Quality assurance (QA) is undoubtedly an important factor in software development and delivery of quality products. Strategic quality management (STQM) approaches serve as the backbone for any kind of organizational setup seeking to uplift its QA processes.
The strategic approaches support QA teams in generating confidence that the software meets their expectations and that the functionality will be performed as observed in the target environment.
In this article, we will address STQM approaches, methodologies, and how cloud testing platforms such as LambdaTest can help for the effective adoption of QA practices.
Understanding STQM
STQM ensures the planning and execution of QA processes for the achievement of organizational goals. It ensures that every single step of a project is aligned with quality from development to delivery. Some of the important components of STQM are as follows:
Steps in STQM
STQM is a planned approach where the basic aim is the creation of products and services whereby organizations meet customer as well as regulatory requirements. This involves steps like planning, assurance, control, and continuous improvement to develop a strong system that not only responds to present-day difficulties but also to the anticipated future demands and opportunities for betterment.
Quality Planning
Quality planning is the first step of STQM. It defines which quality objectives are needed and what process is needed to achieve them. This constitutes the basis for all QA activities.
- Setting Objectives
Organizations must stipulate in detail what quality means about the projects they undertake. This means that there should be a clear understanding of customer needs and regulatory expectations.
- Provision of Resources
Proper planning promises the provision of required resources, tools, and people that are necessary to fulfill the quality objectives.
- Stakeholder Involvement
The involvement of the stakeholders in the planning phase will ensure the involvement of all perspectives, so the quality objectives will be holistic.
QA
QA ensures that the development and testing process is effective and efficient. It encompasses reviews and audits.
- Process Audits
Periodic audits help to identify ways in which the QA process can be improved. These audits can be internal or external as deemed fit by the organization.
- Training and Development
Continuous training ensures that team members are updated constantly with the latest methodologies and tools in QA. It involves various types of workshops, online courses, and certifications.
- Documentation
Proper documentation of processes helps to maintain consistency for all projects and offers references that can be used again for a similar project.
Quality Control
Quality control is the monitoring of specific results to determine whether they meet the specified standards or not. Quality control is typically a process of testing and validation.
- Develop testing protocols
To ensure standardized assessment of software products. This indicates what tests need to be done, as well as under what conditions.
- Provide feedback mechanisms
Feedback mechanisms help teams learn from their mistakes and improve future projects. Also, the completion of a project calls for post-mortem analyses.
- Defect-Tracking Tools
It can help teams track issues as they cut across the entire development cycle. This way, defects do not linger for too long.
Continuous Improvement
Organizational QA processes should evolve constantly through feedback, metrics, and changing requirements.
- Iterative Processes
Iterative processes can facilitate teams’ responsiveness to new information or changes in project scope. Agile methodologies usually support such an approach.
- Performance Metrics
Performance metrics can be reviewed periodically to spot trends and areas that need attention. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) can guide such reviews.
- Benchmarking
Comparison of performance against industry standards or that of competitors will be sensitive to where improvement in development may come from.
Importance of Quality Management Strategies in QA
There are many reasons for adopting a quality strategy.
- Customer Satisfaction
A quality strategy will have defined quality in the product or services provided and is likely to lead to customer satisfaction and retention. Satisfied customers are your best advertisement.
- Cost Efficiency
The organizational cost can be saved by detecting defects early in development, which otherwise would have been spent in the postrelease cycle of fixing. Reduction of the rework is highly minimized.
- Risk Management
Quality strategy helps identify the risks associated with the release of the software, thus allowing teams to mitigate them and thereby reduce project delay.
- Improved Collaboration
A strategic approach allows for collaboration across the development, testing, and operations teams. Responsibility for quality within a department leads to the organized improvement of various aspects. Problems are handled better than others by a cross-functional team.
- Measurable Outcomes
With defined metrics and KPIs, an organization will determine the effectiveness of its QA processes and make choices for future products based on fact rather than intuition, hence making better use of resources.
- Regulatory Compliance
Every industry has strict regulations on software quality. Stringent quality control through a robust QA strategy helps avoid legal issues.
- Market Competitiveness
Quality products will help improve the reputation of an organization in the market, therefore giving it an edge in competitiveness over other organizations that may not go the extra mile to prioritize quality as much.
Key Approaches to STQM
Several approaches could be used to enhance strategic quality management in QA:
Agile Testing
Agile testing incorporates testing during the developmental process. It helps spot problems quite quickly. The testing and development collaborate at all stages of the project lifecycle.
- Iterative Development
Agile splits projects into more manageable chunks or sprints. Thus, the feedback cycle is continuously maintained and subjected to increased and repeat testing. It thus helps to detect faults early.
- Continuous Integration
Several changes through iterations are integrated frequently, and therefore, it detects the fault well before any problem occurs further in the development cycle.
- User Stories and Acceptance Criteria
The user stories are clearly defined with acceptance criteria, making testing close to what the user expects.
Risk-Based Testing
This approach means prioritizing the efforts of testing based on the risk associated with different parts of the software.
- Identify Risks
Teams assess which parts of the application could fail or have a huge impact if they do fail. This gives a sense of risk, thus focusing testing efforts exactly where they matter most.
- Focus Resources
Focusing on risky spots may allow organizations to apply resources much more intelligently, thereby providing the proper focus on high-risk parts.
- Risk Assessment Tools
Risk assessment tools can reduce the amount of work by providing structured methodologies for identification and assessment.
Test Automation
Automated repeated testing could greatly benefit from the efficiency and accuracy of the QA processes.
- Faster Execution
Tests that are automated usually execute faster than hand-prepared tests, thus offering a quicker reaction to code changes.
- Consistency
Automation eradicates reliance on human error, so test execution turns out to be consistent across numerous environments. Thus, it would be more predictable.
- Test Coverage
It helps the teams to increase coverage without being skewed towards a tremendous increase in time and testing resources.
Continuous Testing
Continuous testing refers to the integration of testing into the continuous integration and continuous delivery or deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.
- Real-Time Feedback
The team can get instant feedback on their code changes. This brings about the ability to start fixing defects right from the beginning before they grow into something worse.
- Quality Improvement
The approach of constant testing ensures that high standards are maintained at all times throughout the development process by catching defects at the earliest phase.
- Shift Left Testing
An organization can address faults before their propagation through other stages of development if it is done by incorporating testing earlier in the development process. This approach is called the shift left testing approach.
Metrics and KPIs
Metrics and KPIs help organizations measure effectiveness in QA.
- Performance Measurement
Metrics measure areas of improvement and help teams adjust their strategies based on the same.
- Data-Driven Decisions
The metrics data enables organizations to make a decision on whether or not they should change processes or resource allocation for the better and for continuous improvement.
- Common Metrics
It includes defect density, test case pass rate, test execution time, requirement coverage, and customer-reported defects.
Cloud Testing
With cloud testing, which is an important aspect of STQM, organizations can develop better-quality products with flexible and scalable resources provided by the cloud. Cloud testing platforms such as LambdaTest allow teams to test cross-environmentally with minimal investment in infrastructure with the inclusion of testing techniques, which have various benefits:
- Scalability
Organizations can scale testing efforts easily to meet the project demands and thus support fast changes as needed.
- Dynamic Resource Allocation
Cloud-based platforms provide real-time allocation of resources so that fluctuation in workload has quick responses.
- Cost Management
The pay-as-you-go model supports efficient cost control, providing organizations with easy access to the resources they need without having overheads such as maintaining physical test environments.
- Accessibility to a Variety of Environments
LambdaTest has a large number of browsers and devices to access so that all imaginable test scenarios are covered when it comes to cross-platform compatibility.
- Cross-Browser and Mobile Device Testing
Teams can do more cross-browser testing without having to physically have multiple devices, but real mobile device access makes sure that apps work properly at various screen sizes and operating system (OS) versions.
- Cost Efficiency
A physical test lab is not at all needed, which means the amount of money spent on infrastructure is saved, and the period between set-ups is reduced, which enables teams to focus more on testing than on infrastructure.
- Better Teamwork
Cloud-based platforms enable better teamwork as they provide easier access to test environments for everyone involved as needed and allow real-time updates.
Challenges in STQM
Although implementing strategic approaches to managing quality holds several benefits for organizations, there are also some challenges with such approaches:
- Resistance to change
Teams who are used to traditional practices might resist changing strategies or introducing a new tool.
- Cultural Change Involved
The organization has to undergo a cultural change to shift from traditional practice, and the top leadership has to support the change.
- Resource Capacity
Limited budgets or personnel can create resource constraints in the implementation of full-fledged quality strategies to be prioritized.
However, organizations should identify what areas require urgent attention and those that can be managed over time; this way, resource use is maximized by addressing the former areas first.
- Need for Creative Solutions
While constraints demand identifying creative ways to utilize existing assets effectively, cross-training team members for versatility in task assignments would be an asset.
- Skill Gaps
Skilled personnel knowledgeable about modern QA practices may be lacking and slow progress. The more the possibility of filling knowledge gaps with each team, the incentives for completing the relevant certifications promote a learning-friendly culture.
- Communication Barriers
Communication lapses at various teams may lead to communicating wrong quality expectations.
To overcome the challenges faced, organizations can use cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest. It is an AI-powered test execution platform that allows you to run manual and automated tests at scale across 3000+ browsers and OS combinations.
This platform allows you to perform AI testing using tools like KaneAI to make the testing process easy. It additionally offers free online tools that will help QA teams manage the validation and manage structure to maintain quality tools like XPathtesters, HTML validator, JSONpath tester and more.
Best Practices in STQM
The following are the best practices in STQM:
- Training Requirements
In cases where the transition involves proper training, this makes it easier because any new practice will increase the comfort level. Mentoring also enables those in the team to face less stress during the transition.
- Collaboration Across Teams
The adoption of collaboration tools helps increase communication between teams that work on a product; thereby, the live discussion is enabled either by Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Recruitment
There can be a compulsion for organizations to recruit employees differently, allowing them to attract those who have work experience in modern QA methodologies; there are plenty of opportunities for collaboration with academic institutions that can provide qualified people.
- Essential Regular Meetings
There should be regular meetings that arrange open communication on the quality expectations with the team and also updates regarding the current progress made; such meetings should ensure feedback loops in which voices from all backgrounds are heard.
Conclusion
To conclude, STQM is crucial for organizations to provide high-quality software efficiently. Methodologies like Agile testing, risk-based testing, continuous integration, and LambdaTest speed up processes. Organizations must continuously improve products through QA. LambdaTest and team collaboration help organizations meet customer expectations and succeed in the evolving technology world.
