Today’s customers expect applications to work seamlessly and look aesthetically great. To achieve this, organizations need a structured product strategy that puts quality at the forefront of the development process and integrates with the testing processes effortlessly. However, if an app is poorly tested, it will contain bugs, and performance issues that developers would have missed. Whereas, a quality software app that has gone through rigorous product growth strategy, ensures customer satisfaction, delivering excellent user experience and business growth.
QA is an Essential Part of your Product Strategy
Have you ever been a part of the product development process? For those involved in the process, know that an organized strategy and planning lie at the core of success. The increasing competition in the software industry tends to invigorate new methodologies among their teams to combine with development for effective testing solutions and better QA.
For instance, it is important that the team leads to make sure that the team has ‘our own’ mentality. It means that they shouldn’t rely on bug detectors or developers to solve any problem. When all teams are working in cohesion, it becomes easier to have a high-quality product at the end. Organizations need to define their business goals to align them with the QA strategy. However, the emphasis on software testing is minimized due to product requirements gathering. QA teams should begin by exploring the feature specifications and user requirements earlier in the process to ensure timely product releases. Software testers detect defects early and reduce the risks of project failure.
It is also important to not rely on one approach, i.e, automated or manual testing. It is often the need of a product to have a human approach and deploy manual testing. Of course, the costs are a big factor in these terms, but if the cost is not the biggest consideration, then it is surely a good tactic to add to your product strategy.
Once the goals are defined, the next step is to effectively distribute the project tasks between the QA and development teams. Since the scoping begins, it should be a norm at the organization to plan and act. Many times the teams forget the importance of brainstorming sessions. Defining what the tests are going to be like, and the methods and tools to be integrated, are just some of the elements that need to be finalized before the entire cycle begins. So if the teams start the cycle without a distinct plan and are improvised at every issue then it wouldn’t in any way be profitable for the end product. The QA managers need to communicate with those individuals that have been at the end of good quality products before and hand them more difficult tasks in the cycle. As QA engineers and testers are involved in the development process right from the requirements gathering stage, they perform quality maintenance and control checks at their topmost priority, but the ones with more experience should be given priority to lead. They ensure testing an app on every development stage including design, code writing, compilation, and software testing. Teams use test management tools to improve their test management process and also to make the most of their collaboration with one another, without having to point out flaws among each other. Doing best among themselves, and supporting other teams can change the way the process functions.
How QA can resolve Customer Issues?
Companies are emphasizing on creating a customer experience that helps them create emotional brand connections with customers. To achieve this, companies focus on the localization of the testing process. This means that the testers in the US will only be testing the product to be used there. This way many hindrances are taken far from the entire cycle of product strategy and ensure a more customer-oriented product. QA involves all those steps taken before and after the customer experience to ensure user satisfaction.
Getting Critical Feedback before Actual Product Roll-out
To achieve a quality user experience, it is crucial to get feedback from the QA teams especially before sending a product into production. Although a product manager has an eye for detail concerning the quality of processes, procedures, and workflows, still having feedback from all teams, be it QA or DevOps is a significant tool to add value to the entire product delivery process. Their feedback can help decide which features should be added to improve application quality.
QA Adding to the List of Vital Features for Product Roadmap
The perfect recipe for a successful product does not exist, however, with ROI based empirical data, you can always inspire the team to perform better than they think they can. With short term goals for QA strategy, you can devise better products than having a vivid approach.
Conclusion
Achieving quality is an ongoing process and it never seems to stop. Each experience design is different and there are different ways to ensure quality. It is important for QA to spend time in understanding the customer needs, put in a team effort, and focus on delivering a quality product with exceptional user experience. The contribution of QA in the overall growth strategy cannot be denied, as their dedication to meet customer standards of quality helps in delivering a good customer experience that builds brand loyalty.
