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(→‎Mobilising Armies: added the eventual release date as it mentions it being delayed multiple times people might want to know when it was eventually released)
(lot of pr bullshit)
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{{References needed}}
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'''Quality assurance''' or '''"QA"''' is a team at ''[[Jagex]]'' made to assure that all new content within the game and on the website is as high quality as possible within a time frame. QA works from a player's point of view and tries to remove any [[bug]]s that may arise while playing ''[[RuneScape]]'' or visiting the website.
  
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[[File:Qalogo.gif|right]]
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'''Quality assurance''', or '''"QA"''', is a team at [[Jagex]] that ensures all new content in the game and on the website is of high quality, focusing on the stability and usability of the content. RuneScape QA serves three key games: ''RuneScape'', ''[[Old School RuneScape]]'', and ''[[Chronicle: RuneScape Legends]]''.
   
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==Role of QA==
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==Role==
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QA was put into place by ''Jagex'' to assure that the game runs smoothly and is high quality for the players that play the game. They test new updates to make sure that there are no bugs. If there is a bug the material will be sent back to the development team to be fixed.
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QA assure that the game runs smoothly and is high quality for the players. They test new updates to make sure that there are no bugs, but are also responsible for maintaining all of the content in the live game through investigating player reports, and submitting feedback for post-release changes based on player suggestions.
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===Briefing===
  
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Before all of this, QA works with the development teams in what is called a "briefing stage". QA works with the development to become familiar with the material that is going to be created and gives feedback that explains foreseeable difficulties that may arise during the coding stage and the rest of the development.
  
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Quality assurance at ''RuneScape'' plays a bigger part in the development of content than other gaming companies because ''Jagex'' wants to ensure that they can release new content that is high quality.
  
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[[File:Qalogo.gif|frame|The Quality Assurance team's logo]]
  
   
 
===Testing===
  
===Testing===
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{{Cquote2|Of the handful of bugs that do make it into the game, the QA team have already found several hundreds of them before the content is launched.|Mod Stacey{{CiteGeneral |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VVZWOUFCxM |title=Mod Stacey + Mod Cocoa Discuss RuneScape QA Testing - RuneShark's Jagex HQ Visit |accessdate=2015-08-04 |author=RuneShark |date=1 May 2012 |format=YouTube video}}}}
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Testing is a stage during Quality assurance's work where they test the new content when it has been developed and come up with errors in the coding and other things to make the game better and easier to use. They aren't just playing the game how the average player would, they try to test every possible thing in order to make sure that everything is possible.
  
   
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The Quality Assurance team tests new content after it has been developed and tries to find errors to help make the game better and easier to use.
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{{Cquote2|"Imagine: if you're testing a racing game, you're not just completing laps all day. You're trying to drive the car outside of the track or crash it into things to see if the game breaks."
  
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'''|Mod LewisG - Behind The Scenes - Quality Assurance}}
  
   
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Playing the game is only part of what the Quality Assurance team goes through during their part of the development process. Checklists make sure that the new content works right and meshes with the content already in the game. Each of these tests has to be done many different times under a number of different conditions.
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However, QA does play for fun just like a player would. This allows them to make sure that the content that they are putting into the game is actually content that a player would take time to play.
  
   
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Even after all of this testing, opening the content up to millions of players brings out problems that the QA team has missed. Players also work to fix the bugs by sending in feedback and bug reports – it would almost be impossible to fix all of the bugs on release, as there are hundreds of thousands of players for every QA team member.
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{{Cquote2|"During initial testing, you have to assume the mindset of a normal player, playing through as they would."
  
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'''Mod Martin - Behind the scenes - Quality Assurance}}
  
   
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===Bug reports===
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Playing the game is only part of what the Quality assurance team goes through during their part of the development process. They have check-lists to make sure that every single piece of the new content is working right and meshing perfectly with the content already in the game. Each of these tests has to be done many different times under a number of different conditions. Even after all of this testing opening the content up to millions of players brings out problems that were unpredictable for the QA team.
  
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Players can submit bug reports to the QA team in-game; however, more often than not, the QA team receive bugs that do not have enough information to investigate, due to lack of detail. It is also common for the QA team to receive reports that are not actual bugs, due to it often being player confusion.{{Fact}}
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Players work to fix the bugs also by sending in feedback and bug reports. It would almost be impossible to fix all of the bugs the first time because there are 250,000 players for every QA team member.
  
   
 
===Live maintenance===
  
===Live maintenance===
 
Live maintenance is the Quality Assurance's job in which they track what the players are saying about new content by reading the forums and checking bugs sent in by the bug tracker. They alert the developers to the problem and the developers work to fix the bug. Good and bad feedback helps the QA team to learn what the players that play ''RuneScape'' enjoy.
  
Live maintenance is the Quality Assurance's job in which they track what the players are saying about new content by reading the forums and checking bugs sent in by the bug tracker. They alert the developers to the problem and the developers work to fix the bug. Good and bad feedback helps the QA team to learn what the players that play ''RuneScape'' enjoy.
   
  +
The Quality Assurance team also investigate all player bug reports, and submit reports to the development team for fixing. They classify bugs as Critical, Major or Minor which the development team use as an indicator for its urgency, so they can shift workload to ensure fixes are released in good time. The QA team confirm the bug fixes in their development and release build, before confirming it can go live to RuneScape players.{{Fact}}
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==QA disruptions==
  
  +
  +
==Teams==
  +
===Scrum team===
  +
Jagex has several Scrum teams that focus on creating individual, unique pieces of content. The QA team are embedded within the development team, meaning that they work directly next to the developers, designers and artists to deliver content as a small focused team. They are involved in the content from beginning to end, contributing toward the design and development, before focusing on the testing and maintenance of content for years to come. Some QA members are skilled enough in code to create their own content, while being supervised by senior developers.
  +
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===Release team===
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In 2014, Jagex formed a QA team that handle all of the releases before being handed to ''RuneScape'' players. Any content that is required for a release is packaged together into a single build, so that the Release QA team are able to confirm that all of the required content has come together safely, and has not conflicted with other areas of the game. They perform both manual, and automated tests to ensure build stability, and also confirm any bug fixes for existing content that are due to go out into the live game. This team plays a vital role within the development process, and it is this team that allows Scrum teams to focus on the next big thing, without having to worry about re-testing everything in a new build.{{Fact}}
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  ⚫
===QA staff===
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In 2013 Jagex introduced a career path for the ''RuneScape'' QA team, allowing team members to progress from QA Tester, to Senior and Lead roles. This also included the creation of the Junior role, which is used to hire people that have limited, or no QA experience and are trained on the job. It is common for Jagex to place players into Junior roles as they have no previous QA experience.{{Fact}}
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{| class="wikitable"
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!Moderator
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!Role
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|-
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|Mod Cocoa
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|QA Manager
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|-
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|Mod Stacey
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|QA Team Leader
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|-
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|Mod Grem
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|Lead QA Tools Developer
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|-
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|Mod Dorando
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|Lead QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod James H
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|Lead QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod TomH
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|Lead QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Deadly
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|Senior QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Sarah
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|Senior QA Analyst
  +
|-
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|Mod Kristy
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|Senior QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod B3
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|Senior QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Chaose
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|QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Manti
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|QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Ramen
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|QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Harrison
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|QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Cuppa
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|QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Giara
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|QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Curse
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|Junior QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Wolf
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|Junior QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Dolan
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|Junior QA Analyst
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|-
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|Mod Shogun
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|Junior QA Analyst
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|}
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==Disruptions==
 
Quality assurance provides a unique opportunity to make the game better, but it can also slow down the development process severely. If QA sees something that they don't like they will send it back to the developers. The developers will fix it, but that isn't the end of the process. The fixed material will go back the Quality assurance team to be looked at again. Depending on how perfect the team wants the material to be, this process can go on and on.
  
Quality assurance provides a unique opportunity to make the game better, but it can also slow down the development process severely. If QA sees something that they don't like they will send it back to the developers. The developers will fix it, but that isn't the end of the process. The fixed material will go back the Quality assurance team to be looked at again. Depending on how perfect the team wants the material to be, this process can go on and on.
   
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==References==
  
==References==
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{{Reflist}}
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*[[Update:Future PvP Updates]]
  
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*[[Update:Behind the Scenes - October (2008)]]
  
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*[[Update:Behind the Scenes - November (2008)]]
  
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*[[Update:Behind the Scenes - December (2008)]]
  
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*[[Mobilising armies]]
  
   
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[[Category:Jagex]]
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{{reflist}}
  
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[[Category:Game info]]
  

Revision as of 21:00, 4 August 2015

Meeting notes
 This article lacks references.
This page has unsourced or disputed statements. Please cite relevant sources. For more information, see here.
Qalogo

Quality assurance, or "QA", is a team at Jagex that ensures all new content in the game and on the website is of high quality, focusing on the stability and usability of the content. RuneScape QA serves three key games: RuneScape, Old School RuneScape, and Chronicle: RuneScape Legends.

Role

QA assure that the game runs smoothly and is high quality for the players. They test new updates to make sure that there are no bugs, but are also responsible for maintaining all of the content in the live game through investigating player reports, and submitting feedback for post-release changes based on player suggestions.

Testing

“ Of the handful of bugs that do make it into the game, the QA team have already found several hundreds of them before the content is launched. ”
 
— Mod Stacey[1]

The Quality Assurance team tests new content after it has been developed and tries to find errors to help make the game better and easier to use.

Playing the game is only part of what the Quality Assurance team goes through during their part of the development process. Checklists make sure that the new content works right and meshes with the content already in the game. Each of these tests has to be done many different times under a number of different conditions.

Even after all of this testing, opening the content up to millions of players brings out problems that the QA team has missed. Players also work to fix the bugs by sending in feedback and bug reports – it would almost be impossible to fix all of the bugs on release, as there are hundreds of thousands of players for every QA team member.

Bug reports

Players can submit bug reports to the QA team in-game; however, more often than not, the QA team receive bugs that do not have enough information to investigate, due to lack of detail. It is also common for the QA team to receive reports that are not actual bugs, due to it often being player confusion.[source needed]

Live maintenance

Live maintenance is the Quality Assurance's job in which they track what the players are saying about new content by reading the forums and checking bugs sent in by the bug tracker. They alert the developers to the problem and the developers work to fix the bug. Good and bad feedback helps the QA team to learn what the players that play RuneScape enjoy.

The Quality Assurance team also investigate all player bug reports, and submit reports to the development team for fixing. They classify bugs as Critical, Major or Minor which the development team use as an indicator for its urgency, so they can shift workload to ensure fixes are released in good time. The QA team confirm the bug fixes in their development and release build, before confirming it can go live to RuneScape players.[source needed]

Teams

Scrum team

Jagex has several Scrum teams that focus on creating individual, unique pieces of content. The QA team are embedded within the development team, meaning that they work directly next to the developers, designers and artists to deliver content as a small focused team. They are involved in the content from beginning to end, contributing toward the design and development, before focusing on the testing and maintenance of content for years to come. Some QA members are skilled enough in code to create their own content, while being supervised by senior developers.

Release team

In 2014, Jagex formed a QA team that handle all of the releases before being handed to RuneScape players. Any content that is required for a release is packaged together into a single build, so that the Release QA team are able to confirm that all of the required content has come together safely, and has not conflicted with other areas of the game. They perform both manual, and automated tests to ensure build stability, and also confirm any bug fixes for existing content that are due to go out into the live game. This team plays a vital role within the development process, and it is this team that allows Scrum teams to focus on the next big thing, without having to worry about re-testing everything in a new build.[source needed]

QA staff

In 2013 Jagex introduced a career path for the RuneScape QA team, allowing team members to progress from QA Tester, to Senior and Lead roles. This also included the creation of the Junior role, which is used to hire people that have limited, or no QA experience and are trained on the job. It is common for Jagex to place players into Junior roles as they have no previous QA experience.[source needed]

Moderator Role
Mod Cocoa QA Manager
Mod Stacey QA Team Leader
Mod Grem Lead QA Tools Developer
Mod Dorando Lead QA Analyst
Mod James H Lead QA Analyst
Mod TomH Lead QA Analyst
Mod Deadly Senior QA Analyst
Mod Sarah Senior QA Analyst
Mod Kristy Senior QA Analyst
Mod B3 Senior QA Analyst
Mod Chaose QA Analyst
Mod Manti QA Analyst
Mod Ramen QA Analyst
Mod Harrison QA Analyst
Mod Cuppa QA Analyst
Mod Giara QA Analyst
Mod Curse Junior QA Analyst
Mod Wolf Junior QA Analyst
Mod Dolan Junior QA Analyst
Mod Shogun Junior QA Analyst

Disruptions

Quality assurance provides a unique opportunity to make the game better, but it can also slow down the development process severely. If QA sees something that they don't like they will send it back to the developers. The developers will fix it, but that isn't the end of the process. The fixed material will go back the Quality assurance team to be looked at again. Depending on how perfect the team wants the material to be, this process can go on and on.

Mobilising Armies

This process can be seen first hand in a case such as Mobilising Armies. Mobilising Armies was revealed in a behind the scenes (Update:Future PvP Updates) on 15 August 2008 along with other future PVP updates including Stealing creation. In November 2008 Jagex confirmed the release date to be in December. In December Jagex revealed that they would release the minigame in early 2009. In the Update:Behind the Scenes - February (2009) Jagex revealed once again that they were postponing the release date to later in the year. It was then revealed in the forums that it would be sent to QA again as of 5 May 2009. After all the delays, it was eventually released in July of that year.

References

  1. ^ RuneShark. Mod Stacey + Mod Cocoa Discuss RuneScape QA Testing - RuneShark's Jagex HQ Visit (YouTube video). 1 May 2012.*
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