Bienvenue… Bienvenidos… Wilkommen… Welcome… to the blog home for the Infusionsoft’s Quality Assurance team. Over the next weeks, months and years we will be using this blog to talk about the goings on in the department with a focus on the nitty gritty of quality assurance. The hope is that we might be able to share a few nuggets of wisdom regarding the sometimes dark and murky world that is software testing. We’ll share the blogging roles within the QA department here at Infusionsoft with each contributor adding a different flavor to the discussion.
Green-lighting software releases for production is an honorable, yet audacious, responsibility. We have and will be continuing our efforts to push better and better releases for customers so they can trust our software every time they use it. We wanted to add another dimension to the voice of our peers and provide insights on what we’re doing to keep software releases smooth and enjoyable.
For our kick-off posting, I wanted to discuss an issue that I’m sure challenges QA departments around the world – finding dedicated time to actually test.
By nature of the role, software testers frequently find themselves as the company’s product experts. While this is absolutely essential to success as a software tester it can also lead to activities that distract from the primary testing role. Here at Infusionsoft, we struggled to balance software testing with supporting the company as a whole. We finally arrived at a solution that has already started to pay dividends.
We designated the tester with the most customer service experience as our “company liaison” and funneled everything not testing-related through him. This has freed up the rest of the team to focus on testing the software while simultaneously improving our responsiveness to internal departments and customers. This setup has also allowed QA to keep its pulse on how the software is performing in the wild; which in turn, guides our testing focus to remain strong and on target. While this is not necessarily a solution that will work for all QA departments, it has certainly been working for us.
I invite your feedback, comments, suggestions and questions anytime. Just let me know in the comments. Until the next posting… I’m Aaron Barrett.
[Photo by oskay on Flickr]
Posted In: Technology
