Last updated on Sep 13, 2024

What are some common quality control tools and techniques for software development?

Quality control (QC) is the process of ensuring that software products meet the specified requirements and standards of quality. QC involves testing, reviewing, and verifying the functionality, performance, and reliability of software products before they are delivered to customers or end-users. QC is essential for software development because it can prevent defects, errors, and bugs that can affect the user experience, satisfaction, and trust. In this article, we will explore some common quality control tools and techniques that software developers can use to improve their software quality.

1 Testing tools

Testing tools are software applications or libraries that help developers to test their code, identify errors, and debug their software products. Testing tools can automate various types of tests, such as unit tests, integration tests, regression tests, functional tests, performance tests, and security tests. Testing tools can also provide reports, feedback, and recommendations on how to improve the code quality and fix the issues. Some examples of testing tools are Selenium, JUnit, TestNG, PyTest, Mocha, Jest, and Cucumber.

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Kyle Denis SAFe PO/PM

Senior Product Manager & Agile consultant | Intrapreanuer in scaling Product Teams | B2B | POS | Fintech | Supply Chain | Inventory | Retail |
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Automation testing is the north star for all agile software development teams in this day and age. Everyone uses Jira so first thought might be to go with Requirements & Test Management for Jira (RTM), but I wouldn't advise that. PractiTest and qTest are both widely used and comparable. PractiTest DOES have more visual dashboards. Cucumber is a software tool that supports behavior-driven development. Central to the Cucumber BDD approach is its ordinary language parser called Gherkin. If you are set on automation then Selenium is the go-to! Its is an open source umbrella project for a range of tools and libraries aimed at supporting browser automation.

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Neha Patange

Senior Test Specialist - Automation @Telstra | Ex-IBMer | Ex-Infoscion | Mobile Automation | Android -iOS Tester
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Common quality control tools and techniques in s/w development include: Static Code Analysis: Utilizes tools like SonarQube to detect code anomalies and adherence to coding standards without executing the code. Dynamic Testing: Employs techniques such as boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning to evaluate the system's behavior under various conditions. Automated Test Suites: Leverages frameworks like Selenium or JUnit to execute pre-defined test cases consistently and efficiently. Code Review: Incorporates peer review mechanisms to ensure code quality and adherence to architectural guidelines. Continuous Integration: Implements CI/CD pipelines to facilitate ongoing testing and integration, ensuring early detection of defects.

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2 Code review tools

Code review tools are software applications or platforms that help developers to review, analyze, and improve their code quality and style. Code review tools can facilitate peer reviews, where developers can comment on each other's code, suggest changes, and approve or reject the code. Code review tools can also perform static code analysis, where they can check the code for syntax errors, code smells, potential bugs, security vulnerabilities, and compliance with coding standards and best practices. Some examples of code review tools are GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, CodeClimate, SonarQube, and Codacy.

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Sarvesh (Product/Project manager)

I'm passionate about leading teams to build and scale innovative products. With expertise in agile, data-driven decisions, and a customer-first approach, I drive impactful results. Let's connect and innovate together!
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Code review tools are essential for enhancing code quality and ensuring adherence to best practices. They facilitate peer reviews, allowing developers to comment on each other's work, suggest improvements, and approve or reject code changes. Additionally, these tools perform static code analysis, identifying issues such as syntax errors, code smells, potential bugs, and security vulnerabilities, while ensuring compliance with coding standards. Examples of effective code review tools include GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, CodeClimate, SonarQube, and Codacy. These tools streamline the review process, helping teams maintain high-quality code and enhance overall development practices.

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3 Documentation tools

Documentation tools are software applications or services that help developers to create, manage, and update the documentation of their software products. Documentation is the written or visual information that describes the features, functions, and usage of software products. Documentation can include user manuals, guides, tutorials, FAQs, API references, code comments, and diagrams. Documentation tools can help developers to generate documentation from their code, format and structure their documentation, and publish and distribute their documentation online or offline. Some examples of documentation tools are Sphinx, Javadoc, Doxygen, Read the Docs, Docusaurus, and MkDocs.

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Kyle Denis SAFe PO/PM

Senior Product Manager & Agile consultant | Intrapreanuer in scaling Product Teams | B2B | POS | Fintech | Supply Chain | Inventory | Retail |
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The best functional documentation tool that my teams have worked with is Confluence. It is a web-based corporate wiki developed by Australian software company Atlassian. Atlassian wrote Confluence in the Java programming language and first published it in 2004. Confluence Standalone comes with a built-in Tomcat web server and hsql database, and also supports other databases. For more technical documentation, get your devs to use Github to spin up a MkDocs knowledge base. MkDocs is static site generator designed for building project documentation. It is written in Python, and also used in other environments.

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4 Monitoring tools

Monitoring tools are software applications or systems that help developers to track, measure, and evaluate the performance, availability, and reliability of their software products. Monitoring tools can collect and analyze various metrics and indicators, such as response time, throughput, error rate, uptime, downtime, and resource utilization. Monitoring tools can also alert developers to any issues or anomalies that can affect the software quality or user experience. Some examples of monitoring tools are New Relic, Datadog, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, and Nagios.

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Kyle Denis SAFe PO/PM

Senior Product Manager & Agile consultant | Intrapreanuer in scaling Product Teams | B2B | POS | Fintech | Supply Chain | Inventory | Retail |
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Splunk is the king of software application monitoring tools. It best used in searching, monitoring, and analyzing machine-generated data via a web-style interface. Whereas Grafana is majorly used as a data visualization tool, Splunk is an enterprise security and observability platform. Other honorable mentions are Datadog (SaaS-based data analytics platform) and Prometheus (event monitoring and alerting. It records metrics in a time series database built using an HTTP pull model, with flexible queries and real-time alerting).

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5 Feedback tools

Feedback tools are software applications or channels that help developers to gather and process the feedback from their customers or end-users. Feedback is the information or opinion that customers or end-users provide about their experience, satisfaction, and expectations of software products. Feedback tools can help developers to collect feedback through surveys, polls, ratings, reviews, comments, or chatbots. Feedback tools can also help developers to analyze feedback using natural language processing, sentiment analysis, or text mining. Feedback tools can help developers to improve their software quality by understanding the needs, preferences, and pain points of their customers or end-users. Some examples of feedback tools are SurveyMonkey, Typeform, Google Forms, UserVoice, Trustpilot, and Intercom.

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6 Continuous improvement tools

Continuous improvement tools are software applications or methodologies that help developers to implement a culture of continuous improvement in their software development process. Continuous improvement is the practice of constantly seeking ways to enhance the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of software products and processes. Continuous improvement tools can help developers to adopt agile or lean principles, such as Scrum, Kanban, DevOps, or Kaizen. Continuous improvement tools can also help developers to use data-driven decision making, experimentation, and learning loops to optimize their software quality and outcomes. Some examples of continuous improvement tools are Trello, Jira, Asana, LeanKit, A/B testing, and Lean Startup.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Kyle Denis SAFe PO/PM

Senior Product Manager & Agile consultant | Intrapreanuer in scaling Product Teams | B2B | POS | Fintech | Supply Chain | Inventory | Retail |
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To pay for offshore testers or not to pay for offshore testers - that is the question. Do you devs want to test each others code while programming no... is the market and industry going in that direction yes. As a former Product Owner do I want to also do the Product Manager and Scrum Master jobs: No, do I have to in order to work for these cutting edge companies: Yes.

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What are some common quality control tools and techniques for software development?

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1 Testing tools

2 Code review tools

3 Documentation tools

4 Monitoring tools

5 Feedback tools

6 Continuous improvement tools

7 Here’s what else to consider

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