10 Ways How to Improve Your Quality Software Development • Slash

No matter how many developers are there working on software, there are risks if they aren’t following the quality software development process. There are several negative impacts of poor-quality software on your business. But what is quality in software development? And can you improve it? The answer lies here.
In this article, you will learn the meaning of quality in building digital products and the 3Cs. And most importantly, we have discussed 10 vital elements to improve software quality.
So let’s get started.

What is Quality Software Development?

Quality software development is the practice of building software products that meet specific expectations or requirements. Quality development engineers manage defects throughout the process while ensuring all product features are high quality.

3 C’s of Quality Software Development

Software quality is based on principles called 3C’s:

1. Correctness

Software must perform all its functionalities correctly and without any errors. Correctness is the basic characteristic of software quality. It confirms that the digital product is meeting users’ presumptions and requirements.

2. Completeness

The second characteristic of software quality ensures all the planned features for a software product are developed and functioning smoothly. The ‘completeness’ factor is essential. It ensures that the product performs the tasks according to the set goals decided at the beginning of the project. Furthermore, the project may not fulfill ‘completeness’ if it lacks any promised attributes.

3. Consistency

Consistency in quality software development refers to the behavior of the product. The main purpose of this characteristic is to ensure that the software must work similarly across multiple environments and platforms. If the solution has consistency, it means it is reliable and usable by different users under various conditions.

What is Software Quality Management?

Software quality management (SQM) is a part of the development process. It ensures that the final product satisfies customers’ requirements. SQM is led by different activities, including planning, control, and software quality assurance.
You cannot expect high-end products if SQM is poor. Therefore, it is vital to ensure SQM standards to build error-free products.

10 Ways to Improve Your Quality Software Development

Here are the 10 software quality best practices to build well-planned and effective solutions.

1. Documentation

Correct documentation defines the project’s scope, delivery time, and technical specifications of the product to ensure quality is met. One of the software quality engineer skills is knowing how to do excellent project documentation so the entire team stays on track. In fact, in great software houses, this is a part of the software quality engineer job description.
Good documentation showcases stakeholders’ expectations of the product. Moreover, the document should contain all the vital features and step-by-step processes to administer the development process.

2. Early Testing

Testing begins right from the beginning and plays a vital role in quality software development. The main purpose of testing is to identify flaws while the product is in the design phase. As a result, it saves you from experiencing a pile of bigger defects later.
Companies are now more focused on Agile methodologies and automated testing. These approaches ensure that the product is being built adhering to all the quality software development guidelines. Moreover, they save time, minimize human errors, and enhance testing capabilities.
Quality assurance software development teams perform different types of tests, including manual testing and automated testing. For example, a SaaS application may undergo cross browsing testing to check the product’s functionality across various web browsers.

Also Read: 5 SaaS Application Development Practices for Building High-End Solutions

Likewise, the development company may choose to test the software on multiple devices since there are multiple screen sizes and operating systems. And therefore, they need to ensure the product works seamlessly on all platforms.

3. Make Quality Assurance Part of the Development Process

Quality assurance in software development must always be present in the entire development cycle. Unfortunately, there is a misconception that quality assurance and testing are similar processes with different names, which is incorrect.
Through quality assurance, project teams can monitor software development quality across the board. Additionally, it validates that the software is built according to the stakeholders’ requirements. And the design and functions of the product are fulfilling their expectations. At the same time, testing is about detecting bugs and faults to ensure high-quality software products.

Also Read: 5 Reasons Why You Need a Software Quality Assurance Tester in a Development Team

4. Apply Quality Controls from the Initial Stage

The next method to achieve quality in software development is by implementing quality controls from the early production stage. However, this can only be possible when testers and developers go hand in hand to ensure all requirements are met.
The partnership between the testers and developers helps create a robust strategy to overcome bugs and coding mistakes. Together they can deal with the flaws effectively and build optimum solutions while keeping track of the planned process.

5. Implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery

Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD) are modern software development methods and important parts of quality software development. Continuous Integration allows development quality engineers to produce frequent and reliable codes.
Through CI, they can also perform incremental changes in code to improve software quality. While continuous delivery permits developers to perform automation testing. So they can instill software updates and new changes.
CI/CD ensures quality software solutions through:

Early bug identification
Enhanced code coverage
Decreased risks of deployment
Improved testers’ and developers’ collaboration

6. Ensure Fluid Communication Across Team Members

Transparent communication is a key to quality software development. It supports the improvement process by sharing updates among the team members and stakeholders. How? Imagine a company where all team members are working on their own without knowing the progress of each other. In such scenarios, the only thing that suffers is the product.
Contrarily, clear and consistent communication helps monitor the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) throughout the project. Plus, it takes everyone on board to decide on test requirements. Besides, fluid communication promotes a sense of responsibility, as the entire team prefers conveying genuine test results and feedback.
As a result, communication can prevent major risks to the project and ensures that the process runs flawlessly to achieve quality goals.

7. Make Room for Innovations

Although testing and quality assurance are crucial, innovation shouldn’t be left behind because it can ensure quality software development. Allowing automated testing is one of the best ways to add innovation to your project. Moreover, make Research and Development (R&D) compulsory in your development process.
Encourage quality software engineers to inspect, explore, and experiment repeatedly. All these steps will help increase your software quality and include a competitive edge in your solution.

8. Focus on Building Products Rather than Completing Projects

There is a difference between completing a project and delivering a product. All the teams involved in the development must change their attitude and mindset to provide flexible products. In other words, building software solutions that can be amendable and updateable whenever needed.
Remember, creating a product means that the application has the capability to adapt to change and undergo different tests. Also, the developers should focus on iterations and delivering small segments of the product instead of finishing the project at once. This change of attitude can increase your software quality.

9. Develop and Update Risk Register

A tried-and-tested way to manage risks is to have a risk register. Although it sounds like a part of any financial plan, it is, however, an essential element in the software development process.
Having a risk register will allow the teams to recognize risks. Moreover, it helps understand risk intensity and find ways to mitigate them, ensuring top-quality software development. Remember, a trustworthy tech partner always has the risk registry made for its clients.

Also Read: How to Find a Reliable Tech Partner for Your Startup | 5 Keys to Follow

So here are the key points to include in a risk register.

Explain the risk
Understanding the risk impact
Date when the risk was identified
Prioritizing risks based on their severity
Chances of risk to occur and ways to mitigate it
The team responsible for assessing and taking down risk

10. Evaluate, Revamp, and Remember

Building data quality software is a well-planned process. Therefore, it requires:

Repeated evaluation of bugs and fixes
Revision of the entire development process to find space for innovation
Production of quality software and remembering which strategies worked and which did not, after delivery

Conclusion

To achieve quality software development, you must build solutions following the 3C’s (correctness, completeness, and consistency). Other than that, to make a high-quality product, you should always do proper documentation and apply early testing methods. Furthermore, CI/CD, software quality assurance, communication, teamwork, and innovation are necessary elements for software quality.
At Slash, we always build products that fulfill software development quality metrics. Our trained and experienced engineers work to achieve quality 4.0 so your software solution can always be ahead of the curve. Contact us to hire a brilliant product development team to create benchmark software solutions.

FAQs – Quality Software Development

Q1. What is quality assurance in software development?

Quality assurance (QA) in software development ensures the product is error-free and meets users’ needs.

Q2. What is the Quality 4.0 definition?

Quality 4.0 means using the latest technology to build high-quality, productive, and efficient software.

Q3. What is more important in software development – quality or speed?

Quality and speed are both important factors in software development. A high-speed product can give you benefits over slower competitors. Whereas quality offers the best user experience, eventually increasing your customer base.

Q4. Why is QA important in software development?

Through quality assurance, you can make sure that the product is defectless. It also improves the overall quality of the solution in all the software development stages.