Website Maintenance and Quality Assurance

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.