Anil Kondla
Last Updated on July 16, 2024 by Team Experts
Software testing and quality assurance is a time-intensive ordeal. These processes reduce maintenance costs and enhance usability and functionality while ensuring a quality product before going live. It comprises a set of activities whose sole purpose is to find errors in the system so that you can correct them before the system reaches the customer.
Why software testing?
A software system can never be a hundred percent bug-free, and testing aims to show the presence of defects in the system as it reduces the probability of undiscovered defects remaining in the system. Overall, it is a filter to catch defects before the customer discovers them, and in doing so, it assures quality and saves money.
Importance of efficient testing
A ‘test case’ is generated when an end-user runs a program. As testers, you want your test cases to find the defect before the customer does. It’s important to remember that exhaustive testing is impossible when working on a complex software system with many sub-components. Additionally, the absence of errors is a fallacy, and as competent software testers, you should never give in to such a narrative. If you don’t run the necessary tests, you are potentially undermining the system quality that’ll cost a lot to fix – plus, maintenance of such a system is a nightmare for both devs and testers alike.
For instance, when working on a complex system such as housekeeping software with many powerful features such as complete integration with customer PMS, scheduling, and reporting components, you must run test cases and test plans to ensure that the software follows the requirement specification and fulfills customer expectations.
Tips for effective testing
Insufficient testing causes the resulting system to be defective, increasing the chance of stakeholder dissatisfaction, bad user experience, and delayed product launches. Here are twelve tips that help you catch more critical bugs while improving testing efficiency.
1. Prepare a test plan that considers every aspect of the developed software
A skilled and experienced tester like the QA lead should write a test plan. Project budgets, scope planning, activity definition, schedule testing, risk identification, workforce acquisition, procurement planning, and other factors should all occur in a solid test plan.
2. Understand what you are testing
Software testing should go hand in hand with the development processes and appear early in the software development lifecycle. The testers should know what goes on in the requirement collection and design phase. As a result, testers will better understand system dependability, resulting in more extensive test coverage. If you are not invited to participate in this development cycle, ask your lead or manager to include your testing team in decision-making processes and meetings. Additionally, speak with developers to learn more about the product.
3. Early testing
Start looking for defects as soon as possible since the earlier a bug is caught, the easier it is to resolve. A bug discovered during the design stage is ten times less expensive than one found during the development stage. It is also a hundred times less expensive than one caught after launch.
4. Remain positive throughout the process
Ensure you are testing the application to discover problems and mistakes. Don’t assume there won’t be any problems with the program ahead of time. If you test an application to find defects, you will almost certainly identify even the most subtle issues.
5. Develop test cases early in the development lifecycle
You’ll be able to confirm that all of the requirements are tested this way. Write test cases for desired functionality first, i.e., for valid conditions according to specifications, while developing test cases. Then, build test cases for invalid conditions. This will allow you to test the application for what it is not supposed to do and include expected and unexpected application behavior during testing.
6. Ensure maximum test coverage
Break down your application under test into smaller functional units to guarantee optimum test coverage. Create test cases for each of these unit modules. Break these modules down into smaller pieces if at all possible.
7. Compile detailed bug reports
A bug report is essential in testing as it helps identify and resolve similar bugs in the future. Not only should you describe bug descriptions, but you should also provide bug impacts and all feasible solutions. Other essential points include the testing method used, developed test cases, data used, and the results.
8. Share your test cases with the developer
Don’t keep your test cases to yourself in the hopes of logging more defects once the finished application is out for testing. Allow developers to study your test cases to create a high-quality application. This will also cut down on rework time.
9. Thoroughly test complex applications with critical response time for performance
Many applications require extensive performance testing. Due to the absence of needed performance testing for large data sets, this part of manual testing is frequently overlooked by testers. Learn how to run performance testing on your application. If manually creating test data is impossible, implement some simple scripts to generate test data for performance testing or ask engineers to do so for you.
10. Perform regression testing to measure the impact of change
It is crucial to perform this test after recent code changes to ensure that the changes did not adversely affect the system’s functionality and features. It involves re-running existing test cases to ensure existing functionalities work fine. You can ease regression testing by identifying and grouping your test scenarios. Manual regression testing will become faster and more effective as a result of this.
Final words
Software testing is a creative as well as a challenging undertaking. Developers must always test their code before merging, branching, or putting it into production, as it is not just the responsibility of the QA team and testing team. Effective testing techniques are dependent on the tester’s ability and expertise. Proper testing can save time and money, enhance software quality, and gain customer satisfaction.
You will be able to examine every part of the software system with the help of software testing to assure quality. Software testing, for example, can be used to check the compatibility of a software product with other systems. As a result, if you successfully identify an issue, you will have the option of correcting it. Hence, the product is more likely to gain customer satisfaction, and you will slowly but surely rise to prominence. Finally, how you approach testing is entirely dependent on your ability and experience.
