As with any stage of software development, quality assurance processes require planning and scheduling efforts as well as a well-developed strategy to ensure adequate test coverage. Without a well-defined roadmap, projects are more likely to fail. For this reason, the planning stage is one of the most critical.
The Project Test Plan is charter defining and provides an overview of test efforts to be performed. We work with you to determine the overall strategy for the test effort using the following system:
Application components that will be tested, won’t be tested, priorities, and reasons for any omissions.
Test techniques that will be used to validate application functionality, and technology stack to be used.
Documents that must be created and actions that must be performed before further steps can be taken. Deliverables, such as product requirements, wire-frames, test design specs, or functional specifications are prerequisites for test planning and execution.
Estimated time for each phase of the effort and established milestones against which project progress will be measured.
How extensive test coverage will be handled and what priorities will be assigned to functional sub-components
Shasta QA works closely with you to determine the right testing strategy for your needs. Some projects need the flexibility of an Agile strategy, while others may require a more highly structured, heavily documented and rigid Waterfall process. We match the appropriate method with your needs, which is often determined by varying project objectives, stakeholders’ expectations and requirements, and the relative complexity of software development.
The roadmap determined in the beginning of your project will influence and drive the project to completion. During this phase we work closely with you to determine the right progression of test phases for your project.
Getting from the point of intended functionality to formalized tests verifying individual points of failure is a process that must be properly planned. Below is an example of the progression Shasta QA uses when creating your tests:
Quality assurance processes require a stable and consistent bug tracking system to ensure that all issues discovered in the lifecycle of the application are followed through to closure in a proper manner. If you don’t already have a bug tracking system in place, we can help you determine which is best suited for your needs.
Automated testing offers several advantages such as test explicitness, bug reproducibility and test reusability. The most significant advantage is speed of repetitive testing and savings in associated costs and time.
When considering automation, it’s important to remember that automating every aspect of software testing is generally not feasible. Our goal is to guide you to the best balance of manual and automated testing processes, for both testing types have relative strengths the other may lack.