Testing is the last stage of development. If it revealed all the bugs and did not allow the developer to mistakenly make daisies half a pixel larger than on the designer’s layout, the tester’s work was a success! And you will never know about it.
Let’s go through the development stages where testers participate (they are also quality assurance specialists, for friends just QA), and see what they do.
QA specialist gets acquainted with the project at the stage of prototyping and aggregation of requirements. If then the project gets tested by the same employee, it turns out cool: he already knows the specifics of the customer and it is easier for him to understand if something is working incorrectly.
In other cases, the tester and the project get acquainted at the layout stage. When the first layouts are made up, QA checks them for compliance with what the designer drew and the customer approved. And it looks like the layout is displayed in different browsers and on mobile devices.
In general, QA is the position from which you can start in IT without being a programmer. Further, having understood the industry, you can either endlessly improve in testing and automation, or go to analytics and project management. We are well taught this.
Errors are recorded in the bug list. The tester records where the system crashed, on which device, and in which browser. Attaches a screenshot. And it gives each bug a rating from 0 (boss, everything is lost!) To 4 (you have here, but it is necessary – and, in general, slapsticks).
If a little more detailed:
0 – Critical bugs.
1 – Critical Usability, forgotten features.
2 – Non-critical bugs.
3 – Uncritical Usability.
4 – Texts.
Depending on the assessment, the project manager prioritizes tasks for developers. The smaller the number, the faster the bug will be fixed (and what happens if the developer swaps tasks, see here).
After the bugfix, the tester checks the project again. If it finds errors, new or old, it is again entered in the bug list, the programmer corrects them. The process is repeated until we reach the ideal.
There are no programs without defects. According to statistics, each 1000 lines of code contains several errors. But the number of lines in sophisticated software such as operating systems is several million. Experienced experts – testers – look for and identify bugs using special techniques and programs, such as debugging programs and bug trackers.
Alpha
When the program development process is almost over, alpha version is released. As a rule, such a version has only basic software modules, but its functionality is limited.
This alpha version is sent to freelance testers working on a contractual basis. After analyzing their reports and fixing defects, a beta version is released. This is a fully-functional version of the program, which is usually sent to more testers.
Beta
Beta testing companies enable real users to perform testing in a real environment to make sure their software product is free from defects and is fully operational.
The final version of the program will be released only when changes, according to the work of beta testers, are included in the program.
The process of finding and fixing bugs is lengthy and continues until the developer stops working on the program. It is impossible to completely get rid of bugs, because, during the correction of some defects, others can often appear.
Software testing services are provided to ensure high-quality software. Thanks to a unique strategy and special methodology, users are satisfied using products tested by quality assurance companies.
By Anisha Willis
