Quality Assurance

Quality Assurance testing occurs when the project is handed over from the development team to the QA department. QA testing verifies that the system properly implements the original requirements. It carries out four essential checks:

• To ensure that the software produced matches the agreed functional specification.
• To check that the software can handle the loads expected from the users; this is an important phase of the system test, often called load, volume or performance test, stress tests try to determine the failure point of a system under extreme pressure.
• Compatibility testing across browsers and operating systems. Because websites and web applications display differently from browser to browser they must be checked for compatibility on the devices, browsers and screen resolutions listed in the functional specification.
• Usability testing includes documenting hard to use or hard to find functionality, unclear application flow and confusing or difficult interfaces.