7 myths about the Quality Assurance role

Why is the role of QA so important during application development? QA (Quality Assurance) Specialist is the person who, in addition to executing tests, plans them, assesses risks, and develops processes to achieve the highest possible quality of the final product. Despite its relevance, the role of Quality Assurance is often confused and underestimated. 

In this article, I explain some of the myths circulating around quality management, giving you fresh insight into the value that such a role brings to the team. 

#1 Involving QA in the team is too expensive.

In the beginning, it’s important to remember, that proper testing in software development is not just a cost, but a significant investment, that protects you from the danger of releasing defective software final product into the world (let’s not kid ourselves – fixing the damage late in the development process can be very expensive). By paying proper attention to quality testing during product development, we strengthen credibility, as well as trust among our customers, which is an invaluable gain worth the effort. Quality control is a mutual benefit and best practice so that both you, your developers, and customers can feel more secure in cooperation. 

#2 Software testing is the easiest way to get into the IT world.

This is one of the most popular slogans encouraging people to buy a course and get a job. However, it should be viewed with a grain of salt, as it is not entirely true. To become a Quality Assurance engineer, one must have a great deal of knowledge of testing techniques, quality standards, management systems, the use of equipment and tools, as well as many technical issues. This occupation also requires patience and perceptiveness. Catching bugs in an application is not easy – it’s a big responsibility and often a tedious and long, long check of the functionality of the application at many stages of its development. 

#3 I use apps every day so I can test them. 

Let’s put it this way – if you often fly an airplane it doesn’t mean that you can become a pilot.

I don’t want to discourage you – just emphasize that being a QA is a responsible job requiring many qualifications. It’s not just testing a product for bugs, but taking care of the whole process of its creation.

#4 After being a manual tester, I can be an automated tester.

Automation is not the only direction a tester can grow into, although for some reason it is the most popular path mentioned by manual testers. A tester can also become a UX/UI designer, a developer, a pentester – anyone depending on what direction they would like to develop in. So if you would like to broaden your skills and go even deeper into software development-remember, nothing stands in your way!

#5 QA is the same as testing.

Quality assurance and testing are not the same things, and those terms shouldn’t be mixed. 

Shortly speaking, the difference is that a tester reports bugs in an application, while QA improves processes. The main view of QA is not just to detect as many bugs as possible, but also to prevent them from occurring. QA covers the development process of all projects in general, including test planning, risk assessment, and the processes and procedures to achieve the highest possible quality of the entire application, during each stage of its use. 

#6 If you want, you can detect all bugs.

All systems have bugs, and eliminating them completely in complex software is almost impossible. The goal of Quality Assurance is not to catch all bugs, but to bring them down to an acceptable level and make sure they can all be fixed at any time. 

Among other things, cooperation between software developers involves agreeing on several bugs that can be acceptable. As you can see, it is worth managing your expectations skillfully and exercising a lot of patience and forbearance over the production process.

#7 It would be good to automate all testing.

Testing a product only automatically may seem like a tempting option because of the accelerated process of checking the software for bugs. However, the truth is that if you want to minimize errors and perform a reliable check, running both automated and manual tests is worthwhile. Why?

Automated tests use the same set of data every time, which may not catch errors as well as more difficult-to-predict human-run tests. It’s also hard to implement any reliable automated tests in the early stages of a project or for its new functionality. Expert knowledge and fresh insights can be a much-needed addition to the process of developing new software.

Quality Assurance myths busted!

QA is an important and demanding role that contributes greatly to the release of product quality. Systematic actions that provide effective quality software are the best way to ensure successful cooperation. At Applover’s QA team, four specialists are responsible for the quality assurance process of every software product we make. Their presence is not only an add during developing an application but a standard, thanks to which we are not afraid to reach for more and more difficult challenges.