Quality Assurance

Quality assurance refers to the measures aimed at ensuring that software meets the specified quality level. For Specific-Group, quality assurance is paramount, and in keeping strictly in line with our high standards, we have introduced four test levels with three different parties involved:

Unit test – Unit test programs are created by the software developers. The purpose is to verify the output and the error handling of a tested class.

User Acceptance Test – The quality assurance team prepares test cases based on use cases. Use cases describe the functional requirements of a system from the user’s perspective. Use cases are listed in the functional specification and include a detailed description of their respective output. With test cases, the correct output and the performance of a group of classes are tested under different conditions.

GUI (graphical user interface) Test – These tests are also conducted by the quality assurance team. A GUI has several areas that should be tested. Firstly, there is functionality: it must be ensured that all graphical elements fulfill their intended purpose, as software functionality is always specific. Next, there is the layout/styling: are the same elements in different GUI screens consistent?

Final Test – A final test is carried out by the project manager in Austria before the software is delivered to the customer. All required functions in the functional specification are controlled and tested again.

The tests are performed in the above-mentioned order. The complexity and, therefore, the time expenditure for tests increase within test levels one to three. The final test is the project manager’s acceptance test of the developer’s work. Each test level is repeated until no more errors are found. Only after this, is the next level of tests implemented. This hierarchical execution of tests saves a lot of time, since most errors are discovered in the less-complicated and partially-automated unit and UAT tests, and not in the time-consuming GUI tests or even the final test.