Lesson Learnt - QA should be involved early in the project (V Model of testing)

As the software projects become more complex, it is very important that QA gets involved in it as early as requirements gathering.

Benefits from the V-model -

Defect Prevention

If QA gets involved in requirements discussions, defect prevention happens naturally.

• As requirements are being built, QA provides its feedback and helps in correcting mistakes in requirement gathering.
• QA walk thrus the requirement documents along with business stakeholders and point out technical or business issues based on prior test experiences.
• We see QA provide its comments on the solution on many occasions. Sometimes, extending an existing solution proves cost effective than starting a brand new solution.

Informed QA is a better tester 

The QA becomes more informed in the requirements gathering and subsequent project phases. A more informed QA will definitely prove to be a better tester in the future.

Saves Time and Learning

In a waterfall project, QA start test planning after the requirements document has been signed off. The activity of knowledge transfer is a very lengthy process. If the resource on boarded is not the same as the one in prior release,  the ramp up time could be very high. However if the QA was involved in requirements discussions, there is a good possibility that there would be a small or no learning curve.

QA and BA in sync

When QA starts test planning and design, the critical and high priority requirements have already been identified. At this stage, the QA lead already has a good idea of what his test strategy is going to be.

Relevant Links on web

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-Model_%28software_development%29

http://www.testingexcellence.com/v-model-in-software-testing/