Budget for fixing bugs increases 10 times with every new stage of product development. So the earlier you start your software testing process, the more money and nerves you save. Last-minute testing can even provoke a crucial failure that happened with the startup Flud. It just didn’t manage with a big number of uploads due to the lack of stress testing. So how can you ensure the high quality of software testing in your company?
Plan The Testing And QA Processes
“Always choose quality over quantity when delivering software products to the customers”
You can utilize ready-to-use templates. For example, according to the IEEE 829 software testing standard, you have to take into account 19 variables: references, test items, software risk issues, test deliverables, staffing and training needs, schedule, glossary functions and others.
Another option, the Google inquiry technique, is based on a set of software development factors: implementation costs, maintenance costs, monetary costs, risks and benefits.
The standard approach helps you avoid any doubts when preparing a test plan. Following familiar documentation removes arguments in your team and accelerates the process.
Apply Test-Oriented Development Strategies
According to #test-driven development (TDD), you have to create the testing cases first and only then write the code. If the code fails the test, you need to fix it and then move on to the next feature.
Arrange Formal Technical Reviews
It’s a group meeting when software developers evaluate the product or separate features according to the requirements.
You need to prepare the meeting plan in advance to ensure its productivity. Usually, the meeting involves up to five people and takes about two hours. It’s the optimal time to go through an agenda and reach the goals.
One person creates the technical review summary with all mentioned issues and sends this file to all participants.
Apply User Acceptance Testing
User acceptance testing (UAT) shows how good your program is from the end user’s standpoint.
Your software could seem innovative and excellent from technical professionals’ viewpoint but totally unusable for your target audience. Such a situation was described in the popular series “Silicon Valley” when a startup entrepreneur launched a revolutionary technology, but a tricky user interface failed the whole idea.
Hence, you need your customers to estimate your product. You can hire professional UAT testers or engage end users in the review process independently.
As a result, you might get priceless insights for boosting the user-friendliness of your app.
Optimize The Use Of Automated Testing
Automated testing doesn’t fully replace the manual one. But it’s a good solution for covering multiple repetitive testing tasks.
To enhance this process, you can use a test automation framework. It is a set of different tools and guidelines to create test scenarios. The most beneficial functions of such a framework are test data generation, test execution and test results analysis.
Also, testing automated frameworks can scale your business and adapt to the increasing load of your company.
Recently, Facebook’s engineering team published a blog post about how they use SapFix and Sapienz, the AI hybrid tools for testing and debugging. They can autonomously generate various potential fixes for bugs, assess the proposition’s quality and wait for a specialist’s approval.
It is expected that these tools will become open-source software in the near future.
Combine Exploratory And Ad Hoc Testing
These types of testing are based on maximum creativity and extraordinary vision of the product. They seem somewhat similar to the UAT testing, but still, it’s a different approach.
And The Last, But Not Less Important Tip
Build a friendly, encouraging environment for your QA team. Psychological well-being influences a person’s productivity and job performance.
First, define the QA roles. When each team member knows their responsibility area, it stops them from misunderstanding and arguments.
Secondly, encourage communication and cooperation. Arrange team meetings to discuss current issues, hold conversations with teammates in private and organize retrospective meetings to sensibly discuss failures or celebrate success.
Well-built communication is conducive to creativity and helps to complete tasks much faster.