Mistakes To Avoid While Setting Up A Qa Department

By Author: ZenQ
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The following are some of the most common mistakes that are made by the management and which should be avoided at all cost in order to set up a good and able quality assurance department.

1. Ambiguous Objectives: This probably one of the biggest mistakes that occur when the management is setting up a QA department for their organization. A team can only deliver you good quality work when they have a definite idea of what you expect out of them. Leaving the QA department confused about your goals will only add to the dilemma.

2. Improper Staff Selection: Most commonly the less productive staff of the development section is recruited in the QA department. This usually depreciates the work delivered by QA. Professional individuals who are knowledgeable about the implementation of QMS should be appointed in order to get proper QA results. Also the responsibility of the department should be well defined.

3. Undermining the QA Department: As the QA section (especially in software industry) is a relatively new section of the organization, its importance is often neglected or undermined. When the top management ...
... lacks the knowledge of how important the QA department is to the success of a product, the department suffers hugely and fails to provide a desirable service.

4. Poor Financing: All good things come for a price and it is no different with the QA department. Setting up a proper QA department can be a costly affair, but the returns provided by it are more than the cost of it. Most organizations fail to understand this truth resulting in a poorly financed and hence poorly equipped QA department.

5. Zero Authority: “All work and no play make Jack a dull boy”, similarly, loads of responsibility and no power makes the QA department a weak link of the organization. The organization usually wants the QA department to deliver their job as instructed and keep mum. They are not allowed to question or suggest as long as the working procedure of the organization is concerned.

6. Existing Processes are Sufficient: The technology is advancing at a rapid pace. To be at par with this rapidly advancing technology one must keep the QA department constantly updated in order to get good quality results. But organizations are usually of the notion that the age old working processes are sufficient to test the new age technology.

7. Finding Faults not Facts: The job of the QA department is to find statistically significant facts based on which a particular product can be made better. However, the organizations are more interested in the detection of faults in the product by the QA department. QA department is usually all about the blame game, whereas it should be more methodical in nature when problem solving is considered.

In order to set up a powerful QA department and in turn ensure good quality products, the management of the organization should pay attention to the planning of the department so as to avoid committing blunders like those stated above.

ZenQ has proven experience in providing QA Testing services to clients with a dedicated team of over 350 skilled and experienced QA professionals.

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We are an offshore software testing company. If you are looking for QA testing services, hire QA testers from ZenQ.