March 20 , 2025 ⏱️ 8 min
By Marinela C. (QA – Process Design Group)
Quality Assurance (QA) is more than just testing—it’s about making sure everyone involved in a project understands how quality is managed, what the goals are, and how decisions are made.
Transparency in QA means openly sharing information about processes, progress, and challenges so that everyone stays informed. No surprises, no confusion—just clear communication that helps deliver a better product. Here’s how to make QA process more transparent and effective for all stakeholders.
Stakeholder Needs and Expectations
Different stakeholders have varying interests and priorities in a project—some focus on technical aspects, others focus on deadlines, risks, or the overall user experience. A strong QA strategy aligns these priorities to ensure all quality expectations are met.
How to Identify Stakeholder Needs
- Early Collaboration & Active Engagement: QA should be actively involved from the start of the project, working closely with stakeholders to clarify requirements, resolve ambiguities, and identify potential risks. Gather insights into business objectives, user needs, and potential risks.
- Review Business and Functional Requirements: Study existing documents such as business requirements, functional specifications, user stories, and customer feedback to understand quality priorities.
- Analyze Business Goals and Objectives: Understand the overall business objectives of the project.
- Define Quality Standards Together: Set clear quality standards: What’s an acceptable level of defects? What performance expectations should we meet? QA should help define these standards with input from stakeholders, ensuring there’s a clear understanding of what makes a product ready for delivery.
Key areas to address include
-
- Key Success Criteria: Define quality standards such as user experience expectations, security standards, and compliance requirements.
- Defect Tolerance Levels: Establish acceptable bug thresholds.
- Test Coverage Criteria: Define requirements for unit tests, integration tests, and other testing coverage.
- Documentation Standards: Ensure consistency in test documentation, release notes, and related materials.
Set Clear QA Goals and Metrics
The QA process is all about making sure the product works well and meets the standards set by the business and the customers.
A transparent QA process begins with setting clear goals and defining metrics to track progress. Without clear objectives, testing can feel like an endless task rather than a structured process leading to a high-quality product.
The goals should focus on key outcomes like minimizing defects, ensuring usability, and meeting performance standards. The QA goals and metrics should align with your business objectives, customer needs, and industry standards.
Once the goals are set, defining metrics is essential. These might include defect density, test coverage, or user feedback. By monitoring these indicators, teams can measure progress, identify potential gaps, and ensure the QA process delivers the desired results.
Set SMART QA Goals:
- Specific: Clearly define what success looks like.
- Measurable: Use metrics to track progress.
- Achievable: Ensure goals are realistic.
- Relevant: Align goals with business priorities.
- Time-bound: Set deadlines for completion.
For example, a QA goal can be to increase test coverage by 20% to detect more defects early, measured by the number of executed vs. possible test cases. Another QA goal could be to automate regression testing, aiming for 80% automation by quarter-end to improve efficiency, tracked by the automation percentage and time saved.
Well-defined goals and metrics help teams focus on what truly impacts software quality and stakeholder satisfaction.
Real Time Monitoring and Reporting
We’ve all been there – waiting for status updates, sitting through long meetings, and discovering critical bugs too late.
Test Monitoring involves checking the status of testing activities, identifying deviations from the plan, and communicating updates to stakeholders.
Real-time monitoring ensures that everyone stays informed and aligned.
Why It Matters:
- Immediate Feedback: Stakeholders see real-time progress and can address concerns early.
- Better Decision-Making: Accurate, up-to-date insights help teams prioritize fixes efficiently.
- Visibility over test results and the quality of the test object.
Using the right tools—whether it’s Jira, TestRail, or a custom-built dashboard—we can track key metrics like pass/fail rates, defect trends, and testing progress in real time. This keeps everyone aligned, removes guesswork, and helps us build a better product, faster.
Here are some practical tools that enhance real-time monitoring and reporting:
- Test Management & Reporting: TestRail, Qase, Zephyr.
- Continuous Integration & Automated Test Reporting: Azure DevOps Test Plans.
- Defect Tracking & Live Reporting: Jira (with custom dashboards), Azure DevOps Boards.
- Monitoring Dashboards: K6 Grafana.
These tools provide visibility into QA progress, helping to prevent unnecessary pressure.
Share Your QA Plan and Process
A Test Plan is like a roadmap that shows how testing will be done, what the goals are, and who’s responsible for what. A great QA plan is useless if no one understands it.
That’s why it’s important to share your QA plan and process with stakeholders in a way that’s clear, useful, and easy to follow.
What to Share with Stakeholders:
- Goals & Objectives: What are we trying to achieve with QA?
- Test strategy and Test Approach: Which types of testing are being used (manual, automated, performance, security, etc.)?
- Risks: What are the product risks?
- Test activities: How will test activities be integrated and coordinated into the software life cycle activities?
- Roles & Responsibilities: Who’s responsible for what in the QA process?
It’s not just about documentation—it’s about making things clear and accessible. Use simple language, visuals like flowcharts or dashboards, and encourage feedback. When everyone understands how testing fits into the big picture, collaboration improves, and quality becomes a shared responsibility.
Report Effectively
A good QA report isn’t just a list of defects—it’s a tool for better decision-making, adjust priorities, and track overall progress.
One of the most important things is to tailor the report to your stakeholders. Stakeholders want a high-level summary of progress and risks, while technical teams need detailed defect analysis and test results.
What to Include in QA Reports?
- Achievements: Features tested, bugs fixed, and goals met.
- Challenges: Any blockers faced and how they were addressed.
- Next Steps: Upcoming tests, deadlines, and expectations for the next phase.
Regular updates—whether weekly or per sprint—help keep all stakeholders in the loop and prevent any last-minute surprises (because who doesn’t love surprises, right? Just not the “bug found a day before release” kind).
Actively Engage Stakeholders
QA shouldn’t happen in isolation. Stakeholders should be involved in improving the process, not just observing it.
Ways to Engage Stakeholders:
- Sprint Reviews & Demos: Encourage active participation to provide feedback on functionality and quality.
- Backlog Refinement: Collaborate to define clear acceptance criteria.
- Retrospectives: Gather input on what’s working and what can be improved.
- Exploratory Testing: Involve stakeholders in hands-on testing to uncover usability issues.
- Pilot QA Enhancements: Introduce new QA practices in a limited scope with stakeholder involvement before scaling them across teams. For example: Pilot for Risk-Based Testing Approach or Pilot Program for Automated Testing.
Making QA a shared responsibility leads to higher-quality software and stronger collaboration.
Transparent QA Process Value
A transparent QA process is more than just sharing data—it’s about building trust, encouraging open collaboration, and making sure everyone is on the same page. When we communicate clearly and involve stakeholders throughout, we create a sense of ownership and shared responsibility.
By setting clear objectives, using real-time tools, and actively involving stakeholders, we’re not just testing software—we’re ensuring quality every step of the way:
- Delivering better software with fewer surprises.
- Aligning with stakeholder expectations and business goals.
- Reducing risks and avoiding last-minute chaos.
In the end, transparency isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s the foundation of a successful QA process. And let’s be honest, it makes life easier for everyone involved. Who doesn’t love that?
Îndemnul nostru
Efortul pus în programele pentru studenți completează teoria din facultate cu practica care “ne omoară”. Profitați de ocazie, participând la cât mai multe evenimente!
În cei 3 ani am lucrat la proiecte diverse ce au contribuit decisiv la evoluția mea profesională. Am colaborat strâns cu echipe remarcabile, a căror dedicare și sprijin au fost fundamentale în buna dezvoltare a lucrurilor. Cu fiecare proiect, am învățat nu doar aspecte tehnice, ci și abilități esențiale de comunicare și colaborare, reflectate în experiența mea privind interacțiunile cu clienți și modul în care o echipă eficientă operează. Aceasta este cultura companiei, de la ritmul uneori alert al zilei de lucru și practicile Agile, până la momentele relaxante de socializare cu colegii în pauzele de cafea și activități recreative precum darts și ping pong.
Am făcut cunoștință cu echipa NetRom prin intermediul programelor Internship și NetRom Software Academy, in care am descoperit că noțiunile învățate acasă au totuși aplicabilitate, chiar în cadrul unor aplicații reale. Acele experentie m-au convins să aplic pentru un job.
Mentorii foarte deschiși și colegii cu experiență care mi-au răspuns prompt la toate neclaritățile au transformat provocările în task-uri rezolvate cu succes împreună. Făcând parte din #teamnetrom mi-am depășit frica de a greși și am evoluat într-un mod echilibrat pentru mine.
Am aflat de programele NetRom de la o prezentare organizată în facultate de companie. Am decis să mă înscriu la Summer Camp din dorința de a înțelege ce anume ar presupune o cariera în IT. În urma acestui stagiu de practică, am reușit să dezvolt propria aplicație cu ajutorul mentorilor care mi-au oferit informații teoretice, dar mai ales practice, pe care nu aș fi putut sa le găsesc într-un tutorial aleatoriu de pe internet. Modul meu de abordare a aplicaților s-a schimbat odată ce am înțeles în ce constă mai exact procesul, ce presupune un mediu real de lucru și importanța muncii în echipă.
NetRom Software Testing Academy a fost punctul de plecare pentru o carieră pentru mine. Pe parcursul sesiunilor am avut oportunitatea să cunosc bazele necesare pentru asigurarea calității unui produs, urmate de o zi în companie unde am văzut teoria pusă în practică.
Recomand tuturor celor care își doresc o carieră în QA să ia în considerare această academie, fiind destinată atât celor din domeniu, dar nu numai.
Am descoperit NetRom prin intermediul unui program de internship și am fost impresionată încă de la început de mediul de lucru plăcut, de susținerea și angajamentul colegilor. A fost o oportunitate deosebită de a lucra într-o echipă de proiect, cu roluri specifice, și de a înțelege mai bine cultura companiei. Întreaga perioadă s-a dovedit o experiență valoroasă, atât din punct de vedere al cunoștințelor acumulate, cât și prin prisma relațiilor dezvoltate. În momentul în care mi s-a propus să continui ca angajat permanent, a fost o decizie ușor de luat, bucuroasă fiind să pot aplica cele învățate, dar și să adaug cunoștințe noi în fiecare zi.
