Does Your QA Team get you “Wins”?

Judging your QA team can often be quite subjective. At times companies will view QA as a waste of time that ends up bottlenecking your projects and causing them to be delayed. This tends to be a common perception when it comes to QA teams and it is not always the case. In fact, running an effective and efficient QA team with the correct processes will lead to some serious “wins” for your company.

The truth is that your QA team should absolutely be getting “wins” just like any other business team. If you are wondering about the best method, it involves investing in your QA to ensure the processes in place are the highest quality possible. This will help you avoid bottlenecks and projects being delayed due to QA. Instead, it will lead to your project quality and turnaround increasing.

When we use the term investing in your QA team, we do not just mean throw tons of money at it. You are better investing in the QA process to have the right tools and procedures in place to enable the team to succeed.

How Should I Invest in my QA Team?

Improve your testing by automating and integrating your tasks. Using automation does not always lead to high costs. Automate test cases that require the most time when being manually tested. Consider automating areas in your Unit, Functional, Integration and Smoke testing to improve efficiency. Also consider automating multiple which requires little effort or time as it will pay you back in the long run.

Supplying correct and specific information will drastically improve QA. Providing the correct communication channels and clear support documents will provide more clarity. Miscommunications, even a single one, can set projects back a couple of days. Clear cut communication is crucial when it comes down to efficient QA and is the easiest method to improve your overall efficiency.

Review the processes you currently use. A simple task often overlooked, especially so when you hold the misconception that QA is just a slow bottleneck. Have an audit undertaken to evaluate your current procedure to identify your problem areas. Just like the saying goes, admitting that there is a problem is the first step towards fixing it. Use quantitative parameters in order to get factual results that you can measure your improvements.

What Should I do If I Can’t Invest in My QA Team?

It takes time to build up an efficient QA team. There is a handful of reasons for you to outsource your QA. Examples include lack of expertise, overstretched team or even a rise in demand. Outsourcing should not be viewed as a negative thing for companies but rather an opportunity to benefit from outside expertise that can help your business grow.

Having a partnership to outsource your QA will benefit you when your get overloaded with work. It will also save you time finding a capable partner when you have to outsource any part of a project.