Phase Five: Quality Assurance

Contents:

Phase Summary

  • Testing the Waters
  • Record the Bugs

Typical Outcomes

  • Quality assurance
  • Browser testing
  • Bug fixing

As mentioned in the Development section, our developers do integrative testing during dev to save time in QA. Additionally, our QA team, QCat, tests apps at various intervals during dev to find and report issues early.

Once final development is complete, it’s time for a full site or app nitpick.

Test the Waters

First the team reviews the site or app internally and tries to break it. Yes, you read that right ... we try to break the site in every way possible.

The following is just a portion of what we’re testing:

  • The Look
    • Visual & type elements
    • Spacing, headings & hover states
    • Logos, favicons, image rendering
  • The Functionality
    • Phone, tablet, desktop layouts
    • Responsive content breaks
  • The Forms
    • Error messages
    • Functionality of mandatory fields
    • Forms submissions
  • The Interactions
    • Page loads, buttons, live links
    • Print styles, media, downloads
    • Search & 404’s

Next, the assigned testing team will complete a thorough audit of the entire project’s design elements, content, and functionality in different browsers to ensure that everything is up to snuff. (The browsers to test have been predetermined in the proposal.)

The testing team also makes sure that no details have been forgotten, including CMS accounts, analytics, and licensing of the CMS or purchasing of add-ons used.

Record the Bugs

The testing team records any bugs in a to-do list in Basecamp so the developer can fix them once testing is complete. We include screen shots or screencasts of issues that are easier to see than explain in words. After fixes are made by the developer the item gets retested to make sure the fix didn’t break something else.

The testing team has access to the CMS so can make any content-related fixes without the developer having to be involved.

When testing and quality assurance is over, and everyone is feeling like the site or app is ready, it’s time to hand over the site or app to the client for a final review. Depending on complexity, plan ahead to allow the client at least one to two weeks to kick the tires prior to launch.