QASource Blog

Software companies work tirelessly to make their products as attractive and relevant as they can. One of the many ways they promote adoption and consistent use is through integration with other applications. When creating the code necessary to achieve this integration, engineers commonly refer to an API, or application programming interface. To put it simply, an API helps to define how components within both applications should interact.

It’s no secret that there is a high turnover rate in the tech industry — and that this high attrition occurs in tech companies all over the world. Churn has the potential to result in lower quality products, especially if the turnover occurs in a QA team. Check out QASource’s latest infographic to find out why a high engineer retention rate is critical for effective and beneficial QA services.

Market competition and an emphasis on great user experience drives innovation. And today, companies are innovating at breakneck speed. As product and service companies scale up their development teams to embark on new, attractive features and match the pace of their respective markets, they also scale up their QA teams to match the increased workload. Or do they?

In this expert series, we bring you the concepts that help us to understand the tools/techniques used to manage Big Data so that you can employ the right kind of tool as per your testing requirements.

Going to market with a perfectly functioning product is a great way to attract customers and cement relationships with them. And for many software product or service companies, that’s their goal. But many others are resistant to the idea of allocating budget toward the thorough QA testing required to achieve that goal. Their reasons range from “Our developers are smart, they can test their own code” to “We don’t know if QA will provide good ROI.” But, as the recent spike in data breaches and hacking has shown, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

It’s widely known that thorough API testing results in a high-quality final product. One question that lingers for many product companies, however, has to do with timing -- when should API testing be introduced? For many top QA teams, the answer aligns with the increasingly popular Agile methodology. For a strong, robust product, API testing is best performed in parallel with development.

Recently, QASource, in conjunction with Sauce Labs, presented "Measuring Your Way to Successful Automation," a webinar during which QASource took a poll of its attendees about their automation metrics. Using the results of this poll, QASource put together an infographic that highlights the many ways metrics can benefit QA teams and testing projects.

Today, it seems like we don't go a week without hearing about a high-profile hack or breach of customer data. As customers, we spread our information across a huge variety of applications, and we trust that no ill will come of it. The truth is, however, that we’re more vulnerable than ever, and the risk of a hack is made clearer to us everyday. We rationalize the situation, thinking, “Well, they must have people safeguarding my information, right?” Right — for the most part.

If there’s one thing startups know all too well, it’s that speed to market is crucial to a company’s success. However, customers today are increasingly unwilling to put up with faulty products and buggy apps, so developers cannot afford not to test. So how can an organization choose which to invest in, speed or quality?