The Diary of a QA: Part 1 of 3

Read the first of three articles written by a member of our software testing team. Over the next few weeks, we'll be delving further into the importance of QA and how every PSP project gets tested to the highest standard.

Quality Assurance is a process which often goes without a second thought in the eyes of consumers. It is one of those classic cases where you could be using a service or product, and you have no idea of the time and energy used to make sure that it behaves as you would expect. It’s all about trust.

Websites and systems developed by PSP, go through rigorous Quality Assurance. A component in a marvellous machine, but by no means is its purpose to be taken lightly. Systems used by some great names are supported by PSP quality assurance and the job of being a QA tester on some of these systems is far from monotonous.

The process must be strict enough to find a metaphorical needle in a haystack. A small problem can turn into something much larger and on large systems, this can have detrimental effects on the companies that so heavily depend on them and as a result, their service users.

Therefore, we always start with the specification. It is given to the design house and outlines the needs of the client. The specification is the oracle and contains the answers to a successful project. QA testers use the document as a reference in every stage of testing, so while the project is being developed into a system, QA testers use the time to develop a plan.

The plan is a labyrinth of test cases and scenarios, designed to test the logic and function of the system. The bigger the system, the larger the labyrinth. QA takes the traffic and load the system is expected to handle together with the scenario’s that the system is designed to deal with, and puts it to the test as part of the aforementioned plan on not just one device, but several of different shapes and sizes to make sure every eventuality is covered.

Quality Assurance in every industry is a process which should never be taken lightly. It has the potential to save a lot of time and aggravation. Consumers need to trust their suppliers and suppliers need to trust their systems to deliver.

PSP has an in-house Quality assurance team of testers who test every system built internally, as well as third-party apps for clients looking to outsource. Every development gets tested to the highest standard, to ensure that no problems arise and that it is what the client has asked for without question. The QA team have experience in testing a great variety of systems from e-commerce websites to customer relations systems and software not even developed by PSP.