Full-Cycle Testing: an essential component of your IT strategy
The pandemic has led to global, professional and economic changes, which have forced companies to accelerate their digital transformation and develop technological aspects that are often overshadowed, making them a central component of the business.
To maintain competitiveness on the market and ensure a more successful scenario, it has become essential to go online and at the same time accelerate the release of increasingly efficient products and software. By implementing full-cycle testing it is possible to guarantee the quality of software solutions at every stage of development, starting from the formation of the requirements to release and subsequent distribution.
When to choose full-cycle testing?
Full-cycle testing, if implemented in the early stages of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle), allows the introduction of QA solutions to achieve mission-critical objectives. Here are three cases where companies can benefit from its introduction:
- Low software quality: software with a large amount of defects can provide greater opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit vulnerabilities, create a negative user experience, and even lead to product recall and significant economic losses;
- Poor QA processes: a complete and functional test ecosystem can help identify problems early in the software development cycle, enabling rapid problem resolution and a continuous improvement process. For example, an intelligent team scalability allows for the rapid insertion of resources with those specific skills and avoids any interruption in the development process;
- Preparation for a major release: before any major release, a whole set of checks may be required, depending on the specifics of the product and the target audience, to eliminate critical problems that can negatively impact the operation of the software. To achieve this, it is imperative to have a dedicated QA team that is able to prepare a plan for the entire test cycle, including, for example, functional tests, performance tests and usability tests.
Advantages of full-cycle testing during the development process
Here are the benefits that any company can receive for choosing comprehensive QA support throughout the entire software development cycle:
- Requirements planning and preparation: functional requirements without inconsistencies or problems in the business logic can eliminate the possibility of extended development times and costly post-release fixes;
- Design and prototyping: during this phase, the test validates the conformity of the developed prototype according to the requirements and allows to verify the correct functioning of the basic functionalities. Meanwhile, usability tests help evaluate weaknesses in features to further improve them;
- Development: engineers are involved in various QA activities aimed at improving the quality level of the software, from functional testing to test automation. However, it must be considered that particular types of tests, such as security or performance ones, are performed only after having solved the critical problems, as they could be blocking for other processes;
- Deployment: Prior to software release, specific tests help ensure a system conforms to stated business requirements and greatly reduce the risk of defects in a production environment.
The stages of the development process may vary depending on the methodology chosen and the product specifications. However, accurate testing helps reduce time to market, enabling high-quality software solutions to work and increasing customer satisfaction.
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