Nov 2, 2016
Healthcare organizations are using Agile development practices to speed time-to-market and improve efficiencies across the development process with the goal of better quality software. To overcome entrenched silos of employees and processes and better manage multi-vendor outsourcing strategies, many companies are utilizing BA/QA integration. Along with improving efficiencies along the process and helping companies make the leap to Agile, BA/QA integration provides several benefits.
- Higher-quality development and reduced time to market, as the product is tested according to the way it was built.
- Improved alignment with Agile processes, supporting cross-functional roles and tightly integrated development processes.
- Consolidation of deep product and process expertise into key individuals and reduction of silos to just two groups: BA/QA and development.
- Development teams can work faster, particularly when changes and new features are required at a moment’s notice.
- The BA/QA manager is in close touch with product managers and sales, and can therefore develop new requirements and validate them in a coordinated, streamlined fashion without the risk of incomplete knowledge transfer.
- In an outsourced IT environment, BA/QA integration also offers a valuable balance to development, since the outsourced group could focus on development while the in-house team or a second vendor handles BA/QA, spreading the risk and providing a checks-and-balances process to optimize quality.
- Quantifiable increase in quality metrics: Regarding critical defects, when a company integrates these two functions, they can reduce UAT leakage defects from 4 percent or higher to less than 1 percent. That translates into measurable savings in time as well as development costs.
Read more about BA/QA integration in our white paper.