Quality assurance is super important for any project. It doesn’t just stop when development is done. You should keep checking in on it throughout the whole software life cycle. If you’re running into QA issues or have had trouble before, it might be time to switch up your approach. A lot of companies make quality management way too complicated, but really, you should try to keep it simple and sensible. Today, let’s chat about how to really nail down quality assurance and share some easy tips to do it right.
Setup QC in complex systems
Quality assurance is a way to make sure the software you build meets what your customers expect in terms of quality. Plus, if you want to take it global, it’s got to follow international standards, too.
To ensure a meaningful quality assurance, it is necessary to clearly define the goals and objectives, as well as find simple and understandable conditions for their implementation and evaluation. Quite often, QMS is mistakenly perceived as a complex and tedious process that can slow down the development of a project. However, do not overshadow your creation; do your job to get a quality result.
Don’t complicate the process
The QA testing process is a complex aspect of the company’s work. Still, it becomes much easier if you correctly distribute responsibilities between all team members and initially build a simple and understandable work strategy. All team members must know their responsibilities and perform them correctly.
The list of responsibilities that a QA team must perform includes the following:
- Implementation and completion of quality control;
- Development of procedures for operations;
- Compliance with procedures and specifications;
- Identification and correction of inconsistencies.
No matter how complex your project is, your task is to simplify and automate all your processes as much as possible. The work of a tester is problematic in itself. If specialists focus on filling out many documents and doing little valuable work, it will take them a lot of effort and time, negatively affecting the final result. So, you need to think carefully about all aspects of the work and understand how you can simplify communication between different specialists so that this does not negatively affect the quality of their work.
Stick to the rules and best practices
For the quality assurance process to be as effective as possible, you need to think carefully about the work within the team. Sometimes, the team architecture is built, so employees pay more attention to compliance with internal rules than working on a project.
If you implement a new QMS to replace the old one, you need to analyze all the errors and decide how to prevent them in the new architecture. Avoid complex features and add-ons without clear instructions on how to perform them.
It should be borne in mind that fundamental changes in QMS can affect the stable operation of any company (both large organizations and small startups). You don’t have to reinvent the wheel because you can use existing practices but adapt them to the needs of your team.
System process diagram
You can start by creating simple visual effects. Research shows that over 65% of people learn more effectively with pictures. Refrain from loading your employees with complex documents. Try to visualize all the processes as much as possible, and then it will be easier for your specialists to understand what changes you are making to work. In addition, it can make it as easy as possible to train new employees.
When you are negotiating new QA criteria, you should visualize them visually using charts, tables, and graphs. With their help, you can maximize the detail of all the most important quality processes.
Your attitude to the new QMS
Practice shows that many specialists are very wary of something new. If you want to implement a new QMS, you should have an explanatory conversation with your employees, explain this to them, and show what benefits you plan to receive. If this is not done, many employees will resist innovation and may even ignore the new rules. In this case, your creations will fail to be successful.
Introducing a new QMS can be very beneficial for your business, make it more competitive, and enable you to maximize your service. But, it would be best if you were prepared for the transformational crisis that may bring some inconvenience.
