A complete guide to Quality Assurance in software testing for Startups-converted

1. A complete guide to Quality Assurance in software testing for Startups “Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.” ~Milton Hersey When software quality is not taken into priority, it can lead to amassive blow to your brand’s reputation. Consider this example - In 2012, Knight Capital Group had a software problem that caused a 30-minute trading outage. The cost? $440 million – four times the company's total profitability in 2011! The projected cost of Samsung's Note 7 troubles was $10 billion. While the original suspicion was that the problem was caused by a faulty battery, subsequent examination revealed a less obvious underlying cause, which most likely included software difficulties.

2. Today, we aren’t only adopting technology, but are increasingly reliant on it. Hence, the monetary cost for such debacles has skyrocketed. Apart from costs, such situations also result in brand image tarnishing and loss of trust among customers. In this guide, we help you understand how one can avoid software failure controversies by implementing a robust Quality Assurance framework using software testing that is designed to scale as your startup grows. Why do startups need Quality Assurance? A majority of startups either neglect quality assurance or micromanage their employee’s work - leading to inefficient and unscalable product development culture. Instead, having a QA process in place can help startups to: • Gain perspective on development: A QA analyst, in essence, keeps developers in check. No matter how good the product is, there are several uncontrollable elements in the real-world usage of your service/product that will affect its performance. Combined with the feedback and expertise of a

3. software testing team, one can propel developers to deliver a far more efficient and higher-quality output. Measure product capability: Software testing helps you define contextual usage metrics that benchmark your product for delivering the best results. This includes adhering to various compliances across data, usage, privacy, etc. Control critical milestones: Software testing ensures your startup’s defining moments like product launch runs smoothly, where a QA audit helps discover any defects before your customer does. For established businesses, Quality Assurance is also critical during times of digital transformation to guarantee the new system is operating together with legacy processes without errors. Maintain brand reputation: Product failure controversies, especially data leaks, destroy a brand’s reputation irreversibly. Also, a bug-free user experience propels word of mouth, helping develop your business that is loved by its customers. Hiring for quality assurance talent or software testing services is generally affordable and can bring valuable prestige to your business, thus generating a long-term ROI. • • • What are the biggest challenges in Software Quality Assurance for startups? “Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.” ~Steve Jobs Quality distinguishes all products in the world, and software is no exception.

4. As the technology ecosystem matures, startups need to predict potential product pitfalls in their development stage itself to ensure software quality. Early-stage ventures must focus on recruiting software testing talent to maintain the software quality assurance of the products and services and draft internal quality assurance standards. But building a startup involves several challenges that need to be considered: • Product uncertainty: Startups start with researched assumptions during early-stage product development, thus the requirements tend to be unclear and iterate frequently for the software testing teams to deliver standard output. • Small teams: Consistent and frequent communication is critical in every software development and testing project. A startup’s poorly managed small or remote team can lead to asynchronous communication. • Undefined goals: Team members should be aware of the product's outcome and whether or not it matches customer expectations using the jobs-to-be- done framework. • Lack of strategy: Delivering a product on schedule in an acceptable condition cannot happen without a suitable strategy. End-users must be identified, and current processes enhanced to ensure that they meet customer expectations. • Lack of resources: Since startups have a resource crunch, hence designing and implementing effective quality assurance programs and software testing procedures hardly takes precedence.