The term QA refers to Quality Assurance. This can be applied to products and services that are manufactured or provided. However, quality assurance goes beyond process supervision as one might think.
In the case of software products, SQA (Software Quality Assurance) is applied to guarantee the delivery of efficient, secure software according to customer needs. To do this, a series of processes are carried out that vary according to the size of the software that is delivered.
A specialized QA department is only possible in companies with high-risk digital products. For example financial, medical applications, software factories, among others. But what about small and medium-sized companies whose operation is not 100% digital? In these cases, instead of having a specialized area, there is only a team of one or two people to attend to digital products.
Do not confuse the function of a QA with that of a Copyeditor. Although part of the quality of a system is to ensure that the texts are correct in spelling and writing, it is not the function of a QA to verify this aspect.
Unit test: The QA must have the technical knowledge to verify that the programmed modules work as they should. With the help of the developer, execution tests are carried out to validate the use cases contemplated in a module. For this, they use various programming techniques that verify the correct functionality of individual parts of the program. For example, does the module for sending emails to work correctly when requests are saturated? Does the video generation module do well a video merge if parameters are changed in the functions that execute it?
Integration tests: Tests that ensure that the components work well together. These are made by developers and verified by the QA. These tests are based on unit tests and taken to the next level.
Acceptance tests: Application scenarios are tested according to user profiles. The test levels include functionality, security, and performance. These tests are designed to verify that the functionality of the system is what was required.
UI: Ensuring usability in the system. These tests are designed to ensure that the system interface works as intended. Questions such as: Are the elements of the system that complete the requested operation? Is it easy to find the links that the user needs? Are the elements well placed in the interface? If it is a site, does it have a correct arrangement in different devices?
Of course, the QA process can be carried out in as much detail as the product requires. And you have to know what tools or techniques can be applied according to the size or complexity of the system. It can be anything from verifying the security of a website to implementing a concurrency verification script on the server. It is the job of the QA and the development team to define the scope of quality assurance.
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