Software Testing and Quality Assurance: The Business Manager’s Guide

How do you get into a lot of technical debt? It’s simple: just ask your development team to never test anything.

In under a year, maybe even a few months, you’ll find yourself stuck in development hell, with a few more gray hairs on your head and a broken spirit.

Unless you’re a masochist, we’ll assume you’d rather avoid this scenario—which means we need to talk a little bit about software testing. You might be wondering:

• How do you measure the success of testing?

• Why should your software project include testing?

• Is there a single best process for testing, or is it context-based?

• What are some of the best practices for automated testing?

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll be able to answer all of these questions.

Note: this guide about testing and QA was written for Project Managers and other non-technical stakeholders in software projects. If you’re an experienced developer, some of it may already be well-known to you—but other points might serve as a useful reminder.