Quality Assurance Glossary

Are you unsure of the glossary used in Quality Assurance and Software Testing? Find the terms in our Quality Assurance Glossary.

Acceptance testing

A test method where the QA engineer act as the customer to validate that the outcome from the development project fulfils the customer’s needs.

Agile development

A development methods where the QA engineer plays a central role in the whole product life cycle. With the right experience the engineer can contribute to improved quality in a number of different disciplines.

Requirements management

An activity which provides the foundation for the development project. At this stage the QA engineer can provide a first imprint on the product quality.

Non-functional testing

Compared with functional testing where you verify what the product do, non-functional testing is about how it is done, e.g. how fast, how efficient, how stable and how user-friendly?

Incident report

One of the most important artifacts a QA engineer produce. By using all knowledge, experience, analysis- and communication skills, we try to shorten the fixing time as much as possible through clarity and lack of ambiguity.

Integration testing

During the process of putting together all the different components or modules, the QA engineer is responsible to verify that everything works together and that the individual components and modules still function properly.

Negative testing

A test method where the QA engineer emphasis on more destructive testing. The challenge is to use the system in so many wrong ways you can think of to ensure that nothing unwanted happens.

Positive testing

A test method where the QA engineer follows the green line, i.e. different functions are tested with valid inputs to verify correct results and ensure that the system is up and running.

Pair programming

An approach where the QA engineer sit beside the developer to ask “stupid” questions or verify that the developer, for example, does not use “<” instead of “>”.

Quality Assurance

The overall activity of ensuring the final quality of the system. Sometimes also named Software quality assurance.

Regression testing

The QA industry’s safety gate, i.e. the activity to ensure that to quality never degrades.

Risk-based testing

An approach where the QA engineer identify potential risks of the system and develop tests so ensure that these risks does not become real problems.

Test automation

An activity carried out by QA engineers specialized in making computers do testing that is not suited for manual testing or to allow time for other QA engineers to do more qualified activities.

Test strategy

A document created by a QA specialist, which describe how a company, department or project, should work with test and QA.

Exploratory testing

A test method that highlights the best side of QA profession. It allow the QA engineer to demonstrate experience, analysis skills and adaptability to perform to best possible test in a given situation.