{"id":590,"date":"2025-10-27T09:55:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:55:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/?p=590"},"modified":"2025-10-27T09:55:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T09:55:42","slug":"testing-vs-quality-assurance-promoting-software-project-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/2025\/10\/27\/testing-vs-quality-assurance-promoting-software-project-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing vs quality assurance: promoting software project success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sales Executive at Inspired Testing, Carlize Bosch<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing and quality assurance should work hand-in-hand to ensure a software project is successful. In reality, however, the two are often seen as silos. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlize Bosch is a Sales Executive at Inspired Testing, a global software testing company and a Dynamic Technologies group company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She interacts with clients across multiple industries every week. From financial services to retail, healthcare to logistics, there\u2019s one issue that surfaces in many conversations: the disconnect between software testing and quality assurance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bosch says, \u201cThis problem costs organisations millions in rework, missed deadlines and damaged reputations. The surprising thing is that even companies that have adopted Agile are still getting this fundamentally wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018safety net\u2019 mentality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most organisations still view quality assurance as the last step before going live. It\u2019s treated as a safety net; something to do at the end to catch whatever might have fallen through the cracks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an outdated perspective that turns testing into reactive firefighting. By the time testers discover a defect, organisations are already looking at costly rework and missed deadlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cQuality can\u2019t be a phase, it must be a mindset that is continuously encouraged, embedded from day one and owned by everyone,\u201d she explains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of damage control or a checkbox exercise at the end of delivery, it needs to be present all the way through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A real-world example<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe often engage with organisations that feel their QA team, once seen as a safety net, has become the biggest blocker in their business,\u201d says Bosch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe recently spent time with a number of key clients, interviewing people across various roles \u2013 architects, business analysts, developers, testers, tech leads and product owners. What we discovered was revealing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTheir issues didn’t start with QA. From the start, requirements were unclear, collaboration was poor and teams weren\u2019t allowed to talk to each other directly. In a typical process, BAs would receive a one-liner requirement from a product owner then spend weeks getting approval for their documentation. Meanwhile, developers needed to start building the features without clear specifications. By the time the requirement landed with the testers, they had no context. What should I test? How does this integrate with other systems? What\u2019s the expected behaviour?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bosch is clear in her assessment. \u201cBecause testing happened as the last step before go-live, it was perceived as the blocker. Nobody looked at the BA component or the development phase, only at testing because that\u2019s where the delays became visible, but it wasn\u2019t where they started.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing vs quality assurance: understanding the difference<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bosch identifies the fundamental distinction that many organisations miss: testing is just one task. It\u2019s the act of executing tests to find defects and ensure functionality works before release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quality assurance is something entirely different. It\u2019s a holistic process of preventing bugs and defects, improving collaboration and embedding quality at every step from the very start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A shift left mindset<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

An antidote to this is the shift left approach. \u201cShift left is a mindset that modern, mature Agile teams need to adopt. It means involving QA early \u2013 from design discussions and requirements analysis. It means spotting potential issues before they become actual problems. When testers are involved in requirement sessions and know the system well enough, they can identify what might not work. Catching defects at this stage is exponentially cheaper and faster than finding them in production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The benefits are clear. From cost savings and continuous feedback loops to improved collaboration and genuine shared accountability across the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The speed vs quality trap<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Speed and quality are the top two challenges for businesses. Developers are operating at an increasing pace with no or limited time for unit testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This burden falls entirely on testers who need to test everything end-to-end. Bosch points out the irony that when deadlines get missed or scope changes, organisations tend to cut back on testing time, seldom on development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTesting cycles get shorter and shorter. Coverage gets smaller and smaller,\u201d Bosch says. \u201cIf organisations involve testers from the very start \u2013 working with BAs and developers throughout \u2013 by the time the requirement hits the formal testing phase, 70% of testing has been done. Testers know exactly what to look for and what to test.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A proactive approach to quality<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There are four key steps to consider. Eliminating silos helps break down the walls between BAs, developers and testers and will create a smoother workflow and fewer miscommunications and delays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agile principles encourage open communication and help foster a collaborative environment and can eliminate ambiguity and assumptions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buy-in at leadership level is essential for promoting and supporting a quality-first approach. Lastly, a shift left means bringing testers into conversations earlier to avoid unnecessary delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back to basics<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Operating at pace often leads to shortcuts \u2013 documentation isn’t done properly, tools aren\u2019t used effectively, communication drops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But skipping essential back-to-basic steps is likely to lead to time wasting and a less efficient process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empowered teams have frameworks to operate from and own the quality aspect with genuine accountability and responsibility. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They don\u2019t rely on testing to be their quality control; they lay solid foundations and build from there. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing should only be for the finishing touches and to ensure that everything functions as intended. It\u2019s fine tuning and not a last-minute attempt to catch what everyone else may have missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisations that thrive are those that see BAs, developers and testers as one unified team with a shared goal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s when quality assurance stops being a phase and becomes embedded, just where it should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Click here to find out more about Dynamic Technologies.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read time<\/strong>: 7 minutes <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editorial contacts:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On behalf of Dynamic Technologies
Linda Wilkins (Wilkins Ross Communications)
communications@wilkinsross.co.za<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karin van Blerk
Marketing Manager, Inspired Testing
kvanblerk@inspiredtesting.com<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Testing and quality assurance should work hand-in-hand to ensure a software project is successful. In reality, however, the two are often seen as silos. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":57,"featured_media":591,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[26467],"class_list":["post-590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dynamic-technologies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/57"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":592,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590\/revisions\/592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/companies.mybroadband.co.za\/dynamic-technologies\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}