Relevance of Shift Left Quality Assurance Amid Digital Transformation

Last updated on June 23rd, 2022 at 04:25 am

According to James Marcus Bach, a software tester, author, consultant, and founder of Satisfice, Inc., “Testing is the process of comparing the invisible to the ambiguous, to avoid the unthinkable happening to the anonymous.” 

Product quality and time-to-value have become the need of every software development project. Software testing and QA are of higher importance aspects for any organization trying to transform digitally. 

According to the recent World Quality Report, “Expectations of QA have been gradually growing. There is an increasing trend in almost every case for the goals that include the need to support business growth and the significance of ensuring end-user satisfaction. The analysis is suggestive that QA and QA testing software are not seen as something disconnected from the rest of the software development phases.

If you hear rarer sound bites about QA and more information about digital transformation, it does not imply that QA has gone out of fashion and is no more relevant.  The significance of QA shall always remain prevalent and inevitable in the process of successful digital transformation. 

QA has been continuously evolving as an integrated and inclusive function of any software development lifecycle. It is no more an independent element. Moreover, the role of a QA engineer is also evolving from testing and finding bugs to include quality as a mindset in every task from scratch. They can achieve the pursuit of quality by eliminating every obstacle in the way of their learning emerging phase. In this respect, QA testing software helps you to find the right technique and approach for the upright execution and reflection of quality mindset in every test project.

What are the Objectives of QA Testing? 

Following are the major objectives of QA and Testing that can contribute to business progress:

1. To detect defects before going live. 
2. To achieve digital happiness through good customer experience 
3. To be the brand ambassador of your client’s corporate reputation and branding 
4. To achieve quality at speed through timely and smooth releases 
5. To automate the QA and testing processes 
6. To support and motivate team members to accomplish higher quality products.  

The reports and various expert analyses advocate the rising importance ad need of QA amid the digital transformation era, some organizations still do not value the quality assurance imminence.  

Shift Left Quality Assurance and Testing

James describes testing as “the process of assessing a product by understanding it through exploration and experiment”.  

Testing is a massive and exhaustive process requiring devoted and dedicated experts to help stakeholders and product owners in making the right decisions for software product delivery and public release. With the increased need for “quality at speed” and “value at speed”, companies have incorporated a good number of latest technologies and procedures. Given that, the primary focus is majorly on speed, which downgrades the importance of testing due to inadequate time and less test coverage. 

In the previous years, the ideas of shifting QA and testing left have become the latest buzzwords. These concepts aim to counter the QA and testing-related challenges. The shift-left testing framework is about changing the testing methodology and including software QA & testing at the beginning of SDLC. It means shifting the testing method to the left point of the project timeframe. This exponentially helps testers to validate a code, integrate a smart QA testing software for genuine assistance, enhance test coverage, and detect severe bugs, all before the final product release. This testing approach prevents leakage of defects into the production stage and ultimately archives optimal user satisfaction, and a winning ROI for the product owner. 

Typically, testing is comparatively checking the input against the output.  But in-depth testing might never go left in the world of development craving user satisfaction. James Bach calls that “crushing left and right,” which refers to the idea that testers are pushed to not perform robust testing procedures. So, how can the pressure be resisted? 

Do we have any answers?

As businesses are going gaga over digital transformation, testing and QA approaches still need to evolve and more every day. Frequent testing, prior testing, and extensive testing can add to an accomplished product. 

It is necessary to keep digital impressions and QA connections parallel for an incredible user experience with maximum business outcome through an exceptional product release. Ultimately, including the testing stage from the earlier app development lifecycle and improving the test cases according to the customer feedback can guarantee both business digital and quality assurance.