For my last blog post for this class, I found an article online that
    talks about the practice of shifting-left in software quality assurance.
    This approach more or less emphasizes the importance of introducing quality
    assurance to earlier phases in the development process. Testing from the
    initial phase of development is supposed to prevent the amount of defects
    and issues from piling up at the end of development. Having testing done
    throughout the development phases can also lessen the workload for the
    quality assurance team.
  According to the article, the cost of testing and post-production vastly
    outweighs the cost of development and planning. It posits that testing
    earlier and more frequently catches bugs earlier on, and reduces the overall
    cost of development. This goes very hand in hand with the agile software
    development methodology we learned about last semester. The world of
    software development has become much more fast paced, and the current
    landscape pushes for finished products with minimal defects at
    launch. 
   I  have seen online the mentality that a product that ships with any
    problems is often ostracized. Consumers want minimal issues and problems
    when interacting with any kind of software, and that goes doubly for large
    companies. Having software testers involved since the start of development
    would allow teams a more seamless development experience.
   One model for development that the article proposes has each stage of
    development separated by a quality check gate, in which test cases are
    implemented. When all defects are found and fixed, only then can the
    development team move on to the next stage of the process. I think this a
    very good system that could fit well within the agile sprint methodology.
    Leave time at the end of the sprint, but before the sprint retrospective,
    for the quality assurance team to check the code, then at the retrospective
    they can sign off on the state of the project. If there are any bugs that
    could not be fixed within this sprint, the testers can assign it as an issue
    for the next one. 
   During the Development Capstone project, this could be used to manage the
    teams next semester. Have team members focus on quality assurance near the
    end of the sprint, and then collect their feedback at the sprint
    retrospective. Another way would be to have one or two teams act as quality
    assurance throughout the whole semester. Either way it could save a bit of
    headaches for everyone.
From the blog CS@Worcester Alejandro Professional Blog by amontesdeoca and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.
