What is Software Quality Assurance (SQA) and Do You Need it For Your Business?

If your only method of quality assurance is software testing, you’re wasting valuable time and resources. Software Quality Assurance (SQA) is integrated into your software development life cycle to set the standard for a high-quality product every time.

Any business model can integrate quality assurance because the concept is simple: establish a set of parameters throughout the cycle of your service or product development. If you adequately meet all requirements, you’re left with an enhanced deliverable every time.

According to a 2016 study, high-quality developers who use SQA spend 22% less time fixing issues typically found during testing.

Compared to quality assurance testing, usually a series of quality checks on a completed piece of software, SQA is set up to avoid issues from the start. Effective SQA can lower maintenance costs, reduce defects and time-to-market, and enhances customer satisfaction because a high-quality product is guaranteed each time.

Developing a reusable software quality assurance for your software development life cycle can drastically improve the way you do business.

ProPharma Group offers R&D technology services to help you design a customized SQA and for businesses in the life sciences industry. If you’re interested in enhancing your software output, here are a few reasons you should consider partnering with ProPharma Group to design your SQA.

Reasons to implement SQA

Here are a few benefits of implementing SQA for your business:

Solve problems before you have them

SQA forces developers to weed out potential software issues while they’re coding. This process may include a code control section, architecture analysis, and configuration testing that happens during the development process instead of after. Developers are more likely to catch and correct errors that occur while they’re coding than later.

Constantly improve new software

Your software quality assurance plan can be updated and changed pretty consistently to account for new developments and improvements identified during testing. Your developers should respect their existing SQA plan and always be open to new ideas and updates to ensure a better consumer product. A great SQA plan implements new findings and suggestions with each new project; plus, it allows quick and trackable updates to existing software. Customers will appreciate your ability to address and sort out bugs quickly.

Make a great first impression

Whether you’re developing software for computers or mobile, first impressions are everything. Only 25% of app users return the second day after downloading, and user rates continue to drop in the following days. If your clients don’t love your product on day one, it will be difficult to change that mindset. Software quality assurance can help you by avoiding unnecessary make-or-break software mistakes.

Receive reliable feedback from the team

On average, only 4% of customers will complain about a mobile app experience, so you should plan to rely on your internal team to provide quality testing and reviews. The more you can avoid bugs during development, the more you can learn from quality testing. If you’ve established a solid SQA, the final touch-ups that happen during quality testing should be minimal.

Do you need SQA for your business?

Software developers in the life sciences industry are often under more stringent regulations than anyone else. Whether you’re developing an EDC system for clinical patient data or your business uses data science to extrapolate interesting clinical trial information, you’re following a strict set of guidelines.

These guidelines safeguard personal information and ensure that you reach conclusions appropriately and accurately. So what better way to continue the trend of accuracy than with an SQA during your initial development life cycle.

Software quality assurance most benefits businesses that develop software frequently by focusing on two main areas: Functional Quality Assurance and Structural Quality Assurance. Functional QA ensures that a given software function carries out its desired purpose.

These are usually core functions tested in the earlier stages of the development process. Structural QA addresses architectural factors like source code and internal structure and usability, accessibility, and security.

You can think of software quality assurance as a series of checkpoints meant to guide you through a highly complex development process. Without it, you might find a bug during the final testing phase that takes weeks to source and puts your entire project at risk. Had you planned and developed a solid SQA, the issue could have been identified quickly during a quality check and solved instantly.

ProPharma Group is adept at software development and SQA planning for businesses in pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, and medical devices. You can trust that our software is thoroughly quality-checked and constantly improving throughout the development process.

We can make sure that yours is, too. If you’re interested in hearing more about ProPharma Group’s technology consulting services, you can contact us at our website.