Quality Gates

Quality gates are an essential mechanism in no-code development, ensuring that each stage of the project meets predefined criteria before advancing to the next. This structured approach helps teams maintain high standards for application stability, usability, and performance. Quality gates are particularly important for Everyday Delivery—the continuous cycle of development and improvement common in no-code environments.

A quality gate is a checkpoint or set of conditions that a no-code application must pass before moving to the next stage of development or before deployment. These gates are crucial for maintaining the integrity of the application, ensuring that it is fully functional, secure, and meets user requirements at every step. In no-code projects, where the speed of delivery is high, quality gates help prevent the introduction of defects by ensuring thorough testing and validation at each stage.

• Business Value: It's essential to ensure the no-code application is delivering the expected business value as defined by the Business Use Case in the project’s early stages. Much later in the lifecycle, you will then use Feedback loops and Application Audits to validate if the application is meeting the expected outcomes. This ongoing validation ensures that the no-code project continues to align with business goals and delivers tangible results for the organization.

• Functionality: Focuses on validating that the application's features work as intended, ensuring core functionality and business rules are met.

• Governance Checks: Enforces compliance with security, privacy, and data governance standards, especially before deployment to production.

• User Validation: Ensures that end-user feedback is incorporated early and often, helping catch usability or functional issues before they reach production. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) plays a key role here, especially during the First Release stage.

In no-code projects, user validation plays a crucial role in testing the quality of an application. During key stages like Stage 5: Prototype to MVP and Stage 8: First Release, engaging users to test and validate the app ensures it meets real-world needs. User Acceptance Testing (UAT) during the First Release stage is one of the final quality gates, where users assess if the application delivers on the business objectives before it goes live. This user-focused validation is critical for reducing the risk of rework or unmet expectations after deployment.

Stages in the No-Code Lifecycle Relevant to Quality Gates

• Stage 1: Business Use Case: Ensures that the business use case is sufficiently defined, clearly outlining the goals, processes, and expected business outcomes before development begins.

• Stage 3: Design and Prototyping: Ensures that the design aligns with business requirements and stakeholder expectations.

• Stage 4: Project Assignment: Validates that the MVP is complete and ready for development, ensuring it delivers both business value and sufficient usability.

• Stage 5: Prototype to MVP: Functional and integration testing occurs here, confirming that the core components are ready.

• Stage 6: Feedback Loop: Feedback from users helps iterate on features, ensuring continuous quality improvements.

• Stage 7: Governance Checks: Validates security, compliance, and governance before the application is deployed.

• Stage 8: First Release: Final quality gate includes user acceptance testing and business validation.

• Stage 12: Application Audit: Conducts periodic reviews to ensure the application is delivering the expected business value and adhering to governance standards.