Modern testing tools and approaches are constantly being embraced by teams of all sizes, to ensure the products they build meet the required quality standards. Although QA testing, performed by a team of qualified testers, helps in meeting the expected quality standards, if developers too spent some time on testing the code they’ve built, the number of bugs or defects can be greatly reduced. And Dev testing and QA testing are both extremely critical for developing and deploying a high-quality product. Although they are similar in many ways, organizations should also be well-aware of the differences, so they can make the right testing choice. Read on to learn about the key differences between Dev testing and QA testing.
What is Dev Testing?
Dev testing is a software development activity where developers perform a series of tests on the code that is being built – instead of relying entirely on a team of QA experts to carry out testing. By establishing a detailed, well-managed process in place, Dev testing ensures that any code that is released into production undergoes a thorough testing and review of the code, thus ensuring the product, and any changes made to it, meets the required quality standards while also minimizing release issues, customer defects, and system downtime.
What is QA Testing?
QA testing is a software development activity, performed by a team of competent testers, to ensure the product that is developed is of high-quality. By constantly testing code for issues and bugs and reporting them to developers, QA testing ensures bugs are fixed in time – so the product that reaches the customer meets their quality expectations. Although QA teams work in close association with developers, constantly delivering feedback on the quality of code, they have a knack to shift gears as needed, evolve test suites in line with current trends, and also provide the required documentation for training and customer use.
The Key Differences between Dev Testing and QA Testing
Although both Dev testing and QA testing help ensure the required level of quality of the software being developed, they differ in many ways. Here’s looking at the key differences between Dev testing and QA testing:
| Dev Testing | QA Testing | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | To eliminate as many defects as possible – early in the lifecycle | To meet a set of quality standards |
| Aim | Limit bugs to a pre-determined threshold | Ensure code is exposed to a series of exhaustive tests |
| Responsibility of | Developers | A team of qualified testers |
| Stage in lifecycle | During development | After development |
| Collaboration | Requires close collaboration between different developers | Requires cross-functional collaboration between developers and testers |
| Testing type | White box unit testing | Black box security, regression, usability, performance, and stress testing |
| Benefits | Helps teams develop and release code simultaneously | Helps teams deploy high-quality software |
Selecting the Right Option for Your Organization
Despite the benefits of Dev testing, many developers bypass it because they think it takes away a lot of the time they could spend producing new code and creating new features. They find creating simple unit tests too complicated, which not only slows down the development process, but also limits their productivity. There is also a section of developers who work on one aspect of the application code and do not understand how the other aspects work – which makes them want to dodge this testing effort. They would rather outsource all of the testing work to the QA team who have the expertise, tools, and motivation to ensure the code is bug-free.
The truth is, instead of viewing it as Dev testing vs. QA testing, teams should strike the right balance between Dev and QA testing to save time and create more reliable software. Because developer teams are most familiar with the code they’ve just produced, they are the best judge of whether the code is performing as expected. Once they carry out a basic set of tests, they can share the code with the QA team, who can then scrutinize it for bugs and issues – setting the foundation of quality software development that not only meets the evolving needs of customers but also keeps up with changing business and market trends.
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