You are most likely already aware of the emerging pressure for developers and companies to deploy code as fast as possible. We’ve all heard about the Silicon Valley way of working: to develop things fast and to fail fast. And this works for the few companies that have enough investments to fail fast and can hire people to solve mistakes when they arise.
It sure would be simple to only invest more money into a software solution to make sure it’s high-quality. But there’s only a limited number of companies that can do this. The reality is that most organizations can’t solve all your quality issues with only more budget. A limitless budget is not the key, and they need to have a different approach when it comes to testing that doesn’t rely on money.
As a matter of fact, what and how to test is more important, not to forget the importance of a well-appointed team and strong collaboration and transparency within it. In this blog post, we will touch on these topics to demonstrate how you can test more efficiently, while keeping costs down.
The risk-based approach
Utilizing a risk-based approach when testing is a good strategy for prioritizing the right things to test and thereby optimizing costs. This methodology means that you identify business risks related to critical product functionality, prioritize these risks, and design your test strategy accordingly. This enables you to test the right things and make sure that the most business-critical functionalities and processes work as intended and with high quality. Thereby, you optimize testing to check not only the functions that bring the most value, but also the ones that address the biggest pain.
In short, by using risk-based testing, you can prioritize your QA efforts, focus resources on the most critical areas and detect the most crucial issues early. It ensures that the right things are tested first, minimizing the risk of costly failures and maximizing the value delivered to the project or product.
Disciplined quality assurance
Finding and engaging the right people should, of course, never be underestimated. However, this is just one of the things you need to do. Secondly, you have to improve how those people work together to make sure that they work as one team and not in silos.
One principle to follow is the "Tres Amigos” principle: a collaborative approach used in agile software development. It involves the participation of three key roles: The product owner, the developer, and the tester, and emphasizes that these three roles are, in fact, one team. Together, they collaborate and discuss user stories, requirements, and acceptance criteria, ensuring a shared understanding of the project's goals and priorities. Working closely makes communication more effective, reduces misunderstandings, and facilitates the delivery of high-quality software where everyone is aligned, and they focus their efforts on the right domains.
We at Sixsentix also assure quality for our clients by following a disciplined testing approach. One crucial aspect is utilizing business-facing testing, which aims to make sure that the software meets the needs and expectations of the end-users and aligns with business requirements. Together with our risk-based approach, this enables us to ensure that the most crucial business processes are covered, allowing your developers to focus on assessing the internal workings of the software and validate the correctness and efficiency of the underlying code and technical components.
The role of a test architect
A test architect is also appointed to orchestrate all the main testing activities, such as creating and defining the overall testing strategy and framework, selecting tools, doing risk assessments, handling test data management, and ensuring test coverage. While orchestrating this, the test architect also makes sure that all efforts are aligned with the business goals and that they match user expectations. This way, the test architect significantly improves the testing process, increases the quality of the software, and ultimately paves the way for a more successful and reliable product.
Enabling transformation
At Sixsentix, we use a structured method to transform our clients’ approach to quality assurance from a basic ad-hoc level to a more advanced and structured state. The transformation involves enhancing the overall quality culture within the organization by adopting best practices and improving QA-related processes, in order to reach an advanced level of QA maturity. However, it’s important to point out that transformation is a never-ending, continuous process.
Our objective is to establish:
- Strong collaboration between development and operations teams, with a culture of continuous improvement
- Continuously improved and optimized testing and quality assurance processes
- Advanced feedback loop for ongoing refinements, with a focus on proactive risk management and predictive analytics
- Comprehensive use of automation tools and processes, with a focus on efficiency and optimization
- Fully automated release management processes, with minimal manual intervention
- Fully automated testing and quality assurance processes integrated into the development pipeline
When an organization has reached a high level of QA maturity, where processes are continuously improved and streamlined, it can effectively manage change in requirements and make sure testing efforts are aligned with the evolving organizational needs.
Outro: Efficient testing without excessive costs
To summarize, there are several methods we advise you to apply to ensure successful testing efforts instead of simply increasing the testing budget. In the realm of rapid code deployment, financial investments alone won't solve quality issues. Testing isn't just about speed; it's a strategic blend of risk-based prioritization and disciplined collaboration. A risk-based methodology ensures that testing targets critical functionalities, streamlining efforts to mitigate the most pressing business risks. Simultaneously, a cohesive team, embodied by the "Tres Amigos" principle, aligns efforts and priorities to deliver high-quality software.
At Sixsentix, we advocate a disciplined testing approach centered on business-facing testing and business risk coverage. A crucial aspect of this approach is appointing a test architect to orchestrate testing activities, align strategies, and ensure they resonate with business objectives. This orchestrated effort significantly enhances the testing process, elevating software quality and ensuring a successful, reliable product.
Transforming quality assurance involves continuous improvement, robust collaboration, and the embrace of automation, propelling organizations towards a mature QA level where testing adapts to evolving requirements and aligns with changing organizational needs. Let's embrace efficient testing strategies and disciplined collaboration, striving for a future where software isn't just fast and functional but also robust, reliable, and aligned with both user needs and business goals.
Are you interested in learning more about how Sixsentix services can assure the quality of your software? Read more or reach out!