Summary “Software Testing and Quality Assurance”
Module: "Quality Management"
General purpose of the module
The module introduces the concept of software quality and quality management. Key definitions, approaches, processes, and the role of the tester in ensuring product quality are considered.
What is quality?
Quality is a multifaceted and subjective concept. For different people, it may mean usefulness, compliance with expectations, product properties, or the degree of its perfection. In the field of software development, quality is usually defined as compliance with the analyst’s requirements and the end user’s expectations.
Verification and validation
- Verification – checking the compliance of the product with the requirements documented by the analyst.
- Validation – checking the compliance of the product with the real expectations and needs of the user.
For a quality product, it is important to combine both approaches.
Quality management
Quality management is a set of actions aimed at organizing processes that ensure a high-quality final product. It includes four main management functions:
- Planning
- Organization
- Motivation
- Control
Quality assurance and quality control
- Quality Assurance (QA) – a systematic approach that includes practices, processes, and tools to achieve the required level of quality.
- Quality Control (QC) – checking the product, finding and recording defects, quality reports.
Role of the tester
The tester participates in ensuring quality but is not solely responsible for it. The whole team, including analysts, developers, and managers, is involved in quality management. The tester focuses on the testing process and provides feedback on product quality.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are all interested parties who influence the quality of the product or are interested in it. These include: customers, end users, the development team, testers, management, as well as external organizations (auditors, certification bodies).
All stakeholders in one way or another influence the implementation quality or the final quality of the product.
Internal and external product quality
- Internal product quality – the characteristic of code, architecture, databases, system logic. It defines stability, readability, and maintainability of the product.
- External product quality – what the end user sees: interface, convenience, performance, compliance with expectations.
Metrics and tools
Various metrics are used to measure quality: test coverage, build stability, number of defects, speed of fixing, etc. Tools are used for code analysis, test management, and audits.
Conclusions
Quality management covers all stages of the software development life cycle. Quality is formed from the very first steps of requirements gathering and is maintained throughout the entire process. The tester plays an important role in identifying problems, but responsibility for quality is shared among the entire team.