developed.
In Conclusion
In simple terms, an answer to the question: “What is quality assurance in software testing?” would be that it is a set of activities for ensuring quality in software engineering or development processes. These activities are important in the software testing process as they will prevent from any future complications or issues with the technology.