3 stages to make your Quality Assurance perfect… Almost perfect

Wondering when to launch a full-hearted test on your startup? Right away! Nah, kidding, it’s not that easy.

Here are a few insights from Evgen Silkov, a QA Engineer at Temy. He’s also skilled in various stages of developing the testing process for growing the company.

Zero stage: BATMAN BEGINS

Testing is always in development, whether it’s separated into an individual process or not.

Early products may have lower demand for quality, so testing activities could be minimized and taken on developers.

At this stage, it’s vital to get a better hold on your business niche rather than building a “best practices” project. Your developers are heroes who show up in the time of need.

For your envious competitors, your prosperous product keeps growing and improving. The number of clients multiplies every day, but it’s too early to celebrate. Being a hero is a tough job. One day you’ll find developers getting sleepy with their activities. They’ll shift from creating a fantastic product to repetitive and boring testing.

Your developers are mighty, but as Batman has Alfred, your heroes also need a loyal henchman. An excellent opportunity to introduce QA-squad.

First stage: A FEW QA-WARRIORS IN A ROSTER

The starting point for adding testers onto the team is blurry as it's based on decision-maker sensations. The intuition of the SD process flow. The sense of the developer's load. You can end up making a stand-alone QA process your obsession for a particular project, or you can take a course on improving quality. Also, you may test to see if part of the dev work time is overflowing. The testing process will involve developers anyway, so bug fixing is still on their plate. Thanks to you, the majority of dev efforts will move to developing itself. And relieving this burden will push your project to the next level.

Let's assume the testing part of the dev's working time is 20 hours per week. The average rate for a Middle Software Engineer is 35 EUR. That means 700 EUR a week, while 20 hours of a QA engineer comes to 500 EUR. As a result, we save 200 EUR per week. You're welcome!

"It's not so risky to bring in QA engineers to add to the team at this stage," Evgen says. He took part in two projects. In his first one, he was a pioneer in the QA role. He took on interpreting French specifications of developers' responsibilities. Two months of French grinding et voilà: all small requests Evgen wrapped into precise tech instructions - a dream of any developer.

Now he is a Middle QA engineer with an impressive level of French.

That shows how, in two-three months, a person without a lot of experience can be a valuable team member.

It's much easier to join the team when the QA processes are in place. That's if you're lucky enough to hire a dragon among testers that will settle in place QA processes. Be aware that a new dragon will try to put in place processes from his previous experience, and they may be inapplicable to your product.

Pros: separation of developing and testing processes will elevate your project

Cons: chaotic testing process at the beginning

Second stage: EVERYTHING WORKS WELL

And now, your company keeps growing. QA processes become sustainable, and development becomes predictable. The Heavens are almost in your reach, but is it true?

Increasing the team didn’t boost its efficiency? Are you sure you can keep your minds in the company?

Look around; you are stuck in the “everything works well” bog. Engineers get used to their projects and sometimes don’t see the obvious. They may not consider stability as a threat. The team grew twice in size, but the processes are still the same. From the testing perspective, the project starts to stagnate.

Using the help of external specialists could be the solution. They are not involved in internal problems. Thus a “fresh pair of eyes” is a good option. If you find a “QA-dragon” at this stage — hook up with them. The team is mature enough to reject his out of place ideas. And hopefully knowledgeable sufficient to pick out a good one.

“Test automation” is not just a fancy word at this stage. You can consider it but use caution. It’s not a “golden bullet” as it won’t solve all problems. Even if it costs a lot, it may proportionally benefit the product.

Pros: increasing the QA team efficiency

Cons: external audit means change. Change is not comfortable. Every member has to permit the check, and thus welcome the potential for change.

Third stage: DRAGONS ABOVE THE HEAVENS

At this stage, there is a time to celebrate, as you’ve raised your own “QA-dragons.” They are capable of pinpointing the cause of problems with their eyes closed. The only thing they miss is freedom. Manual testing feedback on tedious regression checks would never let them be free, and they won’t keep up the pace and meet the needs of a mature project.

QA Engineers know the project well at this stage. They are striving to test new aspects of the product, but they lack capacity. This is where Agile, with its Continuous Integration, shines the most. Automation reduces documenting efforts while providing blazing fast reports. It removes all the boring routines from QA Experts. Systematic non-functional testing will highly benefit your project at this stage.

If, in these circumstances, your testing doesn’t work well. Check your framework.
We hope your framework is great!