This document discusses software quality assurance and control for small development teams. It defines the differences between quality assurance, which ensures the development process is efficient, and quality control, which ensures the product meets requirements. Quality control has two components: validation, which checks the right product is built, and verification, which checks the product is built correctly. Validation involves getting complete requirements from customers and defining the problem being solved. Verification uses testing strategies like unit, integration, and system testing following a V-model approach. The document provides tips for testing, including change-related, integration, and ensuring independence between development and testing roles.

1. Software
Quality for
Developers
Small Teams & One-
Person Shops
Maira Bay de Souza

2. About me...
20 years in the Software Industry
10+ years in Software Quality
SW Quality Certifications: CSTE, CTFL
Good, Bad, Ugly:
- IBM, HP, GM
- Medium, Small & Start-ups
Imperial Diamond Consulting

3. What is Quality?

5. Quality Assurance vs. Quality Control
Ensures the quality of the process used to
develop software.
● Are we following our development process
(including Agile)?
● Is the current process the most efficient
way for us to develop software?
“A high-quality process will produce a high-
quality product.”
Ensures the quality of the products of the
software development process.
● Is there a design flaw?
● Does the code have bugs?
● Is the documentation easy to understand?
● Is the user happy with the software?

6. The 2 Components of Quality Control
Validation: Did we build the right thing?
Verification: Did we build the thing right?

7. Validation

8. Ensuring a Valid Solution
● Custom Software
○ Ask the right questions to get the full picture from the customer
● COTS/SaaS Software
○ Have a clear definition of the problem your software is solving
● Software for your own use
○ easy!

9. Validation - Getting the Full Picture
● “What if”s
● Quality Attributes
● Precision:
○ leave no room for misinterpretation or ambiguity
○ verifiable

10. Validation in Agile
● Plan - Test: QC of Artifacts & Traceability
● Review: UAT/Beta Testing

11. Verification

12. Verification - Testing V-Model (Agile)
Plan
Design
Code Unit Test
Integration Test
System Test

13. Integration Testing Strategies

14. System Testing
Test the system as a whole.
Does it meet the requirements?
● Functional: end-to-end test of all scenarios
● Non-Functional: quality attributes (performance, security, etc)

15. Extra slides

16. Change-Related Testing
● Re-test: re-run a test that failed after the defect was fixed (to confirm fix)
● Regression test: re-run tests of modules that interact with another module
where
○ a defect was fixed
○ a change was made (change of stack, library update, etc)
○ What to test? Perform impact analysis.
■ The more you know the code, the more accurate your IA will be.

17. Common Testing Problems
“Works on my machine”
● Use docker/VMs/etc
● Try to use data (and environment) that is as close to production as possible
○ Mask data if applicable and possible
“The user will never do that”
● If it can be done, someone will do it - and they usually do.
● Prioritize high-impact bugs: it’s better to be prepared than to have your
application crash in front of the customer.

18. Other Quality Tips
● Keep everything under version control, including designs and test datasets
○ Keep track of the relationships and versions by using a traceability matrix
● Prepare test datasets ahead of time
● Review test datasets every time there is change in a regression test suite,
and update them if necessary
● Prioritize fixing defects that impact customer and will prevent technical debt
from growing exponentially
○ The same goes for adding new features

19. Testing Independence
Development Mindset:
● Does it work as I intended?
Testing Mindset:
● How can I break this?
● What could go wrong?
Try as much as possible to get someone else to
do it!!!

20. Thank You!
For speaking, training and other inquiries please contact me at:
- Maira dot bay at imperial diamond consulting dot com, or
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/mairabay