The software development life cycle consists of many parts and one of the essential factors included is software quality assurance. QA for software has the role of establishing and maintaining a standard set of requirements for developing code and making sure the product is properly tested before being available to users. Quality assurance is essential because mistakes are inevitable to happen because the people who develop code are humans not machines. There is always something that can happen that escapes the developer’s eye and so there is another stage of the life cycle to catch this mistake. Now there are many reasons why quality assurance plays a huge role and can really help prevent major problems down the road.
By far the most important reason for quality assurance is money which makes sense because the goal of a business is to make money by selling their products. If code is developed but not tested through QA, then it will be released to the users and they will face problems. This will bring many additional problems to the company since their product failed because the right precautions were not taken. It is essential to test for as many unexpected problems that come to mind, and this is why a quality assurance process is needed to clear up these issues. Another big reason for quality assurance is safety for both the user and the company. A person who buys the software is investing in the product knowing that it is safe and their personal data won’t be a threat. If companies don’t ensure their products through quality assurance testing, then they are liable for damages to the user’s life and further safety issues. Adding on to this, once a company is known to not properly test their products and code, then they will be tarnished with a reputation that they are unreliable. First impressions are always important and this also applies to software because the technological world is changing exponentially which leads to a smaller margin of error for software companies to protect their reputation. The essential goal of a business is to create a product they can sell to a client and receive compensation for it. The user wants to spend money so he can be able to use that product for his own good. Therefore, the company has an obligation to make sure they do their best to meet client’s needs and make the best product based on their capabilities. Overall, software quality assurance is an essential process in the development life cycle and can break or make the software.
Additional resources to read up on:
https://www.msystechnologies.com/blog/everything-you-would-want-to-know-about-quality-assurance/
From the blog CS@Worcester – Roller Coaster Coding Journey by fbaig34 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.