Introduction:
Quality assurance in web development means the practice of monitoring and modifying the web development process from initialization to delivery to ensure the proper quality of the product. Website development is a major industry in this digital age connected by the internet. The process of web development includes every step in developing building and maintaining a website. Many businesses and organizations today depend on their website to conduct deals and transactions. It is also necessary that the website is user-friendly, safe, and secure. Quality assurance is a part and parcel of web development, and very important. Quality assurance ensures the best user experiences for consumers availing of the services.
What are the quality metrics for quality web development?
Quality metrics can help us measure the quality of the website in terms of defects, security flaws, and the entire process of development.
● Reliability: A web application should produce consistent results and should not fail if tested time and again. A very important point in case web applications of organizations is to provide essential services like banks and hospitals.
● Usability: It analyses the ease of use. Clients should have a friendly interaction. So, a user-friendly interface, less complicated design, and quality of content must ensure. Complicated user experience is one the foremost reasons for traffic moving away to a competitor site.
●Compatibility: Nowadays people access a website from various devices. Thus, compatibility is necessary. It should be compatible to be operating on different browsers, operating systems, and devices.
● Efficiency: It defines the ability to use resources in a sensible way. It should not eat away too much space and should be able to perform the tasks with minimal use of resources.
● Performance: It determines the capacity of the application under different circumstances. Load testing is the process where the performance of the website assess when multiple users access it simultaneously. Web stress testing is where performance test is done during volatile conditions such as recovery from crashes.
● Security: It is the most important factor of quality assurance to make web development successful. Ignoring it can have serious issues and a complete breakdown. Imagine a porous bank web application. Though is enough to give you jitters!
Quality Assurance process in web development:
Based on the quality metrics, a four-stage quality assurance cycle in web development can frame.
1) The Planning: Requirement analysis is an important part of quality assurance. It looks into consumer requirements. This part is essential to meet client demands and their listed aims.
2) The Doing:
In the design analysis, user-friendly approaches like having options of the dark and light theme, proper placement of images, viable search options, multiple device compatibility, performance analysis, etc. should be done.
3)The Checking:
Functionality testing is an analysis of both the user experience and user interface of an application or a site. For this, the following dimensions are to be tested.
- Outgoing links, internal links, checking for broken links
- Check if cookies are encrypted or not and the behavior of the sites with and without them.
- Checking the database for ease of recovery and updating.
Security analysis should be conducted through several methods like Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST), Static Application Security Testing (SAST), etc.
4) The Action: This includes the regular survey, deployment, and maintenance by testing for bugs that may have gone undetected and checking for stable UI and UE on a day-to-day basis.
Why go for QA in the web development process?
Quality Assurance is a mandatory step in web development to deliver a seamless user experience. In web development, QA serves the following purposes.
1) QA saves time and resources:
QA at each level of development aims at nipping off any errors in the bud. It ensures no complex problems happen at later stages which could increase the cost of solving them.
2) Improved functioning:
QA helps in improving the functioning by checking for anomalies at every step of the web development process. This ensures a smooth and hassle-free user experience.
3) Creating a strong brand image:
QA is a sign of a competent team that values and cares about its product. QA is an important means of gaining customers’ trust and alliance with a particular brand.
4) Ensuring security and privacy:
Security and privacy are important components of brand reliability. QA checks for both technical and human errors to prevent possible collapse.
Is Quality Assurance and User Testing the same?
We often hear these terms being used interchangeably. Both the terms differ in their meanings and usage.
User testing is an assessment from users’ perspective, of how people perceive the product and what has been their user experience, and if that had aligned with the developer’s expectations.
QA, on the other hand, examines the site by looking for any bugs, glitches, errors, broken links, etc. Thus tries to build the product in line with the developer’s expectations.
Difference between Quality Assurance and Quality Control
There is a distinct difference in the meaning and use of these two terminology terminologies.
- QA is about preventing defects by constant monitoring at each phase and aiming at quality product delivery. It carries out during the development process.
- QC, on the other hand, is about identifying any defect after development. QA, a subcategory of QC which is product-oriented involves checking the actual output against the standards.
Who performs QA?
A quality assurance (QA) engineer is one who checks for any anomalies in every phase of the web development process. It includes designing, detecting, debugging, and delivery. They keep track of the quality metrics and ensure that the final product delivered caters to the need of the client in the best possible way.
How to become one
People whose interest is to pursue a career as a QA engineer should have the minimum educational qualifications. It should include a degree in software engineering or computer application. Practical experiences in the form of internships can be a great add-on to the resume. It can help to build the network required for the job of QA.
