How can Quality Assurance professionals identify issues in a system?

* Sampling sampling sampling It is clear to me from my various years in auditing systems that sampling records is key in identifying gaps in quality systems. Trying a “bottom-up” approach can help identify areas of concern in a system. Many times a simple misunderstanding of terms or procedures is found when uncovering why a document was not filled out completely or an issue was not resolved. * Interviewing end users There’s nothing more satisfying than hearing from end users the issues that they have had on their daily use of quality systems. Identifying these issues and their root cause may lead to increase happiness and satisfaction in the team using the quality system. Nothing better than experience to identify problems.

Quality Assurance professionals employ a range of techniques like manual testing, automated testing, code reviews, and user acceptance testing. They also use tools to track, monitor, and analyze system performance, ensuring any deviations from expected outcomes are promptly identified and addressed. Their keen attention to detail and systematic approach is instrumental in uncovering and resolving potential issues. Executing proper audit trial program periodically. Depend upon the criticality of the system we can define the frequency through proper risk assessment. Proper review of data's generated in the entire plant by QA reviewer further ensure the data integrity throughout the site. Dr. Pari Subash

Quality Assurance professionals can identify issues in a system through systematic testing and analysis. They create test plans, execute test cases, and use various testing techniques like functional, regression, and load testing. They also review requirements, code, and user feedback. Monitoring system performance and conducting exploratory testing helps uncover hidden defects. Collaboration with developers and stakeholders is crucial for effective issue identification. Automation tools and metrics are used to streamline the process. Continuous learning and adapting to new technologies are essential for QA professionals to excel in their role.

as a QA understanding the system is very important - start involving the QA team from the initial discussion - as QA do lot of exploratory testing to understand the system in better way - think from the end user perspective - provide the recommendation if anything can deliver in the better way from what exists now - understand about the upstream and downstream flows and integration - cover the uncovered scenarios (out of box testing)

One of the approach which I would take is the periodic content quality checks and continuous coaching. This could be done - by offline check on the selected artifacts - interviewing the respective stakeholders with the defined check criteria - guide , align and support the respective stakeholders to resolve or bridge the gaps

In my view , by doing frequent control plan audits , process audits and many times system audits can help to find out gaps. Other than that we can adopt layered process audits approach too.

Based on the foundational work outlined above, the audit, risks and impacts scoring can proceed. In some cases, the risk and impacts scoring will be easily and accurately measured for objective evidence of compliance, or non-compliance. In other cases, a detailed testing, measurement and verification plan must be designed, validated, implemented, then utilized to objectively measure current state to desired or planned state.

By applying these testing techniques, QA professionals can compare the expected and actual outcomes of the system. Any discrepancies, errors, or failures indicate potential issues that need to be addressed. Effective testing techniques are essential to ensure the system's reliability, functionality, and quality meet the required standards and user expectations.

In terms of Security, Conducting security tests can help QA professionals identify any vulnerabilities or weaknesses in the system's security infrastructure.

As QA professionals, our role involves systematically scrutinizing the system and using various testing techniques, such as functionality, performance, security , etc., in order to enhance the overall quality of the software.

Chrome Developer Tools (or Web Developer Tools in Firefox or Safari Develop in Safari) is one of the best instruments for web testing.

use the environment/infrastructure effectively to debug the issues - look at the behind the screen what is happening - explore the devTools and network to analysis the issue - check the server logs to understand the user actions/flows - we have good logging tools are available in market try to integrate those into projects

My stance is that efficiency in debugging is paramount. It’s not just about having the tools but mastering their use to swiftly pinpoint issues. This involves a combination of automated and manual debugging processes, ensuring a fast turnaround in fixing bugs, which is essential for maintaining high-quality standards in fast-paced development environments.

(A) Test Planning and Strategy: creating a comprehensive test plan and strategy. This involves defining test objectives, identifying testing techniques, specifying test environments, and outlining test deliverables. A well-designed plan helps them identify potential issues and areas of focus during testing. (B)Test Case Design: develop test cases that cover various functional and non-functional aspects of the system. They define inputs, expected outputs, and test conditions for each test case. By designing test cases based on requirements, they can uncover discrepancies or gaps that may indicate issues in the system. (C)Error Logging and Reporting: maintain detailed records of identified issues and defects.

Sometimes the application does not provide enough data for analysis. Example: - no logs - lack of \ incomprehensibility of error description for api response - lack of server monitoring - server load monitoring Then they will have to be implemented first. The entry threshold to use, analyze and diagnose the root causes of the issues should not be too high.

When it comes to identifying issues in a system, it is important for QA professionals to have an end-to-end understanding of the system under test. The ability to carry out end-to-end System Audit is an essential skill. Have a clear understanding of the 3-wares: Software, Peopleware, and the Hardware.

Effective quality assurance relies on close collaboration with stakeholders, including developers, product owners, and end-users. Through continuous communication, QA gain valuable feedback and insights. This teamwork is instrumental in spotting and resolving potential issues at an early stage of development, ensuring the final product aligns with expectations and quality benchmarks. It also nurtures a collective comprehension of project objectives and cultivates a proactive problem-solving approach, enhancing the overall quality of the software.

Collaboration is key in today's QA world. I would also say that cross department collaboration is also very important. So not only working with product managers, developers, but also potentially the sales team as well, as an example. Since QA usually knows most about a system, why not share that knowledge with other teams?

From my experience, creating a transparent environment where feedback is actively sought and valued is key. This involves regular, structured interactions and the use of collaborative tools to ensure that every voice is heard and considered, ultimately leading to a more refined and effective quality assurance strategy.

Worth noting is that many companies operate across borders, across the world, so cultural sensitivity is important when collaborating with stakeholders to identify issues. Different cultures and backgrounds can impact collaboration dynamics and the outcomes.

In our fast-moving tech world, looking back at past problems and learning from them is super important. When QAs keep track of old issues and learn from them, it's not just about fixing the current system. It's also about making sure future systems are even stronger!

Experience is arguably most valuable in Exploratory Testing. This is an exercise when a professional examines a system "off-script" - that is, without any preconceptions or expected results. Although anyone can perform this activity, a professional will be able to use their experience to experiment with different combinations of inputs, make changes to the system and/or any dependent systems, and much more. This is because they have been able to identify patterns of behaviour across multiple systems, observing common defects and peculiarities. As well as this, an experienced professional will also sometimes have a "feel" for something being wrong - testers don't just find bugs, but also areas where non-functional quality is lacking.

My insight is that maintaining a ‘living’ knowledge base, which evolves with each project, is vital. It’s about transforming individual learnings into collective wisdom, ensuring that every team member is equipped with the historical context to make informed testing decisions. This proactive approach is key to enhancing the overall quality lifecycle.

In my experience, I'd say that having a good defect tracking system in place is extremely important. Something like GitHub, Jira, ZenDesk, etc is very helpful as they can act as an ever-expanding archive of information and system bugs that have cropped up in the past. Teaching the team to utilize these tools is another way to save time in the back and forth communication and gets rid of the problem of "tribal knowledge". Finding past defects that have happened more than once gives a great idea as to what may need to be turned into a regression test.

Where and how to collect data to compare the current and past state of the project is a separate question. Depending on the project, it is desirable to understand exactly what information we have for analysis, which information can be obtained via little proccesses implementation. Having such an understanding, it is necessary to collect several slices and look at the development trends of the application. Having analyzed these trends, you can draw certain conclusions about whether the application is moving in the right direction, whether the business is getting what it wants, or whether existing processes can be improved. This result could be very important for the future of this application.

Quality assurance professionals shall set the Criterion & guidelines to identify an Opportunity for improvements. Ensure the Critical/Important points are captured, which can have the impact on the Goals, Objectives, KPIs or KRAs. Adding unnecessary points will lead to ineffective audits and more time consuming. The verification or Audit mechanism can be defined in few ways like: System level - Internal/System audits, Compliance and follow up audits. Manufacturing processes level - Control plan/Process audits, Layer process audits, Surprise audits etc. Products level - Products audits, Layout audits, Dock audits, Poison cake audits etc. QA professionals can use these kind of methods and do the audits to identify the area of improvements.

QA folks need to understand the end-to-end system functionality to be involved at every stage of the process. - They need to be deeply involved in the product backlog refinement process to stay updated and confident about the user story understanding - They utilise various testing techniques to validate the working software as per the acceptance criteria for each story. - They can look for a variety of issues like usability, performance, functional behaviour, security etc. - Automation tools can be employed to extend the coverage further and cover repetitive cases. Data-driven test scripts can extend the coverage exponentially. - Validate the application error logs to catch some early defects which can lead to a major downtime later.

Examples of how QA professionals can identify issues in a system: A QA professional might identify a functional defect by executing a test case that results in an unexpected outcome. A QA professional might identify a non-functional defect by monitoring the system's performance and finding that it is not meeting its performance requirements. A QA professional might identify a defect by reviewing the system and finding a potential vulnerability. A QA professional might identify a usability defect by conducting user testing and finding that users are having difficulty using the system.

Build a Quality Management System The quality of a product is as good as it's process. To generate a defect free product we need to have very good occurrence and detection controls in the process. The process failure modes need to be analysed and actions to be planned to stop the defect in its generation stage itself. Internal and external failure inputs to be taken into account and PFMEA to be revised accordingly. Product and Process CTQ parameters to be addressed in all aspects of control plan, work instructions etc

Quality Assurance and testing is a creative skill the more human effort that is freed up to practice the craft of Quality assurance the more will be the probability of identifying probable risk areas. The key lever to make humans utilize their creativity is to have the machines (automation) take over the repetitive aspects of Quality Assurance.