With the increase in emerging technologies combined with the need to constantly enhance collaboration within project teams, a need for better testing methodologies and a tool kit that supports the advanced testing has emerged. Automation expertise went from a nice to have to a must have in recent years and testers that are able to troubleshoot alongside engineers became an expectation. All this requires a Quality Analyst with a unique mindset and a deep understanding of technical infrastructure. To ensure we are creating the best possible user experience for our client’s customers, both Quality Analysts and Quality Engineers are an important part of our teams. While there are many benefits gained with the addition of Quality Engineering, here are a few key benefits
Fixing bugs is expensive. Development time is costly, and time spent fixing issues is time that can’t be spent on things like feature implementation. Quality Engineers are proficient at identifying where issues live within a complex system which means your developers spend less time tracking down bugs during the development process. Quality Engineers can point developers in the right direction, thus saving time and money in the long run.
Delivering on quality before the build reaches production helps your team avoid costly bugs in production. By limiting revenue impacting bugs, teams can avoid costly hotfixes and keep their attention focused on delivering a quality experience for your customers
Time is always a concern in software development. There never seems to be enough of it. When the project comes down to the wire, teams are often faced with the difficult choice of sacrificing testing time to meet their deliverable date.
Testing is a time-consuming task, but Quality Engineers look for opportunities to save precious time by optimizing their testing approach. Automating time consuming tests, identifying tools that increase efficiency, and building infrastructure that can be leveraged across multiple projects are just some of the contributions Quality Engineers provide to the overall team.
Apps are becoming increasingly complex entities. Long gone are the days of apps driven by local data. The architecture has become more involved, and testing integration between the various layers is more critical than ever.
Traditional Black Box testing leaves much to be desired. Enter the Quality Engineer. Thorough understanding of the architecture combined with a gray box approach to testing allows for more thorough testing of the system as a whole.
Quality Analysts act primarily as a gatekeeper of code. When developers make changes, QAs test and determine whether the product is ready to go to market. However, what happens if QA identifies an issue that requires a significant rework to properly address? Re-architecting your application is time consuming and costly.
Quality Engineers are able to facilitate discussions during the planning phase of the project that provide additional insight and perspective that may help to recognize limitations around proposed implementations early on. They openly coordinate with developers to strategize the best approach to build and test. Catching potential pitfalls early can help us help our clients get to market quicker while still delivering with quality.
Quality Engineers operate in the gray box space. They test systems like an end user, but also have traceability into the underlying systems. This allows them to provide valuable insights into conversations, particularly those between technical and non-technical roles. Their unique perspective helps to highlight gaps from both a user and system perspective.
Quality Engineers are capable contributors to client or customer conversations. Their input and experience help to build trust and open new avenues of discussion in order to ensure the highest quality overall product is ultimately produced.