What Is Software Quality Engineering?

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A strong QE process focuses on defect prevention to reduce the time wasted by continually identifying and fixing new defects. QE processes should include early and ongoing performance and security testing. The more testing is built into development using test-driven development (TDD) or an alternative, the fewer issues are found throughout the development lifecycle — and the higher the quality of the end product. If a team skimps on QE processes early, they will pay for it on an ongoing basis, continuously fixing defects, retesting and redeploying builds. 

QE often implements QA testing processes like shift-left and shift-right testing. Shift left means testing during development using a system like TDD. Testing doesn’t stop at deployment with QE; it continues with monitoring quality in production. 

Shift-right testing includes using techniques like canary deployments or A/B testing to launch new releases with a limited group of customers. It’s not a beta test sequence but rather a way to control issues coming from production by releasing to a small group of test customers first. Another option for shift-right testing is contracting with a crowdtesting provider like Applause, which provides testing during the development life cycle and after release to help ensure high quality. In a shift-right context, crowdtesters can become the test control group for the initial release, representing your broader customer base to reduce or eliminate the customer impact. 

Core software quality engineering concepts 

Improving product quality starts with understanding core software quality engineering concepts. Organizations must provide training and support for teams, as well as manage change in positive and user-centric ways. 

Implement software quality engineering means following the core concepts: 

• Adopt a DevOps or Agile development methodology. Build collaborative teams where everyone strives toward user quality.
• Set clear and proactive quality engineering goals. Be purposeful and transparent in how teams will address defect prevention and other targets.
• Use test-driven development or another method. Place the priority on testing during development. And follow through with continuous integration of code and tests.
• Implement test automation. Automate tests such as unit, integration and functional tests.
• Build quality engineering processes around QA. Improve visibility and effectiveness of software testing and compliance auditing.
• Establish QE and QC processes. QC helps with monitoring production and auditing systems for compliance. QE helps with managing supplier quality, including third-party software.
• Practice continuous improvement. Follow quality engineering processes for tracking and managing process improvement.
• Train and support team members. Make sure all teams understand what quality engineering is, their role and how it’s implemented in the organization.
• Collect and analyze metrics. Make sense of data to track compliance, trends and the need for process improvements.

Implementing software quality engineering means an organization is serious about quality as a core product creation principle. It’s a transformative shift away from the typical software development focus on deploying “good enough” applications to customers. Instead, through software quality engineering, teams work to ensure that applications are developed to meet reliability, security and performance standards. 

Practical applications of software quality engineering

Software quality engineering as a concept first appeared across industries in the early 1950s. The adoption of quality engineering practices over time varied depending on the organization’s size and success rate.

To comply with government regulations and standards, QE today has become a standardized process among many software development organizations, especially for specific industries like healthcare, government, education, legal and finance. 

The practical application of QE processes depends on the industry and team. QE can help ensure that software aligns with regulatory requirements. The core concepts remain the same, but the extent to which they are applied might vary. For example, the healthcare industry is subject to HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) regulations within the United States and the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in Europe. 

In addition, healthcare applications must meet standards for interoperability for electronic health records and medical devices. A defect could negatively affect a person’s life or health. Healthcare software must build fail-safes into critical systems to prevent errors or significant downtime. Manufacturing for healthcare faces similar and significant compliance regulations to ensure patient and system safety. Healthcare software, as in other industries, must also properly secure software applications to prevent hacking or other security incidents.

Similar industry-specific requirements affect manufacturers and software application development for finance, government, education and legal operations. Complying with standards and regulations is essential for business success. QE processes for managing and monitoring compliance include a quality management system developed following ISO 9001. The intent is to create consistent QE processes around the control and enforcement of quality processes to improve product quality. 

Measuring software quality engineering effectiveness 

Software quality engineering includes measuring the effectiveness of processes with metrics and data analysis. Key quality engineering metrics include

• defect density
• test coverage
• issue resolution timing
• customer satisfaction ratings
• costs

The goal is to collect and analyze data. Then, identify trends within the processes for improvement. A quality engineer role helps ensure metrics are gathered continuously and helps establish feedback loops from team members and customers. Remember that software quality engineering is a bridge between development teams and customers. Cultivate quality through continuous improvements to processes. 

Software quality engineering methodologies and frameworks

Every software quality engineer and team must select one or more problem-solving methodologies or frameworks to help manage product quality. Each option provides different methods to analyze work and focus on the customer. Software quality engineering frameworks can assess the impact of customer issues and help teams practice effective risk management. Each one offers a method of building quality into a project from day one through completion.

Some software quality engineering tools include:

• Advanced Product Quality Planning (APQP). This is a structured framework to product and process design. Quality engineers use the framework to affect product design and enhance collaboration between designers, customers and developers. APQP focuses on the voice of the customer, helping ensure their requirements are clear and understood before work begins. 
• Quality Function Deployment (QFD). This process is also referred to as decision matrices or customer-driven engineering. QFD is user-centric. Through this process, teams build out designs and functionality that customers desire. It’s a method for planning requirements and capturing thoughts and processes for each contributing team. Building a QFD diagram can help identify misunderstandings or inconsistencies before they become defects. 
• Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This methodology helps teams review failure modes. FMEA is a step-by-step approach to help ensure all possible failures are accounted for during manufacturing processes or software application design. The goal of FMEA is to reduce the risk of a failure affecting a customer. 
• Statistical Process Control (SPC). This is a data-driven approach to monitoring and improving software quality engineering processes using statistical techniques. Essentially, SPC is a way to measure quality control. SPC allows quality engineers to perform health checks on existing processes and determine where changes are needed for continuous improvement. 
• Root Cause Analysis (RCA). This is a problem-solving framework developed to narrow down issues to the root cause. Teams must move beyond fixing each symptom to find and fix the actual cause. RCA helps to eliminate recurring defects within a manufacturing or development process. 

Creating a Test Center of Excellence (TCoE)

Another practical application of software quality engineering is establishing a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE). This collective monitors and tracks QA testing effectiveness and efficiency. 

TCoEs are popular for maintaining and monitoring quality testing processes. There’s constant pressure for testing to be fast and accurate, which competes with the business pressure of releasing products to market quickly.

TCoEs can consist of development team members intent on facilitating user-centric testing and end-user quality. Software quality engineers often use the support from a TCoE to measure QA testing quality. With the help of a TCoE, they can continuously improve testing processes to improve accuracy and quality. 

The tools, standards and methods an organization uses are often a mix of what works for the team, including the quality engineers. Select the tools and methodologies you need first and mix and match them to find the best combination. It might take some time to work through a few iterations of quality engineering tools and methodologies to find the one that fits. Quality engineers must focus on continuous improvement, including measuring data results and changing tools or methods to support quality. 

The business benefits of software quality engineering

Quality engineering affects the quality of software applications and product quality. A strong quality engineering process ensures organizational quality standards are met, and it spreads that responsibility across the team. Supporting a quality engineering program boosts software reliability, as it ensures testing at the beginning of any project before coding starts.

Software quality engineering benefits and outcomes include: 

• improved product quality
• reduced development costs
• increased levels of customer satisfaction
• heightened business productivity
• reduced waste in business processes
• improved employee morale through managed and organized processes
• optimized ability to continuously improve processes
• enhanced use of test automation and process management tools 

Software quality engineering can help ensure that software aligns with regulatory requirements across the globe. Thorough and planned testing from the start means less time spent chasing defects and releasing patches — and more time preventing defects using high-quality processes. 

When considering the benefits of software quality engineering, examine how customers have changed in the past 20 years. Modern and future customers or users seek products that inspire, not ones that annoy or frustrate. Customers aren’t stuck with expensive, clunky systems. They can change vendors or products at will. Future generations of customers will be digital natives. They will expect the product to win them over instantly and never disappoint. 

Today, customers expect products to be continuously available and constantly improving. Many digital products get one chance — and typically a minute or less — to gain customer confidence. In modern business, the subjective experience matters for customers. If an experience with a product is not immediately positive, customers walk away and find another option. Take advantage of quality engineering benefits to build and produce better products that meet customers’ needs. 

Essential software quality engineer skills 

What does a quality engineer do? And what quality engineer skills are most valuable throughout the organization? Analytical thinking, attention to detail, collaborative communication and the ability to work well with varied team members are all key software quality engineers skills. Quality engineering professionals have a plethora of career path options in quality, such as auditing, project management and design quality roles. Additionally, quality engineers make excellent managers and team leads to help drive a quality process across a development team.

Those interested in specific educational opportunities can check out The American Society of Quality (ASQ) certification program for quality engineers.

A quality engineer’s responsibilities often include

• test strategy
• test planning
• test execution
• test automation development
• CI/CD development
• conducting performance and security testing
• managing defects
• metrics reporting

Many software quality engineers also train other team members on quality processes and job responsibilities. Quality engineers locate design issues and review production processes. They also create quality standards and set metrics to assess adherence to standards or regulatory requirements. A quality engineer also communicates across the organization and champions a culture of quality. 

Software quality engineering practices and roles can integrate into existing development team roles. Teams can designate individuals responsible for managing design reviews and code reviews or even developing test cases. When adding to existing job roles, ensure the roles and responsibilities are clear and fully understood. Don’t overwhelm existing resources unless there’s ample time for training and performing the quality engineering work. 

Boost quality engineering impact with real-world testing

For organizations struggling to realize the value of software quality engineering processes, crowdtesting offers a helpful alternative. Crowdtesting can help boost quality engineering value by providing testing at any point in the development cycle. Think of crowdtesters as groups of customers. Crowdtesting provides development teams with a way to pre-test how an application works in real-world situations, as well as later in the SDLC in front of users who represent your real customers. 

Development teams can take the feedback from crowdtesters and improve the product before it launches to actual customers. Crowdtesting boosts the effect of quality engineering by testing potential customer situations in the real world to better uncover edge cases, test usability and user experience concerns, helping to ensure digital quality across an expected customer base. 

An experienced crowdtesting partner like Applause can integrate with your existing Agile teams or the DevOps pipeline throughout the development lifecycle. Applause provides a diverse global community which provides flexibility and scalability to adapt to teams’ needs over time. 

For many organizations, crowdtesting provides fast, in-depth user feedback that matches target customer personas for validating usability and performance issues on specific platforms or devices. Crowdtesting helps support quality engineering by covering subjective use cases and perceptions across the development cycle. Find out if the product provides the positive user experiences you want, both before the actual launch and on an ongoing basis to gain confidence that you have a high-quality product that satisfies customers.

Take advantage of quality engineering by teaming up with Applause to refine your approach to software quality and delivery. Contact Applause today to get started.