There’s been an upward trend of software testing firms transitioning into quality engineering firms. In this post, we’ll take a look at reasons why.
Vitis PR has enjoyed working with testing clients over the years including Edge Testing (now Resillion) and SQS. As a software testing and quality assurance PR firm, we keep abreast of the market and trends in the industry which was worth £1.1bn in 2023 and grew at a rate of 2.6% over the past five years.
Firstly, let’s examine the differences between the two terms.
The differences between software testing and quality engineering
While software testing and quality engineering are closely related concepts, there are differences between the two:
Focus
The way software testers and quality engineers work and their focus varies. Software testers focus on identifying defects and reporting inconsistencies within a piece of software. Software testing is achieved by executing test cases, checking that the software meets its requirements and works as it is expected to, under a variety of conditions.
Quality engineering, on the other hand, takes a broader approach. Here, the focus is wider than just detecting defects. Rather, it focuses also on preventing inconsistencies and defects throughout the software development lifecycle. Activities in quality engineering include requirements analysis, design reviews, code reviews, process improvement, and the implementation of quality assurance practices.
Lifecycle
Software testing is typically carried out during the later stages of the software development lifecycle, and once the software has been developed. It is primarily concerned with validating the functionality and quality of the product.
Quality engineering activities encompass the entire lifecycle of software development, from requirements gathering to deployment and maintenance. Here, embedding quality practices are deployed early in the process to prevent defects and ensure that quality is built into the product from the outset.
Approach
Software testing and quality engineering differ in their approaches. Software testing can be considered reactive as defects are found and fixed that already exist in the software.
Quality engineering focuses on prevention rather than “cure”. Through implementing processes, tools and techniques to improve the overall quality of software and prevent defects from the outset, rather than detection after the fact, work is carried out across teams.
Testing used to be centred around the manual execution of test cases. However, there is now a shift to using automation to improve the efficiency and coverage of the testing process. In Quality engineering, automation is used, not just for testing but also for other quality-related activities such as code analysis, continuous integration, and deployment, design, development, infrastructure, operations, site reliability engineering (SRE - a growing discipline that fills in gaps between Dev & Ops) and operations.
Testers have traditionally worked in testing silos, later evolving into multidisciplinary teams made of different specialists into cross-functional teams where tasks and ownership for product quality are shared and require collaboration with designers, architects, story writers, developers, and SREs. In essence, quality engineering utilises both existing and emerging practices, as well as leading technologies, to enhance the ability of teams to deliver quality faster and more comprehensively.
Increasing the odds of project success
Rushing testing late in the development lifecycle has long been acknowledged as a key culprit for project failure. As outlined above, embracing quality engineering practices and starting testing earlier will not only produce the right quality outcomes first time, but also reduce the cost of quality.
To summarise, quality engineering has a strong focus on automation to streamline processes, improve efficiency, and ensure consistency in quality practices across a product lifecycle. Quality engineering takes a more holistic approach by incorporating quality practices throughout the software development lifecycle and focusing on preventing defects rather than just detecting them once the software has been developed.
The shift from software testing to quality engineering
Now we have delineated between software testing and quality engineering, let’s look at why more software testing firms are moving into quality engineering.
Product differentiation
With software testing firms looking at alternative ways to differentiate themselves from their competitors, some now offer a more holistic approach to their customers in the form of quality engineering.
Quality engineering firms are better equipped to address the broader quality needs of modern software projects as they address quality issues throughout an entire development cycle, rather than just at the later stages with software testing. Offering comprehensive or broader quality engineering services allows firms to provide more options and value to clients.
Client expectations
As software development practices evolve, there is an increased recognition and demand for quality engineering and quality assurance across an entire development cycle. Increasingly, clients require high quality software that not only meets functional requirements (as overseen by software testing), but also is reliable, secure and enhances the user experience. As quality engineering firms incorporate a wide range of quality practices into their services (not just software testing), they are better positioned than pure software testing firms to meet client expectations.
Economies of scale
Technology is becoming increasingly complex, thanks to advances in automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. These technologies have made it more feasible to implement quality engineering practices at scale and are therefore more cost effective to clients. Testing firms are now able to expand their offerings beyond traditional testing services and provide more comprehensive quality engineering options to clients.
Alignment with agile and DevOps
Quality engineering principles align well with agile and DevOps methodologies, which emphasise continuous integration, continuous delivery, and a focus on quality throughout the development process. Testing firms that embrace quality engineering are better able to support clients' agile and DevOps initiatives.
There are differences between software testing and quality engineering. Testing is often seen as a key process for ensuring software quality. Whilst testing is and will remain a crucial element in the production of high quality software products, the remit of what software testers need to do to ensure quality has, in recent times, progressed and broadened and many testing firms are becoming quality engineering firms as a result.
Overall, the transition that many firms are taking from offering pure software testing services to quality engineering reflects a broader industry trend towards underlining software quality throughout the software development lifecycle and providing more value-added services to clients.
