Squash Those Bugs: Why QA Testing is Crucial for Software Development

Whether it's a source of mild irritation or a critical obstacle preventing an important transaction, a failure to perform as expected never yields favorable results.

App users have come to expect seamless performance, and any deviation from that can lead to frustration and lost loyalty. In a crowded app marketplace, there is no shortage of alternatives, which means even non-essential apps and games can quickly find themselves uninstalled if they fail to meet user expectations. In this context, delivering a polished app experience is more important than ever.

To help ensure that your product is of the highest quality (and remains in your users good graces) it’s crucial that you conduct rigorous testing before the app ever touches a users hands. QA testing is a critical process in software development that helps ensure  a product meets the necessary quality standard, and which identifies defects, errors, or issues that could negatively impact the user experience.

By conducting QA testing before the release of your product, you’ll have the ability to identify and resolve issues early on in the development process, ultimately saving vast amounts of time and money - while also maintaining your product and companies reputation for delivering exceptional products.

Failing to QA test regularly leads to disastrous outcomes. A few examples include: ‍

• In 2016, the mobile game "Pokémon Go" was released with a bug that caused the app to crash frequently, due to inadequate testing before the app was released, causing extreme frustration for many users.
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• In 2018 Facebook faced a major data breach, affecting over 50 million users. The cause was found to be a vulnerability in the code, which could have been caught with proper QA testing.
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• In 2020, the voting app used in the Iowa Democratic caucuses malfunctioned due to a coding error. The app had not been properly tested, and the result was confusion and delays in reporting the caucus results.
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At Yeti, we take QA testing very seriously and have a rigorous testing process in place - we even created the Ultimate Guide to QA Testing, to provide you with the information and resources necessary to ensure the product you’re releasing will be as flawless as possible. The following is a brief overview of Yeti’s QA process.

Stages of QA Testing

• ‍Stage 1: Planning
  During this initial stage, the project management team should work with the design & development teams to define the testing objectives, type, scope, and timelines based on client expectations. Additionally, they should create an initial set of test cases based on user scenarios that simulate real-world usage with the product for the QA team to follow. (Download the Ultimate QA Guide for a sample QA checklist that includes outlines these usage situations)
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• Stage 2: Testing
  ‍The QA team then tests the product following the test case list and gathers results to share with the PMs. Download the test case list here!

• Stage 3: Reporting
  Finally, the PMs review the findings and add them to a QA bucket in Click-up for the development team to address.

Types of Testing‍

• Functional Testing
  Making sure the product's features and functions work as intended and meet the user's needs.
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• Usability Testing
  Evaluating the product’s ease of use, user experience, and accessibility to ensure it meets the needs of the target audience.
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• Compatibility Testing
  Making sure the product works well on different devices, browsers, screen sizes, and operating systems.
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• Visual Testing
  Ensuring the UI matches the original design and all elements are displayed in the correct layout, size, color, or font.

Testing Approach

Each testing approach serves a distinct purpose and is conducted at different stages of the development process:

‍Full testing
This is a comprehensive testing process that evaluates all aspects of the product. It involves testing the entire system, including all of the testing types mentioned above. Full testing typically occurs during the initial development stage, prior to major releases, or when significant changes have been made to the application. The primary goals of full testing are to:

• Validate that the application meets its requirements and specifications
• Identify and fix any defects or issues before deployment
• Make sure the product performs optimally across various environments
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Partial testing
This is a selective testing process that verifies previously validated functionalities still work correctly after any changes or updates have been made (such as bug fixes, UI/UX enhancements, or new features added). Regression testing is typically performed during the maintenance or incremental development stages and is essential for identifying unintended side effects of code changes. The primary goals of regression testing are:

• To confirm that previously tested features and functionalities remain operational and unaffected by recent changes.
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• To detect any unexpected issues or side effects caused by changes.
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There is much more to the QA process than we've outlined here. To help individuals who are completing the product development process on their own, or those who want to ensure that the team working on they product is following best practices, we created the 100% free Ultimate Guide to QA testing. This guide includes all the information and resources that you’ll need to QA test your product with confidence, including:

• A downloadable use case checklist
• A guide to iOS and Android apps
• A guide to mobile and web apps
• Tips for cross team collaboration
• Links to tons of external resources
• … and much more!

QA testing is an essential software development  process that helps ensure that your final product will meet the expectations of its end users.  By conducting thorough and rigorous testing, you’ll be able to identify and fix defects, improve user experience, and ultimately, build an exceptional product that people love!‍