What is QA in software? Software quality assurance (QA) testing is an integral part to any development process. It’s the checkpoint to make sure deliverables are working, and oftentimes, it’s the failsafe that saves teams from launching a broken product.

We spoke with Kylie, our QA lead, to learn how her team accomplishes thorough and accurate testing for our software quality assurance services. She gave us a peek into her QA toolkit. We’ve broken out her top 10 into 3 categories: identification, validation and documentation. By the way, the tools listed here are available as Google Chrome extensions!

QA Identification

Check My Links

Check My Links is a helpful QA testing tool to verify the integrity of links on a webpage. It quickly scans the page and highlights any broken or invalid links, allowing testers to identify and fix issues efficiently. For software QA engineers, Check My Links is particularly valuable for ensuring that all links within a web application are (1.) functional and (2.) lead to the correct destinations pages.

➡Check out Check My Links⬅

WAVE Evaluation Tool

Progressive QA engineers know this suite of testing tools well. WAVE makes it possible to evaluate the accessibility of web pages, including on-page and in the HTML. Making your website accessible allows everyone, including people with disabilities, to use it.

➡Catch the WAVE right here⬅

JSON Viewer

JSON Viewer formats and displays JSON data in a more readable and organized manner. It helps software QA engineers analyze and validate JSON responses from APIs.

➡Join the JSONners⬅

ChroPath

ChroPath assists in web scraping and element selection. It simplifies the process of finding and validating XPath and CSS selectors on web pages, making it easier for quality assurance engineers to locate and interact with specific elements.

➡Follow the ChroPath⬅

QA Validation

Bug Magnet

Bug Magnet is a versatile extension that provides a collection of test data for input validation and form filling. It offers a wide range of predefined data sets, including special characters, common vulnerabilities, and edge cases. QA testers can populate forms with various data combinations to assess how the application handles different inputs and validate the behavior of the system.

➡Attract all the bugs⬅

XPath Helper

This QA testing software assists testers in generating XPath expressions for locating elements on a web page. It simplifies the process of selecting and verifying specific elements during testing.

➡Get some help with XPath⬅

LambdaTest

With the LambdaTest extension, software QA engineers can perform live interactive testing of their websites or web applications directly from the Chrome browser. The extension provides a convenient way to take screenshots, record videos, and perform real-time testing on different browser configurations.

➡Time to get testing⬅

QA Documentation

TestRail

TestRail is a test case management tool that allows QA engineers to create and organize test cases, track test results, and generate comprehensive reports. It provides a centralized repository for documenting and managing quality assurance activities.

➡Jump on the TestRail⬅

Screencastify

Screencastify is a screen recording extension that enables QA testers to record their screen, including interactions with the application under test. It’s incredibly useful for creating video demonstrations, capturing bug reports, or documenting issues encountered during testing. Most importantly, Screencastify allows testers to effectively communicate and share their findings with the development team.

➡1, 2, 3, Record!⬅

Scribe

This is well-known, beloved API testing and documentation. It simplifies the process of exploring and testing RESTful APIs by providing a user-friendly interface. Scribe allows QA engineers to send requests, view responses, and inspect API endpoints. It also generates detailed documentation of APIs, making it easier to understand and collaborate on integration testing.

➡Harness Scribe's power⬅

What Does The QA Process Look Like?

The process for software quality assurance engineers is quite linear. But, it’s important to remember that QA happens at every step of development so QA teams will go through these steps multiple times.

Here’s what a simplified version of the QA process looks like:

Requirement Gathering: The QA team reviews project scope, goals and documentation to understand how the product is supposed to work.

Test-Use Case Development: Test-use cases are created to build a number of scenarios on how actual users may navigate the product, and what issues may occur.

Test-Use Execution: This step puts the test-use cases to work. QA engineers perform actual testing within the product in an attempt to “break things” as a real user might.

Documentation: As QA testers go through the product, they document problems, glitches and questions along the way. This provides a working list for the development team to resolve before advancing to a new iteration.

QA Post-Mortem: Once all test cases have been executed, defects have been resolved, and the software/application meets the defined quality criteria, the QA team conducts a final review to ensure that all testing activities have been completed. This involves analyzing the testing effort, capturing lessons learned, and providing recommendations for future improvements.

Why Is QA Critical To Development Teams?

For the client, QA ensures an efficient and accurate product is launched. For the dev team, QA serves as risk mitigation, customer satisfaction and future opportunities for further iterations.

What Are The Types Of QA Roles?

Under the umbrella of QA, you’ll find roles like QA leads, test architects, junior QA testers, senior QA engineers and more!