In the process of developing a software product it is important to comply with a number of requirements to ensure the quality of the program. But what exactly is the quality of the program? After all, “quality” can be understood in different ways.

Let’s consider together with you what is quality assurance and quality control of software.

Quality assurance – includes the list of the characteristics and properties of the program which should be observed during the development of the program and executed during its work. Quality assurance is carried out at all stages of software development: from the beginning of development, to the release of the program for use.

Quality control – means the verification of compliance with the requirements for the software and overall evaluation of the development. The main task of quality control is to find errors in the program and their further correction.

Ensuring the control and quality of software is defined in accordance with different requirements, depending on the characteristics of the project. The main requirements often defined for any program are:

• Functionality – includes a set of actions that solve the user’s tasks. The set of these actions is described in the functional requirements for the software.
• Reliability – defines the requirement that the program must perform its tasks under certain conditions and a given amount of time. The program must not only operate correctly, but also to complete its work correctly, without affecting the safety of user data.
• Mobility – defines the possibility to use the program on other hardware or together with other programs.
• Efficiency – defines the degree of performance of the program with the resources of the operating system allocated to it.
• Usability – means simple and easy to use the program and its components for the user.
• Maintenance – the requirements for the process of improving the program, fixing bugs, adding new functionality.

Software quality assurance is achieved by creating certain processes.

Standards for software development
Define a common template of standards for software development. Take as a basis ready-made standards, or work out your own and invite developers to strictly adhere to them.

Absence of any common standards can complicate the process of developing and maintaining the program in the future. Adoption of the standard will make the process of developing and testing the program more qualitative. Adhering to a common pattern with a list of accepted requirements for the development, programmers make fewer mistakes. However, at the same time, the standard should not impose restrictions on the development, if it does not contradict the quality of the program.

Instructions with Sequential Actions
If you are already using your list of development processes, it is worth making sure that all of them really fit and allow you to achieve program quality. Otherwise, you need to work out the processes that would allow the development team to interact most effectively with the testers, to ensure that the right tools and standards are used.

Experience from previous projects
Experience and mistakes from previous projects can play an important role in ensuring the quality of the program. Based on this, decisions can be made about which actions improve quality in the current project and which do not. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the result of the work that has been done so that lessons can be learned and conclusions can be drawn.

Previous mistakes
Absolutely every developer makes mistakes in every program. It is important not only to fix an error and forget about it, but also to keep statistics about the errors they make so that you can analyze them and then take some measures to prevent them from happening again. This will help the developers to improve the problem parts of the program. It is a common practice during development to use bug trackers where all the errors found are recorded.

Improve approaches in development and testing
Constantly improve the processes and methods of software development. Study all the sides of the processes you use, and choose the best option for future projects.

To conclude
Remember that software quality assurance does not include improving testing, but rather improving all of your development and release processes.

If the program meets the needs of the users and the expectations of the developers, then you can say that the program has successfully passed the quality assessment and is ready for release.