Quality Assurance in a Web Design Firm - Where do you see it fit in?
Agencies "get it done" and perform miracles for their clients daily - how does QA and Process fit in your web agency or design firm?
Clarification added August 15, 2008:
I am looking to see how your organization utilizes a resource in a QA role as well as how it fits in your overall project lifecycle - thank you for all who have answered so far!
Good Answers (5)
Ido S
Music fanatic, technology expert, traveller, philosopher, buddhist
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QA in a web design firm would have 2 major responsibilities:
1) Check the designed sites are fully works before they are shipped to the client.
2) Give a second opinion on user experience - is the designed site comfortable to navigate, aesthetically good looking, etc.
Depending on the development methodology you use, the QA could review the product after design and development and then do some testing and report any issues. This is referred to as the classic waterfall model.
In at least some, if not all, the Agile methodologies the QA is an integral part of the process already from the design level. They may discover problems at a much earlier stage and thus save quite a lot of time later on.
All in all, designers (and developers for that matter) have their vision of how a site is meant to look and work, and quite often they are far removed from the actual user experience. QA is usually much closer to the user experience and thus can provide powerful feedback before shipping the sites to the customer. HTH!
The QA process is a integral part of any Development process be it Web Agency or Design firm. Quality of any activity can be checked at three major points. 1. Requirement Phase - The quality of requirement gathering like - content, enough documentation like user preferences, Visual References, samples. Check point for good process(discovery and enough research) applied for requirement gathering. How close are we to the customer needs. 2. Requirement Translationto design phase - Check for design approach - Production engineering (visual design) and the preciseness to expected output and performance parameters or success factors for completion like Usability parameters. 3. Final completion stage(post-production)- Check for Usability factors, traceability of the output to the expected result and performance. And the key thing is user feedback which can influence the ongoing maintenance of the site.
Wallace J
Multimedia Producer and i3D Programmer for Acrobat 3D PDF, JavaFX, Mobile & Virtual Worlds
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QA should be part of the work process. QA in web design comes down to:
1. Data Footprint: Compact XHTML, CSS, JPEG, GIF, PNG, JS, XML, etc.
2. Image Quality: No artifacts, excellent composition, transparency, animation
3. User Interface: Unobtrusive, Sleek, Easy to Use, Well Designed, Fun to Use
4. User Experience: Compelling, Visual, Fast Loading (even via Modem)
5. SEO: Optimized Content, Correct Tags/Links, XHTML+CSS, SMO/SMM
6. Client Objectives: Accomplish these along with the above and Q is A.
Walls. MindTaffyLLC@Yahoo.com
Links:
One of the biggest difficulties of QA is making sure that is happens. That's why at Newfangled we schedule plenty of time for it. Here's a link to Chris Butler's blog post about QA, which also has a link to our Project Anatomy.
Links:
Another area where I have seen QA play a critical role is in release & version control management. It's not as simple as it seems, and when there are multiple branches being merged or spun off during any given release cycle it's important to have some oversight.
More Answers (4)
Tyler W
Business Developer ★ Brand Architect
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The acid test is client satisfaction. Of course... it goes without saying.
However, a lot of agencies get a lot of their "processes" right without delivering on this essential thing. Let's say you do everything you said you were going to do for the client, and they're still not happy with your work. You offer an iron-clad RFP template. You followed your internal processes to a "t". You did everything to protocol. But you still didn't meet to their expectations.
QA, to me, has more to do with the types of clients you pick than your internal process assurance standards. If so called "quality assurance" has to do with the identifying and removal of "defective product" from the system, then if you're in the service business the most linear way to do this is simply by asking.
Your interal "processs maps" can be wrong. In some ways it helps to invite your clients to evaluate your processes for you. That's where feedback comes in. And gathering client feedback is by and large the best form of Quality Assurance you will ever have.
- "Did you like it when we called you at the end of every week for a briefing on our progress?"
- "In what ways did our service WOW you?
- "In what ways could we have further mitigated your uncertainty during the whole process?"
- "What were 2 or 3 things we did that would make you want to do business with us for your next project?"
- "Was there anything, anything at all, you felt short-changed on?"
- "Was there anything we could have done differently to make the process simpler for your company?"
Client feedback is the only valid form of quality assurance in the web development business. Once you get their input, then it's time to treat it like such. Input their feedback into your business.
And this is why I said QA has more to do with the types of clients you pick than your internal processes. Different kinds of clients will give different feedback. In as much as you have isolated your market and cater in a highly tailored manner to their needs, your client feedback will begin to form a consistent picture of how your company can improve.
I would also add that a very effective QA mechanism is User Surveys, where you survey real-world internet users (preferably in your target market) on their impressions of the final product. Once the personally identifiable information is screened from the results, these reports can give your clients a validated sense of confidence in your work.
Making the survey results public at the conclusion will also demonstrate to your respondents that you are committed to accountability and improvement.
Links:
Tim H
Technology Consultant at Mousetech.com
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Speaking from long bitter experience as a customer using multiple Fortune sites, I'd have to assume it's pretty close to the bottom. It has to be done quick, it has to be pretty, it should have lots of flashy stuff.
But quality???
Laura W
Small Business Website Specialist and Trainer
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Seems to me there are two different things being discussed - Quality Assurance, and Customer Satisfaction. Are they the same thing, or not?
We have seen clients that were satisfied with a site that was completely ineffective, until a year later when they finally realized it was not working.
We've also seen when everything was done right, and the site was working fabulously, yet the client was still not satisfied.
Our company offers a satisfaction guarantee. With our target market, who have often been ripped off and are suspicious, we have to. It has never worked against us, it has helped us build a good reputation.
We set the overall quality standards, which have to be met, and then the client satisfaction is added to that as another layer to the objectives.
Laura
