Quality Assurance and Testing

QA Labs Smarter Testing Gives the Greatest ROI

Our TRUST methodology encapsulates the approach of Smarter Testing and the Advanced Test Case Design technique of Logic Modeling, customized to the specific needs of the client and project situation while ensuring best-practices. With QA Labs, quality of testing is ensured through a systematic testing approach, backed by all the right skills, processes, tools, and techniques. Cost-effectiveness is improved by test automation and by using offshore services through our proven global engagement model.

Smarter Testing ensures that our client's benefit the most from their investment in testing activities, and is founded on the following core principles:

Risk-Driven Testing
	Test Strategy Design
	Functional and Regression Testing

Reusability
	Automation Frameworks and Harnesses
	Test Cases Construction and Traceability

Quality Engineering
	Advanced Test Case Design through Logic Modeling
	Performance Testing, Monitoring, and Modeling

Process Tuning
	Metrics Analysis
	(On-going) Quality Improvement Consulting

In particular, it is the principle of risk-driven testing that allows Smarter Testing to provide so strong an ROI in the projects where it is employed.

Experience shows that most risks have a direct or indirect impact on schedule, and therefore implicitly affect cost. Some have a direct impact on cost. The rest may have no direct impact on cost or schedule, but affect other areas of the project such as quality.

While everything should be tested, limited resources and schedule require that testing is structured in such a way that the most critical areas of the software are tested first and most thoroughly.

Performing risk-based analysis on the software will allow intelligent choices to be made regarding what tests need to be run in a time crunch situation. It ensures that the choice between what is tested and what is not tested is a conscious decision based on an understanding of the technology and the users, independent of the project development methodology.

Risk-driven testing minimizes effort and maximizes detection of significant defects:

	Predicts and searches out pockets of high risk defects
	Maximize defects found per unit of test effort for optimal release schedules
	Realizes lowest residual defect rates

We model our efforts to ensure maximum coverage for an optimal ROI, based on the type of release that must be tested. This thinking captures the context for pre-planned test priorities and intensity ("light" versus "heavy" testing).

For example; under-investing exposes the business to the high costs of realized (and unmitigated) risk. Over-investing increases coverage to the point that risk mitigation is no longer enhanced, and thus raises the net cost. Smart investing and Smarter Testing optimizes the investment in risk mitigation by optimizing ROI, case-by-case.

Advanced Test Case Design through Logic Modeling

Advanced Test Case Design through Logic Modeling is a critical practice of Smarter Testing, accomplishing defect discovery prior to software design and coding. By discovering defects in requirements, the number of defects that must be managed during the system test phase of SDLC can be cut in half. Discovering defects this early in SDLC is smart because it reduces testing costs, as well as lowers rework in design and coding. As part of our Advanced Test Case Design process, Logic Modeling is compatible with any SDLC from waterfall, to iterative, RUP, UML, Agile, Lean, TDD, and others.

Further, Advanced Test Case Design leverages Logic Modeling to improve requirements both in the short and long term, while delivering fewer tests with higher coverage. It allows projects leaders, analysts, and development teams to ascertain whether analysis and customer/user input is complete.

Logic Modeling is a bidirectional testing discipline. Construction of the model helps analysts expose gaps, inconsistencies, and ambiguous requirements before software design is complete and coding begins.