Getting Started with Quality Assurance – 6 Tips

Most IT projects start with the best of intentions and with great enthusiasm. However, sometimes things get lost along the way: A team member leaves, and there are various working methods and even more tools to keep track of. All this together can make important information inaccessible. But do not despair; there is help. We have the tips and tools to get you started.

Requirements in Excel, someone has post-it notes on their screen, and a third person writes documentation in a Word file that gets circulated. Does this sound familiar? You’re not alone, but it’s never too late to start working systematically with quality assurance. With an established way of working, you reduce the risks of costly and prolonged projects and ensure that the systems introduced deliver the effects you envisioned.

6 tips to get started

1. Appoint a champion who owns the quality assurance

We find that successful IT projects that stay within budget, and create value, often have a person in place who owns the quality assurance. It can be an employee (or consultant) who is a project manager or QA lead. One thing they have in common is the ambition and desire to work professionally with quality assurance. Someone who holds the project together from start to finish, who can see the big picture and take a proactive and preventive approach. The person succeeds in getting both management and the end-users on board in understanding the importance of quality assurance.

2. Start small

If you haven’t worked systematically with quality assurance before, it may feel like a high mountain to climb. Therefore, it is wise to start small with a separate IT project.

Define and document clear and measurable requirements. Anchor with the entire project team so everyone understands what is expected and what you are aiming to achieve. Build piece by piece – start by structuring the requirements, then add testing and the other steps.

3. Engage your management team

Successful IT projects need buy-in and commitment from management. In addition to deciding on the schedule and budget, it’s also management, together with the organization, that sets the impact goals to be tested. Start talking to the management team early about the importance of continuously following and assuring that the impact goals are achieved and that user testing is important throughout the entire project.

4. Involve the organization and test early

Try to test with end-users at an early stage. This way, a large part of the errors can be identified and addressed quickly, instead of in the later phases when it takes more development time to fix. With tests, you can verify that the system meets the requirements you have set, but also gain valuable input from the end-users in the organization. It is also an excellent way to start the change management that is required. Getting test participants on board before going live ensures both greater acceptance from the organization and that the system launched achieves the effects you hope for. At the same time, you will gain valuable insights into what works and what doesn’t.

5. Take control

Use a tool to create structure within the organization. One that connects requirements, tests, and bug reports for traceability. This will provide transparency and structure during follow-up, and risk assessment regarding changes. It also reduces the risk of important insights or requirements being lost. Even if you start on a smaller scale, within a month, you will have become more structured, more productive, and likely saved a lot of time that would have been spent emailing documents and searching in Excel files. The advantage of establishing a structure is that you can reuse a lot of the setup in future projects, leading to higher efficiency.

6. Create a quality culture!

As mentioned earlier, quality assurance is not just a control function but a way of working. Try to create awareness about the importance of quality assurance within the team and throughout the organization. Can you support others with methods and tools? The more people become aware of what quality assurance entails and its benefits, the greater the chance that someone might stop and say, “Wait, shouldn’t we create a test case for this?”