QA Process Setup and Ongoing Testing for an Investment Platform

The client* has a two-sided platform where investors & SMEs manage their relationships, track metrics, and be investment-ready. This solution provides enterprises with an improved flow of information between investors and investees by redefining transparency and efficiency. Users can track potential deals, manage investor relationships, keep all investment-related documents in order, and create fundraising material.

* We recognize the importance of protecting our clients’ privacy and follow the policies to maintain their confidentiality and security. That is why the company name will not be disclosed.

The client reached out with the request for a QA engineer when the platform was already live. The team tested the product before the launch, but since the team takes quality seriously, they needed to strengthen the team with the corresponding expertise.

The main task was to implement the quality assurance and testing procedures into the established development process with further ongoing testing of the web platform. The development is very dynamic, and that’s challenging for a product with extensive functionality and a small team. The QA engineer was to choose the best strategy for such a case.

Given the fast pace of development, the QA engineer has to work with minimal testing documentation, prioritizing immediate testing of the new features. The majority of bugs are caught and fixed during the sprints. In case of emergency rollouts, the QA engineer runs testing on production. In both cases, the defects are handled based on the business priority.

The process setup and progress proceeded as follows:

1. Onboarding. The company’s workflows were explained, and the main tasks were introduced on the client’s side.
2. Getting familiar with the platform. The QA engineer studied the platform in detail (features, terminology, etc.) through the exploratory tests.
3. Logging the bugs. All defects identified while studying the platform were reported, with detailed descriptions attached.
4. Documentation writing. The QA engineer prepared the testing strategy that later became the key document to rely on.
5. Backlog testing. They continued with the platform check, focusing on the existing tickets.
6. Software testing. The QA engineer inspects all fresh functionality as soon as it appears in the test build.

Besides a close inspection of the new functionality right away, there are other types of tasks for quality assurance:

• Testing of the separate features that have undergone significant changes.
• Testing of the input scenarios in production to verify the correctness of the calculations.

To ensure that the platform works as expected and is available regardless of a user’s platform and conditions, the following types of testing are applied:

• Exploratory testing for quick quality assessment of the new and existing functionality.
• Functional testing for verifying that the platform’s features work as intended.
• UI testing to check the consistency of user interface elements.
• Compatibility testing for confirming that software functions across various devices.
• Accessibility testing to make the platform usable for disabled people and in difficult conditions.
• Smoke testing to check the critical functionality for correct work before deployment.
• Regression testing to ensure that changes haven’t affected the stable functionality.
• Retesting for bug fix verification after code changes based on bug reports.

The QA process entails constant interaction and collaboration with the development team on the client’s side. This includes planning meetings, daily meetings, sync calls, and regular messaging.