When and How to Allocate QA Resources in Software Projects

Current industry discussions about software testing and quality are extensive, ranging from questioning the need for testers to advocating for test automation, agile testing, and continuous testing.

For projects that aim for high quality, substantial systematic testing and quality work are essential, and these activities require professionals with specialized knowledge.

Some organizations claim success without dedicated QA under specific conditions such as small project size, low quality requirements, mature projects with well‑established processes, or exploratory phases.

However, when business or development teams lack testing expertise, time, or willingness to perform quality activities, a professional QA is necessary to overcome these constraints.

01 Each role in a delivery team—PM, UX, BA, DEV, QA, etc.—has its own focus; agile testing makes quality a shared responsibility, yet certain skills (e.g., test analysis, performance testing) are hard for other roles to acquire quickly.

Properly assigning tasks according to each role’s expertise is crucial for ensuring delivery quality and reliability.

02 QA capability and headcount should match project requirements. For a medium‑size (10‑20 people) insurance project with high quality demands and a one‑year timeline, a ratio of roughly 1 QA to 3 developers is recommended; lower ratios reduce the scope of automated functional testing and shift more work to developers.

Typical QA daily work includes test strategy and architecture design, process implementation, test analysis and design, manual and automated test execution, and, for larger teams, test enablement and quality system building.

03 In organizations without a dedicated QA department, cultivating junior QA staff is challenging; systematic training, mentorship, and a virtual QA department led by senior QA can provide the necessary guidance and career development.

04 Managing test cases and knowledge transfer is difficult when test steps are overly detailed or too high‑level; adopting agile left‑shift practices and living documentation can improve maintainability while ensuring sufficient business context for execution.

05 In summary, QA’s primary goal is to help projects meet quality requirements; low‑quality projects may forego QA, but high‑quality projects must allocate adequate QA resources or provide sufficient time and cross‑role support to embed quality throughout development.

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