These days, all products and services are branded by their quality, and software development is not an exception. The quality of any software is measured by certain important aspects such as end-user accessibility, performance, and speed. 

When it comes to custom software, quality is considered an undeniable factor that builds trust among customers, saves huge dollars, and adds future value.

The quality assurance and testing team is the experts’ hands that strive to ensure the quality of the custom software development process and its outcome. However, the challenges faced by the QA team should be resolved to deliver top-notch custom software.

Here’s the list of common challenges in testing and quality assurance:

• Undefined Requirements:

There is no doubt that agility leads to continuous development and improved speed, but it also brings frequent changes in the project requirements. Due to complexity, customization, and stringent timelines, it becomes tricky to fulfill all the development requirements.

This is the reason the QA team and testers face the challenges of making last-minute changes. Sometimes, changes in the smaller features and undefined customization also make QA and testing challenging.

• Unrealistic Timelines:

Following timelines is always tricky when it comes to custom software testing. Most often, the requirements are not frozen during the development journey.

A lot of user stories come in the short sprint, which leads to the development process crossing the timeline and ultimately it affects the QA timelines. This causes inefficient software outcomes due to a lack of time in performing quality testing and regression.

• Manual Regression Testing:

Regression testing can be an exhausting, complex, and time-consuming process. Unless the team has access to automation, regression testing helps testers to deal with the challenges effectively.

In some complex projects, regression testing comprises integration testing which means testing end-to-end regression, which is more critical.

Like manual regression testing where there can be a lot of human errors, automated testing also leaves errors due to obsolete scripts. This end-to-end regression testing is one of the major changes in the QA phase.

• Duplication of Test Environment:

When testing custom software, sometimes testers limit their efforts in many test cases. This makes the software product performance not optimal in the real world.

Neglecting the use of realistic test environments for customer software products means the presence of hard-to-find bugs that affect the overall performance in the real world and potentially impact the end-user experience. 

Tips to resolve the above challenges in custom software development:

• Consider Well-defined Requirements at the Start:

Even with the undefined requirements, the team should give proper updates about the entire custom software development project at the earliest.  All the meetings and communication should be clear and completely informative. The acceptance criteria, comments related to the layout of screens, new changes, and flowcharts are delivered properly to the team to reduce future errors.

• Create Realistic Estimates:

Estimates are vital to defining when the project can be delivered.  Not establishing realistic estimates can lead to a loss of money, trust, and effort. The team should keep in mind the factors for custom software testing like last-minute changes, hurdles, risks, and complex customization during the software development. 

• Adhere to Quality Assurance Processes:

The solution to deal with the most common QA challenges during the custom software development life cycle is to follow the standard QA protocols. All the time can be saved from detecting unnecessary defects if a QA team considers standard testing practices while entering the details. 

The Bottom Line

Quality assurance and testing play a crucial role in developing customer service quality assurance software. But with the complexity of software and the higher demands of customers, software testers often find it daunting to deal with ongoing challenges with testing.

The above-mentioned solutions can make the software development process stress-free and streamlined while strengthening the business strategy for software testing.