Quality assurance risk management is the process of identifying, analyzing, and measuring the future potential threats that may arise in the quality of software products and services. Quality assurance automation testing has a lot more benefits for improving software application efficiency and service quality. Automation testing consists of applying computational powers to what it does the best and also performing repetitive activities for the software applications. And like all the other technologies, automation and quality assurance also have some risks.
The testing team also needs to share the quality assurance risk management insights with the stakeholders. However, there are some measures that need to be taken care of before sharing the insights.
In this article, first, you will see what is quality assurance, and what are the risks in quality assurance automation testing, and then you will dive into the various ways that should be followed by the QA team before sharing the risk management insights.
What is Quality Assurance?
Quality assurance in the field of software automation testing is basically defined as the process that is done to check software quality and efficiency. Whether the software application will meet the client’s requirement and need or not? Quality Assurance is the process of determining if the software application is sufficiently efficient and featureful to meet the requirements of the clients. Quality assurance is the set of activities that ensure processes, procedures as well and standards are suitable for the project and implemented correctly.
The quality assurance process of a software application works parallel to the whole software development process. Now, let us see what are the various risks in quality assurance risk management. The term quality assurance (QA) is made up of combining two words that are quality and assurance. Let us have a brief look over these two terms separately to better understand the term quality assurance of software testing on the cloud.
- Quality: Quality is a very simple term defined by words. It basically means that if the software is ready and fit for use or not. The quality of software defines how good the software application is. If the various parameters of the software application such as scalability, reliability, functionality, durability, etc up to the mark or according to the client’s requirement and business demand.
- Assurance: Assurance is defined as satisfaction and a kind of positive signal that the software application has the capability and ability to function. Assurance is the guarantee that the software will work without malfunctioning and error. There may be some chance that some hidden bugs are left but there should not be any malfunctioning and error of the software quality.
What are the Risks in Quality Assurance?
The risks involved in automated quality assurance are evaluated to suit the software testing requirements of the project. Different types of risks in quality management are as follows:
- Underestimating the possible human errors in some specific test scenarios.
- Unrealistic expectations from the chosen automated QA tools.
- Some vendor issues such as not getting technical support and being unable to update the automation testing tools with changes in the software testing platform, etc.
- There are risks of version control and adaptable maintainability of the testing scripts.
- There are risks of compatibility issues of automation testing tools with respect to the testing environment.
How to Share Quality Assurance Risk Management Insights
Now, let us see what are the different ways in which you can share quality assurance risk management insights with the stakeholders on the cloud.
- Define the QA Risk Criteria
Defining the quality assurance risk criteria is a very important practice when you are sharing QA risk management insights. The team must define the QA risk criteria prior to sharing the insights of quality assurance automation testing on the cloud, instead of sharing the risk insights.
Defining the risk criteria is defined as the process of setting clear, useful, and measurable standards for all kinds of risks in the testing process. These risks can be divided into a range of risks like high risks, medium risks, and low risks. Divide the QA risks into these categories and make a priority list of them. You can prioritize the risks on various parameters. These parameters are the testing scope, the aim of testing, and all the constraints, and requirements for that specific automation testing.
There are also some different parameters that can be taken into account for prioritizing the risks in QA such as the expectations of all the stakeholder’s requirements. By defining your QA risk criteria, you can ensure that everyone is on the same page about what QA risks are and how they affect your project. One thing to keep in mind while setting the criteria for QA risks is that setting the criteria does not mean ticking off boxes in the testing process. Just think out of the box, plot a journey for the testing process, and then make the criteria for the QA risks before sharing the insights.
- Choosing the Right Format and Channel
When you are planning to share quality risk management insights, always choose the right format to share the risk insights. Also, it is recommended to choose the right channel for sharing risk management insights in quality assurance. Consider some valuable points before sharing the risk management insight such as all information related to the risk management of that specific tool, and the frequency and timeliness of the QA risk updates.
There are some other factors that can be taken into account for choosing the right format and channel for sharing risk management insights before sharing the insights. These parameters are the preferences, accessibility, and communication tools of your stakeholders. Ask the audience to provide their valuable feedback for the testing and take these into account before sharing the risk management insights.
You can choose and switch between the different types of dashboards, reports, and presentations to convey your insights. Also, you can use different channels for sharing risk management insights in the automation testing on the cloud using email, phone calls, virtual meetings, face chat, etc. to deliver the risk management insights.
- Use Visuals and Data
Sharing risk management insights in quality assurance is a very essential and creative way of using visuals and data representation. Using the visual approach to illustrate the QA risk details and information makes it easy to understand for the team members. Visual data formats and representation also make the presentation easy to understand and more engaging to the audience.
Sharing the risk management in quality assurance using visuals and data helps to highlight the tech trends, design patterns, and relationships among the QA risks. There are various ways using which you can represent the quality assurance risk management insights. These are graphs, tables, charts, distribution tables, etc. All these ways can be used to represent the data distribution, test impact, and test status of quality assurance.
To measure and quantify the QA risk performance, you can use metrics, indicators, and scores. There are also some Excel utilities and tools that can be used to share quality risk management insights. These Excel utilities and tools are pie charts, bar charts, etc. These visual tools help a lot to format your data. If you want to use real-time tracking, use some custom–built dashboards from SAP or AWS Insights. These are real-time tracking tools for QA risk management insights on the cloud service.
- Using the QA Risk Register
QA risk manager is a testing tool that is used to manage several activities of quality assurance risk management. It helps to document, track status, analyze, and monitor all your QA risks in one place. It consists of many types of quality assurance risk management information such as risk ID, risk description, risk probability, impact owner, and mitigation actions.
The QA risk register tool helps a lot in managing the risks as it provides you the option to share your insights related to QA risk management in a structured manner. You can use a QA risk register to report on the current state of your QA risks and highlight the key issues and challenges. Also, you can see and reflect on the progress and results of your mitigation actions.
- Provide Recommendations and Action Plans
The final and very important step while sharing the insights for your quality assurance risk management is to provide recommendations and action plans. It includes various activities such as describing the problems in detail and giving valuable feedback to the quality assurance testing team. The suggested solutions and alternatives can be used to improve and address the mentioned quality risks for a specific software application.
The QA team is also advised to specify the role, the deadline for applying the received feedback, and action plans. By providing recommendations and action plans, you can show your value and expertise as a QA professional. Also, it helps the quality assurance and to foster collaboration and trust with your stakeholders, team members, users, etc.
You leverage the capabilities of cloud testing platforms like LambdaTest for quality assurance. LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform to run manual and automated tests at scale. The platform allows you to perform both real-time and automation testing across 3000+ environments and real device cloud.
Conclusion
Quality Assurance is the process of determining if the software application is sufficiently efficient and featureful to meet the requirements of the clients. Different types of risk are underestimating the possible human errors, risks of version control and adaptable maintainability, etc. Different ways to share quality assurance risk management insights are defining the QA risk criteria, choosing the right format and channel, using visual and data models, etc.
These are the practices that should be followed by the QA teams to share risk management insights in quality assurance. Hope you have a good understanding of the topic. Happy learning!
