11 QA Mistakes to Avoid During Software Development
When software development results in bug-ridden software, it can have a substantial impact on client retention and corporate performance. And with users, it is no different as well. When they face issues with your software, they may become so dissatisfied that they abandon all your software solutions.
The impact of this issue is especially devastating when users quit any ties with your business or brand just because your software is buggy. So, it's critical to avail professional software quality assurance services so that you have a consistent customer/users base and business success.
QA professionals can perform a better job than ever before by spotting frequent mistakes along the software development process. But how will you know which are the most common QA mistakes? Just stay with us all the way and we’ll help you understand all of them to assert your market success.
And here we go.
QA Mistakes to Avoid in Software Development
According to proven research, the cost of fixing software development faults or bugs post-product release is four to five times more than finding it during the requirements collecting or production phases. And it will only seem to rise even further from there. So, make sure you watch out for all these common QA mistakes while building software solutions to not make it a big pain to every aspect of your undertaking. They are as follows:
1. Using Percentages to Estimate Projects
Never assess software development progress based on percentages of dev hours when predicting the size or length of a project. Percentage-based planning and reporting for developing software solutions is extremely inaccurate and leads to longer-running projects.
2. Failure in Understanding Software Development Requirements
It is critical that you understand the client's needs at the start of the project. This can acquire answers to your inquiries, such as end user devices, browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices that must be supported.
Developing software solutions to handle every potential use case and combination of hardware and software is impractical.
Try to gather requirements as early as possible to guarantee a smooth project start and successful delivery.
If clients are unsure about what they want for their project, they can always partner with an expert software development company to determine the same.
3. Giving Final Estimates Before Truly Understanding the Requirements
Only when all the criteria have been understood and agreed upon with the customer should any software solutions provider submit a final estimate. It is necessary to contact their experts to help with project assessment and finally with estimation. There will be challenges and pitfalls along the software development journey as well. Therefore, extra project time should be added to the project schedule.
4. Missing the Test, Documentation, and Demo Phases
Development of software solutions that omit phases for software testing, its documentation, demo, overall project reporting and communication with clients is bound to go downhill. So, these ensure all these activities are never missed out in the timeline of any software development project.
5. Skipping Employee Time Off
There will always be adequate resourcing in every software development project, where every personnel is assigned with specific roles. These resources or personnel are entitled to receive vacation and sick leaves during software development. Skipping on such a crucial project plan, especially in this post-pandemic era can impact the workforce and in the efficiency levels in project risk management.
6. Direct Communication with QA
Customers should never be able to engage quality assurance engineers directly. All client communications regarding the development of software solutions must go through a project manager or business analyst. Clear, precise, and continuous communication is the cornerstone of a successful project and for attaining client satisfaction. Promoting perfect client communication guarantees that expectations are correctly defined between them and the software development company. It also allows for continuous feedback to handle any extra feature needs or issues that may occur in the future.
7. Direct Communication of Beta Testers with QA
Discussing flaws of software solutions and its results with beta testers is not a good idea. Such chances seldom uncover any genuine defects since beta testers are better in recommending extra features or system upgrades.
8. Failure to Report Schedule Risks in Software Development
Team members must disclose any potential difficulties, hazards, or concerns that may cause the software development timeline to be delayed. All risks must be identified, and the implications on the timetable must be understood. The team in charge of developing software solutions should devise a risk mitigation strategy, which may involve requesting a timetable extension or recommending an alternative option.
9. Failing to Submit Clear and Accurate Reporting to Clients
Complete transparency and timely reporting strengthen client faith in the software development provider and allows for further planning or revision as needed.
A customer can learn all aspects of the project through team members who can clearly convey the project handling and development processes. This gives a chance to define clear expectations with the client and provide transparent information on the development process for software solutions.
10. Tracking Bug Fixing Time
There are clients that insist on measuring time against every development activity, including bug patches. So, as an expert in the software development domain it is your duty to explain to them how it is an inefficient and counter-productive technique of tracking project progress. They should also be educated as to how it does not mesh well with agile development methodologies.
Projects using the agile processes for building software solutions can carry out tasks more frequently and at shorter length, allowing for faster delivery.
This emphasizes less time tracking. Instead, the number of features produced during an agile sprint determines the progress of the software development project.
11. Not Taking Change Requests into Account
Any modification requested by a client affects the software development timeline. When consumers request new features or changes to existing features, each must be suitably scaled in terms of effort level and prioritized depending on the customer's need or desire to have that feature. The software solutions development team is then responsible for determining the impact on the timeline and communicating the same to the client.
The Round Up
Yes, we do know that software development and quality assurance is equally time-consuming and frequently stressful. But it is still a necessary job that can be made simpler with certain effort and forethought. Becoming deeply aware and troubleshooting this list of mistakes guarantees in producing efficient and flawless software solutions. And this will become even simpler when you partner with a credible and established software quality assurance provider. They have the appropriate tools and proficiency that can effectively tackle all your software concerns to help you get the business traction.