Software Quality Assurance (QA) managers are responsible for performing quality control and testing on an application. They also need to look for ways to boost the productivity of each member. Improved productivity enables the company to complete more projects and help boost business revenue. Implementing productivity changes, however, can be difficult especially if you have to juggle between writing up issue reports and conducting rounds of QA testing.
The good news is that making your team more productive isn’t difficult. You could follow strategies that will help bump up overall productivity. Here are five ways to help you achieve your goal:
1. Automate Tasks
Improving testing through automation doesn’t have to be expensive or complicated. You could automate test cases that take up a huge chunk of time when tested manually.
You also have the option to automate tests that require multiple executions across various development cycles. Some of these tests include regression, functional, and unit testing.
Automation is beneficial to a QA team. Integrating automated testing is ideal for teams that are pressed for time and require ideas for process improvement. It lightens the workload of the team and gives them time to conduct specialized tasks for application and business development.
2. Partner with an Outsourcing Team
The challenges and tasks should match the expertise, experience, and skills of your QA team. Some projects, however, may include tasks or activities that are new to your in-house department or demand a skill set that your team doesn’t have at the moment.
If you’re in this position, consider looking for a reliable software testing outsourcing provider. Teaming up with a professional partner who could handle these specialized challenges and tasks will enable your team to zero in on other important tasks more productively and efficiently.
3. Evaluate the Auditing Processes of Your Team
Assessing and auditing establishing quality assurance processes are instrumental for managers looking to boost their productivity numbers. You can increase your team’s QA productivity when you’re able to:
- Uncover production bottlenecks that your team is facing
- Develop solutions to resolve these bottlenecks
- Do goal setting with your team
4. Establish the Right QA Metrics
A team that has no defined and easy-to-understand metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs) is doomed to fail. This scenario is similar to a group that’s walking down the road wearing a blindfold.
If you want to effectively track team performance along with the productivity levels of your project, you’ll have to set the appropriate metrics. A few performance metrics a team should take note of are the following:
- Defects Reporting – This metric indicates the number of defects, such as duplicate and invalid defects, reported by the QA team. The goal of this reporting is to assess the stability of a software build. When tracking this metric, higher isn’t always better. Your QA team members should recognize patterns of discovered defects, report them to the development team, and keep an eye out for repeats.
- Test Cycle Execution Time – A productive team should be able to note down the amount of time it takes to run a test. As for this metric, the team should aim for lower execution time. If your team is testing a build for the first time, you can expect a high figure. As your team becomes more familiar, however, the test time should gradually drop.
- Regression Summary – This metric looks at the trends of reopened, verified, and closed defects over time. Your team is following the best QA practices if they can keep track of the defects that undergo revisits or re-examination. Ideally, the number of reopened defects should be dropping month after month.
5. Improve Your Team’s Troubleshooting Skills
Your QA team should be familiar with the software they’re testing. They should know how to perform troubleshooting independently and quickly without fully relying on the developers for technical support. Productivity can drop when your team members take a lot of time drafting a case instead of solving the small issues and moving on to the next one.
Training your QA team members on quick troubleshooting can do wonders for your team’s productivity. They can get more stuff done instead of devoting time to reporting problems to the developer. A few ways to improve their troubleshooting skills are:
- Coming up with a knowledge base (KB) that contains software reference guides and effective troubleshooting tips
- Including troubleshooting guidelines in your team’s issue reporting process
- Conducting lunch-and-learn training sessions that do not interfere with QA testing
These suggestions can contribute to your QA team’s overall effectiveness and productivity. When your team hits your productivity targets, don’t forget to congratulate them and reward each member for a job well done.
