3 Digital Quality Priorities for 2024

When you’re setting goals for your software development organization, it’s easy to focus on hitting release schedules, launching new features, and supporting members of your team in learning new tools and development languages. It’s harder to get excited about tightening up the nuts and bolts that ensure a strong foundation for your quality efforts — but investing in the basics can really pay off. Just as regular health screenings can detect potential issues before they become serious, proactive monitoring and reviews of your testing in digital systems can identify potential bugs or performance issues early on. Here are three projects that can help QA operate more efficiently and effectively.

1. Update your test cases.

Most developers and QA professionals know that for testing to be effective, and provide confidence and coverage, you need to keep your test cases up to date. Your applications change over time; your test cases should get updated to accurately reflect those changes, whether they’re new features, shifting requirements, or changes to the testing environment. But all too often, test case updates wind up on the list of things to do when there’s free time… and we all know how often that happens.

While you may not need to update your test cases for each release, you want to make sure there’s some process in place to make sure that this task doesn’t get consistently overlooked. Whether you establish a regular schedule to evaluate test cases or opt to revisit them whenever certain changes occur, make sure your test cases accurately reflect the ways you currently need to evaluate your digital experiences.

While you’re updating, take the opportunity to look at the way your test cases are written. Make sure that they’re clear and concise, leaving no room for error or misinterpretation. Solid test case management helps save time and improve overall quality.

2. Evaluate your documentation around requirements, test plans, when to use different testing types, reporting, etc.

To ensure consistency and efficiency, software development organizations need documentation far beyond test cases. Once you’ve updated test cases, make sure you’ve also detailed your test strategy and plans, software requirements and changes from one release to the next. Your documentation should outline when in the process testing occurs, what environments to test in, which types of tests to conduct, who is responsible for testing, how to document test run results… everything you would need to get a new team member up to speed.

Check for gaps in your documentation – are there pieces missing? Is everything up to date? Does the documentation match your existing workflows? For example, is it clear which tests your organization automates and what scenarios call for exploratory testing? If not, put together a plan to update your documentation and keep it current. Like test case management, formalized knowledge transfer can often slip, but having accurate procedures and strategies recorded in a knowledge base makes it much easier to create consistency across different teams, and can save time when onboarding new hires or testing partners.

3. Revisit your device coverage matrices.

The major phone manufacturers release new devices every year: Samsung just announced the new Galaxy S24 series of smartphones last week, while Apple typically rolls out new models in September and Google launches them in October. While most smartphone users upgrade every two to three years, about 14% replace their phones every year. To make sure that you’re covering the latest models, look at data around how customers are accessing your website and apps to determine which devices you still want to support and test.

There’s no single right number or mix of devices to test. Customer preferences and use patterns vary significantly across industries and regions, as we saw in last year’s State of Digital Quality report. If you go to market in multiple regions, make sure to look at the breakdown of devices by region to ensure you’re not missing popular devices in countries where you may still be working to attract new customers.

In summary, just as regular health check-ups are vital for maintaining and improving personal health, regular reviews and updates of test cases, strategies, and coverage plans are essential for the health and success of digital platforms. This approach ensures early detection of potential issues, adaptability to change, and comprehensive coverage, leading to robust and resilient digital systems.

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