What is Software Quality Assurance?

Q. Define Software Quality Assurance

Q. What is Software Quality Assurance?


*Note: There are many different definitions of SQA. Here are two of them which I find pertinent.


» Definition No 1:

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is defined as a planned and systematic approach to the evaluation of the quality of and adherence to Software Product Development standards, processes, and procedures.

» Definition No 2:

Software Quality Assurance (SQA) consists of the software engineering processes and methods used to ensure quality of Software Application under development.

» Detailed Answer:

SQA involves the process of assuring that standards and procedures are established and are followed throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Compliance with agreed-upon standards and procedures is evaluated through process monitoring, product evaluation, and audits. Software development and control processes should include quality assurance approval points, where an evaluation of the product may be done in relation to the applicable standards.

In SQA, software process specialists and auditors take a broader view on software and its development. They examine and change the software engineering process itself to reduce the amount of faults that end up in defect rate. What constitutes an acceptable defect rate depends on the nature of the software.

CMMi identifies a core set of Software Engineering process areas in SQA as:

• Requirements Development
• Requirements Management
• Technical Solution
• Product Integration
• Verification
• Validation

» Want to read more?!

Please visit: http://www.sqa.net

What is Software Quality?

Q. Define Software Quality

Q. What is your definition of Software Quality?


» One-liner Answer:

In the context of Software Engineering, Software Quality measures how well software is designed (quality of design), and how well the software conforms to that design or end-user requirement (quality of conformance).

[This is a modified version of the definition by Dr. Roger Pressman]

» Detailed Answer:

The minimum requirement of Software Quality is performing as required under specified circumstances. Quality is value to some person. This sentence says that quality is naturally subjective & cannot be measured in tangible units. Different people will experience the quality of the same software very differently. That’s why end-user satisfaction is a measure of Software Quality. More significantly, parafunctional dimensions of quality--for example, usability, scalability, performance, compatibility, reliability--can be highly subjective; something that constitutes sufficient value to one person may be futile to another.

What is Software Testing?

Q. Define Software Testing

Q. What is your definition of Software Testing?


» One-liner Answer:

Software Testing is the process used to help identify the correctness, completeness, secure-ness and conformed quality of computer software under development.

» Detailed Answer:

Software testing is the process used to assess the quality of computer software. Software testing is an empirical technical investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test, with respect to the context in which it is intended to operate. This includes, but is not limited to, the process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding software bugs.

Software Testing can never completely establish the correctness of arbitrary computer software. It furnishes a criticism or comparison that compares the state and behaviour of the product against a specification.

» Very Detailed Answer:

Software testing may be viewed as an important part of the Software Quality Assurance (SQA) process. The software faults occur through the following process. A programmer makes an error (mistake), which results in a defect (fault, bug) in the software source code. If this defect is executed, in certain situations the system will produce wrong results, causing a failure. Not all defects will necessarily result in failures. For example, defects in dead code will never result in failures. A defect can turn into a failure when the environment is changed. Examples of these changes in environment include the software being run on a new hardware platform, alterations in source data or interacting with other software.

A problem with software testing is that testing all combinations of inputs and preconditions is not feasible when testing anything other than a simple product. This means that the number of defects in a software product can be very large and defects that occur infrequently are difficult to find in testing.

The Beginning

Hi Friend,

You are most welcome to this blog of mine!

From the name of my blog, you obviously know that I am also into Software Testing business like you. :)
As of now, by June 2008, I have 5yrs of experience in Software Testing field.

Reason to start this blogging effort:

We keep on changing jobs & therefore keep on facing interviews during this transition. There are variety of people who conduct interviews & can ask any damn question, which we will never be able to predict. But while this is true, there are so many standard questions related to Software Testing. And we are sure to face at least a handful of those in each interview. Same stands true for Certification Exams like ISTQB, CSTE etc. I tried to look for answers to these standard questions and found many different answers, really! While I was continuously looking for answers to new questions, a small collection of good answers got created with me. So this is an effort to share those answers with you. Hence the name "Software Testing Answers".

In each blog of mine, only a single question will be answered and that would be the Best Answer to that Question, of course, according to me. :D If you think, that is not true, please comment the blog. I will update the answer if your suggestion/comment is valid enough.

If you have a Software Testing related question, please send it to me at st.answers@gmail.com and I will add that question with the Best Answer to my blog as soon as possible.

Hope this blog helps you to get that Dream Job OR clear Certification Exams!!!

Best of Luck to You!

-Ambarish :)