Before we discuss the merits and demerits of transforming your approach from quality assurance to quality engineering, let us talk about what is the actual difference between the two.
Quality Assurance vs. Quality Engineering
Quality assurance is the service provided by which a firm assures its customers about the quality of the software testing services they are selling.
Quality engineering, on the other hand, means that the very development, starting from the beginning of the ideation process to the very end of the engineering process, is carried out by all the testing teams who come together to act as a single comprehensive team. The engineering team is themselves ready to validate the engineering techniques and process to the customers in question after that.
The underlying philosophy in both quality assurance and quality engineering are the same. However, there is a prime reason why most firms and entrepreneurs are moving towards quality engineering in place of quality assurance or are instead transforming their approach and methodologies from quality assurance to quality engineering. The reason being that quality engineering assures customers that the basic framework of the product is of excellent quality. This makes customers more inclined towards buying a particular product sold by the firm.
The Role of Software Testing in Quality Engineering
Software testing is a significant part of quality engineering. During software testing, a considerable amount of attention is paid towards the conceptualization and development of a product. The engineers have the product ready to be distributed among customers after the product goes through rigorous testing to validate its best performance. The engineers also verify the code that is to be executed across multiple platforms and devices. Once the complete software testing is done on automation, the firm will have the ability to get feedback much more quickly on the devices as well as the operating system on which the product is being run. The automation testing procedure is one of the main processes that help the firm determine results concerning the overall software quality that must be verified by the firm at the very early stages of the process of development.
Advantages of Quality Engineering
The process of quality engineering involves and includes developments based on agile-based testing processes. It also uses test and behavior-driven development techniques that help in figuring out the exact developments that are required and are essential to the business development teams as well as the software testing teams of a firm that uses the procedure.
The advantage of having quality engineering in your product development approach is that everyone working on the project understands what the common goals and requirements of the project are, and this makes them work with the common purpose of developing and validating those requirements for their firm.
In a quality engineering process, the engineering team also needs a standard set of tools as a part of the test framework. This is important so that the software testing data manager can assist all teams involved in running the software tests across the multitude of devices all at once. These processes help much in proving the validity of the product you are developing. A good quality product also assists in building your reputation among the customers who are potential buyers of your product.
The Need for the Shift to Quality Engineering
Now let us discuss why firms are shifting from just quality assurance to quality engineering and why at all should others who have not yet considered the shift, begin to leverage the benefits out of it. The reason is that, in this increasingly digital world, where options are just a click of a button away, customers are becoming more and more quality conscious. However, along with that, they want their products to reach them quicker at the same time. This is the reason why firms have chosen to shift towards quality engineering.
By adopting Quality engineering, after every step of the process of product development, the engineers make sure to test the products to see if they are good enough to be available in the commercial market. This saves the firm’s reputation as well as resources in terms of money and efforts because they don’t need to rebuild the whole product if it fails the quality assurance test. Quality engineering ensures tests are carried out in every step of development; thus, this method minimizes scope for errors, eases bug detection procedures and thereby reduces the time to market a high-quality product.
The process of quality engineering follows a completely outcome-based model. This, therefore, increases the efficiency of not just the product but the workers who are associated with building the product as well. It also allows measuring the performance metrics if the process of quality engineering if followed, and that is a bonus to the firms. This process also helps bring a level of transparency within the firm, which helps increase their overall gains while reducing the risks involved.