What stages of quality control (Quality Gates) do you know?

Quality Gates are checkpoints in the software development process where the team decides to move to the next stage based on meeting certain quality criteria.

The main stages of quality control or Quality Gates:

1. Entry Criteria: Checking readiness to start a specific stage (e.g., testing). Includes approved requirements, test documentation, prepared test environment.
2. Exit Criteria: Defining conditions for completing a specific stage (e.g., testing). Often includes:
   • Test coverage (structural and functional).
   • Percentage of critical and high-priority test cases passed.
   • Acceptable number and severity of open defects.
   • Passing regression testing.
3. Static Code Analysis: Checking source code for potential errors, coding standard violations, and vulnerabilities using automated tools (SonarQube, Checkstyle). Criteria may include:
   • No critical warnings.
   • Acceptable level of technical debt.
   • Compliance with formatting rules.
4. Unit Test Results: Checking code coverage by unit tests and their successful execution. Criteria:
   • Specified code coverage percentage (e.g., 80%).
   • No failing unit tests.
5. Integration and System Test Results: Evaluation of test success at different levels of integration. Criteria similar to Exit Criteria but applicable to the respective testing level.
6. Acceptance Test Results: Checking product compliance with business requirements from the user's or customer's perspective. Criteria:
   • Successful completion of key business scenarios.
   • Product approval by the customer or business representative.
7. Security Vulnerability Analysis: Checking for known vulnerabilities using security scanners (OWASP ZAP, Burp Suite). Criteria:
   • No critical vulnerabilities.
   • Acceptable level of medium and low severity vulnerabilities.
8. Performance Analysis: Assessing compliance with response time, throughput, and stability under load. Criteria:
   • Meeting performance metrics.
   • No critical issues under specified loads.
9. Documentation Check: Ensuring the availability and relevance of necessary documentation (user manuals, technical documentation, test reports).

Examples of criteria for Exit Gate testing:

Criterion	Value / Status	Comment
Test case pass rate	> 95% (High/Medium priority)	Excluding test cases blocked by known defects.
Open defects (Severity)	Critical: 0<br> High: <= 3<br> Medium/Low: Agreed	Depends on project policy and risks.
Code coverage (Unit Tests)	> 80%	Target value.
Regression results	100% critical regression tests passed	Checking stability.