The Quality Assurance department at Doctor Genius consists of two teams: Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC). These two teams work together to ensure quality and efficiency among all of our DG product offerings, creating that first impression for clients and patients. The QA department may be the one department that fulfills tasks and meets the demands of both internal and external sources.

QA manager Corey Eiland held a Genius Series presentation in mid-November to dive deeper into the finer details of their department, what they do, and their role at Doctor Genius.

The QA/QC Teams

The Quality Assurance department comprises the QA manager, QA team, and QC team. The primary difference between the two teams is that QA is an iterative process within ongoing software development, and QC is a single process before a single delivery. 

Similar to a factory floor, the QA sets the standards that need to be met prior to development. QC ticks the boxes to see if the standards set were met or if they work as intended after the actual product is made. Content and Production build the product based on QA’s standards. In simple terms, the QA team handles all issues before a product or service is ready for clients’ eyes, and QC does the final check before a product is ready to launch. Once it goes past QC, there is no going back – it is now in the client’s hands.

The department’s methodology is Observe, Document, and Plan. They make detailed (observations); write (documentation); and create (planning).

Observe

Making stepwise observations about exactly what occurs and under what conditions.

Document

Writing descriptive reports of what occurred, including documentation for a future audience.

Plan

Creating comprehensive test plans and automation for the future based on patterns and experiences.

Quality Assurance (QA)

The QA team consists of QA Automation Lead Anthony Santos, QA Analyst Brice Cole, and Jr. QA Analyst Bernardo Arriaga. Santos is responsible for collaborating and meeting with Eiland to discuss new automation strategies to tackle, deciding what is automatable and what is not, and developing more complicated test cases. The QA analysts are responsible for testing, analyzing, and ensuring the quality of our software, products, and systems – when there is any new DG product offering, the team will conduct a QA check.

Goals of the QA Team

1. Web Applications – testing for Admin, DG Portal, and all other DG web applications. The QA team is responsible for making sure any new applications are working well and efficiently.
2. Serverless Endpoints – testing behind-the-scenes technologies, such as DG API, that drive our business offerings. These endpoints are invisible parts that allow our web applications to work. 
3. Release Testing – testing all new developments as well as integrated testing for various new features. We test all products, features, services, bug fixes, etc., before they go live.
4. Automation – develop automation that has little to no human interaction and goes out automatically. Automated tasks to make QA teams more efficient and keep websites functioning properly

Quality Control (QC)

The QC Team consists of QC Analyst Alex Amirova and manual Website Testers Daisy Leyva and Steven Castaneda. The QC analyst is responsible for assisting in developing automation for the QC team and Production goals. The Manual Website Testers check the backend coding and front-facing systems for any errors caught by the human eye or through automated reports.

Goals of the QC Team

1. Websites – All client deliverables for a web presence that enriches new patient acquisition. Our first impression for clients, and often patients, about DG.
2. Content – Blogs and CIPs that enhance SEO. The team must ensure all textual and visual assets are pointing in the right direction so it helps drive traffic to clients’ sites.
3. Client Notes – Quality checks for everything from client information updates to support requests, internal or external. Any request to update, change, or alter something that does not relate to sites or content.
4. Automation – Programmed and scripted efforts that perform tests without manual intervention. Making interactions and tasks easier and more efficient.

Projects in the Works

The QA department aims to accomplish multiple ongoing projects and future plans in the coming year, including more robots (automation does the basics to allow testers to handle other tasks), self-reporting tools (defects and corrections automatically sent to the appropriate stakeholders), and exploration (spending more time to research and develop more complex automation).

Among their many current projects, Eiland mentioned two major projects that are in the works: Website Task Automation and End-to-end Testing.

Website Task Automation

Website Task Automation started as a training to help the QC team learn how to code with a service like Selenium, the automation service the QA teams use. This lends the opportunity to prevent common human errors, such as a missing numeral in a client’s phone number. Through this, our team can provide the system with a command list so it will scan the site and automatically correct errors in a matter of seconds. Finally, automated testing allows for (almost) completely hands-off reports to be uploaded automatically, and the results are easy for the team to analyze.

End-to-end Testing

End-to-end Testing involves testing all of a complex system, such as our Patient Experience (PX) Suite. For example, creating a testing system that includes all patient data but abides by HIPAA. The system is a virtual machine that creates and displays fake patient information with the same format as office assistants to help facilitate bug fixes and corrections. This allows our team to see the structure and errors without viewing real patient info, thereby avoiding HIPAA conflicts.

Continued growth

Although the two teams have separate goals, the department always works toward the two main objectives of simulating and integrating. In other words, they will initiate a new system, or machine, to enable the teams to view what our clients and their patients will see in advance by using the tools, such as with the End-to-end Testing example. Once that is enabled and working, integration will require End-to-end Testing whenever possible to ensure all elements function properly. Through these ongoing initiatives, the QA and QC teams can work more efficiently together and easily onboard new members through these training sessions.

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