- Software quality assurance (often called quality management) is an umbrella activity that is applied throughout the software process
- It is planned and systematic pattern of activities necessary to provide high degree of confidence in the quality of a product
- Software quality assurance (SQA) encompasses
- An SQA process
- Specific quality assurance and quality control tasks
- Effective software engineering practice.
- Control of all software work products and the changes made to them
- A procedure to ensure compliance with software development standards
- Measurement and reporting mechanisms
Importance of SQA
- Quality control and assurance are essential activities for any business that produces products to be used by others
- Prior to the twentieth century, quality control was the sole responsibility of the craftsperson who built a product
- As time passed and mass production techniques became commonplace, quality control became an activity performed by people other than the ones who built the product
- Software quality is one of the pivotal aspects of a software development company
- Software quality assurance starts from the beginning of a project, right from the analysis phase
- SQA checks the adherence to software product standards, processes, and procedures
- SQA includes the systematic process of assuring that standards and procedures are established and are followed throughout the software development life cycle and test cycle as well
- The compliance of the built with agreed-upon standards and procedures is evaluated through process monitoring, product evaluation, project management etc
- The major reason of involving software quality assurance in the process of software product development is to make sure that the final product built is as per the requirement specification and comply with the standards
Prepare an SQA plan for a project
- The plan is developed as part of project planning and is reviewed by all stakeholders
- Quality assurance actions performed by the software engineering team and the SQA group are governed by the plan
- The plan identifies evaluations to be performed, audits and reviews to be conducted, standards that are applicable to the project, procedures for error reporting and tracking, work products that are produced by the SQA group, and feedback that will be provided to the software team