Everyone yearns for quality, be it anything! In software testing, Quality Assurance implies the procedure of identifying any sorts of bugs/errors/defects in software. It ensures the delivery of high-quality software while maintaining the quality/safety/functionality of the software. In Today's fiercely competitive market, formalizing a Quality assurance program is imperative for every organization which is looking to meet customer requirements.

Quality assurance will reduce the impact of failures while helping the company stand out amongst other competitors. QA trends of 2022 are on a major rise and emphasis in the agile and DevOps along with the software industry are witnessing some major changes simultaneously. Top QA companies and professionals as a result of emerging changes in the market have to stay updated. There is always a need to constantly innovate and reinvent ourselves to catch up in quality control games.

Significance Of Quality Assurance In 2022

• With the emergence of new trends, the quality of products and services is a key competitive differentiator. Quality assurance helps us ensure that the software is free of defects and thereby meets the requirements of the customers.   

• Product quality and customer satisfaction come hand in hand. If the company provides high-quality services in terms of software, it results in a high-end user experience, thereby ensuring and maintaining customer loyalty, repeated purchases, upsell, and advocacy.   

• The importance of Quality Assurance can be traced from the user's response. It promises better business optimization, less maintenance cost, reliability, and superior user experience. Substantially, the efforts to mold a powerful and error-free software seem to be implemented.   

• Quality assurance is an essential part of software testing, as it ensures that the software project is implementing the standards and procedures set by the management. It helps in preventing mistakes in the early stage of software development. This eventually means the early detection of errors significantly reduces the cost and effort.   

• Software quality assurance testing allows an organization and an individual to probe every phase of the development process and even check the vulnerabilities. This way, the app/software would be free from any risks/hackers or intruders.   

• Quality assurance deals with the software specifications. It is a comprehensive and systematic method to ensure the quality of the products/services delivered. Further, practicing QA evaluates the development and the test cycles which further includes the techniques, procedures, tools, and processes.   

• The quality assurance process extends its surveillance all across the Software Development cycle. QA focuses more on preventive measures rather than focusing on restorative practices. Also, it looks after the whole software maintenance process.   

Factors That Lead To Raise In The Significance Of Quality Assurance In 2022

1. Changing Industry Landscape

There has been a radical change witnessed in almost everything. Even the software and QA industry has evolved with new technological advancements. Digital transformation is changing the competitive landscape virtually as businesses tend to seek differentiation from their competitors. In today’s shift towards Agile and DevOps and frequent builds, companies demand faster, more comprehensive testing to improve quality and your time to market. Digital testing in this case enables digital transformation by reducing the business risk.

2. Increasing Competition

 There is huge competition in the market, be it any field. To maintain your existence in the market, it is important to be hyperactive. But while being active, we can't overlook the quality factor. Also, delivering a great subjective user experience is a basic requirement today, not an added luxury. So, Quality assurance itself implies guaranteeing the quality of software before delivering it to customers.  

3. Rising Demand for Technology

With the technology getting new and more advanced, users are also being advanced and turning to be smarter.  They know what they need, and therefore they need access to better solutions. Quality assurance helps in the early detection of defects in the process of software development. This will lead to the dissemination of high-quality products/services, leading to high end-user satisfaction.

4. Integration of Advanced Technologies

Use of AI, MI, and solutions like blockchain, Salesforce, IoT all need Quality Assurance.  Software testing teams can leverage AI and Machine learning (ML) to improve their automation strategies. Automation testing solutions empower QA engineers to achieve the desired test frequency (the earlier, the more often, the better,) enabling quality checks on every stage of the software development cycle (SDLC). For instance, citing an example, QA engineers can utilize AI algorithms to identify and prioritize the scope for further test automation.

5. Changing demands of the customers

Customers are the king. To meet the changing demands of the clients or customers, one needs to ensure high quality. Further, advanced technologies can facilitate the best quality, in case of which Quality Assurance is mandatory. 

Conclusion

To stay ahead and overshine the competitors, companies need to understand the importance of Quality Assurance in software testing. The momentum towards more quality engineering, cloud-based technologies, analytics AI and ML, amongst other trends is emerging. Also, we can’t overlook the way there is digital transformation evolving in almost every industry. All in all, the value and significance brought by Quality Assurance and testing in bringing smart products/software/websites into play are immense to consider.

Author Bio: Kanika Vatsyayan is Vice-President Delivery and Operations at BugRaptors who oversees all the quality control and assurance strategies for client engagements. She loves to share her knowledge with others through blogging. Being a voracious blogger, she published countless informative blogs to educate the audience about automation and manual testing.