The process of website maintenance involves several tasks
but one of the most important is Quality Assurance. The level of work and the hours required
would depend on the complexity and size of the website. So what exactly is Quality Assurance?
By definition, quality assurance is a series of tasks that
ensures that the website is operationally sound and every detail is in
conformance with an organization’s standards. The key word is conformity both
to the whole web system and particular business goals.
The two major tasks involved in quality assurance is data
collection and data analysis.
Data Collection
Data
collection is all about checking and website monitoring for issues in the
functionality of the website and the quality of output. This task is overwhelmingly time consuming as
the level of website complexity gets higher.
The task involves:
·
Checking for broken or non-functioning links
·
Checking for missing content or objects in every
page of the website and this includes not only texts but also images, buttons,
and other plug ins
·
Checking for missing browser titles
·
Checking for grammar and misspelled words in the
texts
·
Checking
the file size of pages
·
Checking for missing metadata
·
Checking the compatibility of the website to all
existing browsers and it may also include compatibility with mobile devices
·
Checking for proper application functions, for
example, inquiry forms, order forms and check out forms.
·
Checking that legal and regulatory guidelines
are being adhered to – such as privacy and copyright laws and data protection
and privacy.
·
Making sure that the pages conform to the
business’ or the organization’s Web Accessibility standards (if there is any in
place)
·
Checking for issues in web design
Data Analysis
All the data collected after the
checking is then compiled. There are
tools that web masters use to collect these data for more efficient and
effective website maintenance. An
“Issues Log” is created. The purpose of
this log is to have a database of items that are in violation of and QA
checkpoint. These are then allocated to
the developers to be addressed. This way,
the people assigned to a particular problem are able to fix, adjust or address
issues in time and lower website down time.
Website
maintenance may be outsourced so that the organization or company is able
to allocate time and be able to focus on managing the actual business or reach
particular goals.
