Software quality assurance
What is software quality to us at Edhouse?
At Edhouse, we believe that the quality of the software we develop is a key feature of any software product. In the modern world, where every customer expects the highest standards and a quick return on their investment, only quality software has a chance of success. The involvement of SQA Engineers in development teams plays a critical role in all phases of development. This enables us to deliver products that not only meet, but often exceed our clients' expectations.
How do we approach quality assurance in SW product development?
By properly setting up quality control processes and combining the right knowledge and experience of our SQA Engineers, we at Edhouse make sure that every detail and every feature of the software is thoroughly researched and tested. We know that in software development, absolute flawlessness can never be guaranteed. However, our responsible approach is to strive for this state.
Our SQA processes are not just part of our work - they are part of our DNA.
We strive to promote SQA shift left approaches. That is, we strive to ensure that the SQA team is deeply integrated into the development process from day one. This means that quality is embedded from the very beginning. And SQA is part of the design reviews and project analysis. SQA reviews every feature before the first line of code is written.
What we do as SQA
Every project we work on begins with a deep understanding of our clients' specific needs and goals. During the project analysis, we examine the specifics of the requirements from different aspects to reflect all the needs of the customer, end users, infrastructure, our developers or the application itself. We do not limit ourselves to the product under development per se. Part of our job is to know very well the purpose of the future software product and to know the ecosystem in which it will operate. Our SQA Engineers thus have a unique knowledge of the entire product ecosystem. As a result, we are able to significantly increase the overall value chain of the product being developed.
For example, on one of our most important projects (MAPS), thanks to our very good domain knowledge of electron microscopy and our rich knowledge of customer needs, we have gained a crucial competence in the form of a Product Owner of the entire product portfolio. This meant gaining a very responsible role for the entire team and a key competence for the direction of the product. Our people are now able to virtually design entire solutions for our customers, or work directly with the customer on them.
SQA as part of DNA: software quality in Edhouse
Efficient testing procedures and processes
Agile QA shift left approaches and Test planning based on appropriate test strategies
Automation
Using appropriate technologies and a robust architecture
Parameterization of testing
Selection of appropriate technologies and identification of critical characteristics of the systems under test. We look for design flaws, client and user requirements, emerging regressions, as well as performance or safety of the developed systems
Comprehensive knowledge of the products under development
SQA is involved in all key stages of development
Key Technologies and Processes
To ensure that our applications are reliable and powerful, performance tests, endurance tests or penetration tests are part of our strategy. We are thus able to monitor the performance of systems over the long term, and our teams can react in time to deviations that could cause an unintended failure for the system.
One of our greatest strengths is our ability to efficiently manage and automate testing processes. We use tools like JIRA for project management and bug tracking. With Test Management tools such as TestRail, Confluence or TestLink, we always know exactly what the current testability of the products under development is.
As part of the test development process, we are also constantly looking to automate the test and the test process itself. To do this, we need to understand the technology of modern systems and be able to design the automation architecture itself. The result of such an architecture is a robust and easy-to-maintain automation system that allows everyone to write automated tests. In many cases, we use well-known frameworks such as Robot Framework, PlayWrite (among many others), as well as frameworks that we have custom-developed for our customers.
Continuous and truthful reporting of our procedures and results is a fundamental part of this. We consider this to be one of the key parameters of cooperation with our customers. How else can they know as soon as possible that the product does what they want, that the result corresponds to their specifications and whether and how their product has been continuously tested.
Edhouse's entire testing process is very efficient and we can be proud to say that quality really matters to us.
Certifications and Competencies
Our commitment to quality is reinforced by the certification of all members of our SQA team to ISTQB standards. This certification ensures that all members of our team know what Software Product Quality means.
In addition to technical skills, our QA specialists are also continuously improving their skills in areas such as QA analysis, test design, process review and QA management. This broad range of competencies allows us to approach quality assurance in a comprehensive and systematic manner.
Developing Our People
One of the pillars of our philosophy is the continuous development and training of our people. At Edhouse, we encourage a culture of sharing knowledge and experience. We regularly organise internal workshops and joint regular SQA Guild meetings to share all practices, knowledge and innovations. We regularly draw inspiration and new trends from the conferences that the Central European region has to offer.
As part of the Edhouse SQA community we publish the blog testujeme.software which is part of the Edhouse blog , where we inspire readers with our own perspectives on various SQA topics.
