Quality Assurance
Quality assurance (QA) within IT projects can easiest be defined as an agile and proactive process. Its primary goal is to ensure that IT systems align with the organization’s goals, identify and solve any potential bugs, and meet project deadlines.
Why is quality assurance necessary?
The benefits of working with quality assurance are numerous, both in terms of quality and business:
- It contributes to keeping IT projects on schedule and within budget, as quality assurance helps manage expectations regarding both scope and quality.
- It increases the likelihood of detecting bugs early, which otherwise could result in expensive development time.
- It minimizes risks, increases structure, and thus becomes a profitable investment that enables successful IT projects.
What is Quality Assurance?
When discussing quality assurance within IT, many primarily associate it with testing. While testing is indeed crucial, it only represents a small fraction of the entire process. Those who successfully work with quality assurance today, ensure that they start with the goals, that then gets translated into requirements and validated through testing. Failing to articulate and structure goals and requirements makes it exceedingly challenging for the test leader to plan and execute the testing phase.
Quality assurance, therefore, is not a standalone activity centered on testing, but rather a proactive and agile approach that should span the entire journey from the project’s initiation into ongoing maintenance.
Regardless of past experiences and maturity levels, here are tips for both you and your organization.
