Professionals should at first love and respect whatever they do. That is the first step towards earning satisfaction in the professional field. Things are the same in case of software testing. This particular type of job, being a highly technical one, demands a lot of immaculate planning, backed by some high class expertise.
However, the first and foremost things that are needed to excel in any profession are love and respect for the job. These two parameters can bring the best out of a professional. Things are same in case of software testing. Five most crucial elements of software testing are testing strategy, testing plan, evaluation of various test cases, test data, test environment. Now all these elements are highly technical. Unless a tester really loves taking care of them, they are bound to rock the life of that tester in a wrong way! So, if a tester loves the job, it's because the professional loves the challenges these elements throw up. So a software tester essentially loves the challenges that the job comes up with. Let us be a bit more particular in the discussion.
Software testing is complicated
This particular profession is such that, nothing is straightforward. Moreover, quality is much more important than the quantity of work. That is where the real challenge lies. A tester needs to take into account a wide variety of things into consideration. This naturally imparts a tinge of variation into the work, which also throws up a challenge. This is another factor that the testers would love to accept.
When we speak of variation, it may include a wide range of problems, difference in the technologies that are used to troubleshoot them, variety in expectations and objectives of businesses, behavioural variations of the users, priorities, performance, threats, TAT or deadlines, process and so on. Each of these elements differs from one another to a great extent. Besides, they also provide testing problems that deviate from one another in a great way. This is what the testers love!
It provides suitable scope for exploration
The job asks for a lot of thinking – or in other words, a lot of exploration, innovation along with a great amount of creative inputs. This creative touch that the work carries with it, adds a lot of variety, which is loved by the professionals. The variations in test cases add a lot of challenges. That is the real fun that these professionals appreciate. Frankly speaking, a thorough understanding of the systems and possibilities of encountering unexpected issues make this profession all the more charming. The presence of so many options while executing tests, backed by availability of packs of tools is the real beauty of the work that inspires the testers. This takes the discussion to another point.
Availability of a number of tools for testing
Majority of testers would think testing is fun because of the availability of a number of tools that come up with a lot of varieties. The fact that there are scopes of experimentation with newer tools every now and then, makes testing a job full of variety as well as challenge. This makes the job so much attractive to the testers.
In short, job of a software tester is always thought-provoking and stimulating. As the technicalities of the systems get more and more complex, the likelihood of detecting increased number of bugs increases. This provides more chances of bug hunting – something that adds fun to the work.
Software testing is therefore the hot job that is suitable for individuals who love taking up challenges. This is the factor that adds colour to the profession, making it so much acceptable as well as adorable to the professionals. If you are planning to hire software testing company, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!
We provide qa and testing services. If you would like to hire software testers for your projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
When it comes to testing a particular software, it can be done in two ways – manually and automatically. So 'Which is better – manual testing and automated testing” has always been a hot topic to be debated on, over a cup of coffee or two. Let us discuss the pros and cons of both the types of software evaluation to come to a credible conclusion. May be that will stop this continuous discussion and settle the dust of war to some extent.
Before we start the comparison, let us at first define the two types of evaluation.
Manual Testing
This type of assessment involves evaluating a particular software manually, or in other words, without the use of any automatic tool or any type of script whatsoever. During this type of software debugging, the tester plays the role of the end user and evaluates the software to ascertain as well as identify any loophole, unanticipated behaviour or presence of any bug. The entire process of manual evaluation involves certain stages viz. Unit Testing, Integration Testing, System Testing and finally, User Acceptance Testing. Testers use various types of test plans, test cases, and/or test scenarios to evaluate the efficacy of a software before it is made live. This particular method of software appraisal also involves exploratory testing for exploring as well as identifying the errors or defects (if any).
Automated Testing
Automatic S/W debugging, also referred to as Test Automation, involves a process of S/W evaluation, wherein the tester writes down a script and uses any other S/W for evaluating a particular software. Automated evaluation is generally used for simulating certain scenarios that were performed repeatedly, quickly and at the same time, manually.
Besides regressive evaluation, automated evaluation also involves testing applications from perspective of load, performance as well as stress. Technically speaking, automatic evaluation improves accuracy, helps in more time as well as money savings, when compared to manual evaluation.
Now, let us discuss the pros and cons of manual and automated debugging.
Advantages of Manual Testing
- Manual appraisal is a fantastic option when a test case turns “twice a coding milestone'. In these cases, opting for automatic appraisals will result in unnecessary expenses.
- This type of evaluation would allow the tester to perform increased number of ad-hoc or random evaluation. This type of assessment would help in detection of more bugs as well as defects than automated debugging. The more time the tester spends in going through the features of the S/W, the greater will be the odds of identifying real user loopholes or bugs.
Disadvantages of Manual Testing
- Running S/W debugging manually can be at times, extremely time consuming
- Every time the software is modified, the tester has to go through the entire process, rerunning all the tests yet again. This after some time, can get extremely tiresome as well as mundane. This, at the end of the day also causes fatigue to creep into the back of the tester's mind, dropping the perfection level by a considerable extent.
Advantages of Automated Testing
- In case there is a need to run a series of tests repeatedly, automated debugging is the best choice.
- It helps the tester by providing the option of running automation against the codes that time and again changes. This helps to timely catch the regressions.
- This type of evaluation provides a tester the option of running automation in the mainstream scenarios for timely catching regressions.
- This mode of S/W evaluation also helps in relatively larger test matrix (different languages for different Operating System platforms). Another advantage of this type of evaluation is that they can be conducted on different machines simultaneously. Manual tests on the other hand, can be conducted sequentially.
Disadvantages of Automated Testing
- The expenses involved in automated testing is definitely more than manual debugging. Writing down test cases, configuring or writing automatic framework will invariably cost more than running manual evaluation.
- In spite of its number of benefits, one little problem with automatic testing is that it is unable to automate the visual references.
Let us discuss a few other deciding factors relating to automated and manual software testing.
- The tools that are used to determine what is to be automated. If there are any limitations in the tools, the tests are supposed to be manual.
- It is also to be decided if there is considerable ROI with automation. Again, it should be evaluated whether switching to automatic S/W evaluation will yield results that will justify the decision.
Since, majority of companies prefer automated software evaluation, let us discuss a few things about the same:
Things to Automate
Automating everything in a particular software package is virtually impossible. However, there are certain areas that can be automated to make certain transactions less cumbersome as well as faster. Generally, the areas of a package that is dealt by a large number of users (for e.g. Login Form, Registration Form) are automated, so that multiple number of users can have access to these areas simultaneously.
Besides, all the Graphic User Interface items, connections with various databases and field variations and the likes can be tested properly with the use of automated process rather than with manual process.
Time to automate
Automatic software evaluation can be conducted in the following situations:
- At the time of processing huge and critical projects
- During projects that need repetitive testing of the same areas
- When the objectives and requirements do not change that frequently and remain more or less constant.
- While accessing applications with multiple virtual users for load as well as performance appraisal
- While testing a stable software package
You can hire testers from top automation testing companies in India who can help you to test your projects within allocated budgets and time schedules.
We provide test automation services. If you would like to hire certified automation testers for your projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
In the software industry, the terms testing and quality assurance (QA) are used interchangeably. Many organizations even deploy a team of dedicated testers, and name it QA department. While considering software QA as a separate process, most organizations undervalue its significance as a significant and ongoing process. In nutshell, software quality assurance can be defined as the methods used to ensure quality by monitoring different software engineering processes constantly. However, the methods of QA can vary according to the nature and requirement of the software development approach. Along with adopting ISO 9000 standards, an organization can further ensure quality by adopting CMMI model. But each organization must consider QA as an integral part of the overall software development process, instead of isolating it as a distinct department.
Why Organizations Must Consider Quality Assurance as a Key Process?
1. Easy to Adopt Agile Processes: A constant increase is noted in the number of organizations adopting Agile methods to iterate software development projects. Along with making it easier to incorporate changed during different stages of development, the methodology further emphasizes on delivering high quality. With companies constantly exploring options to reduce project cost and time to market, it has become essential to ensure quality from the initial stages of the project. So organizations must integrate QA in each development process to avail the many advantages of Agile methods.
2. Address Different Changes: While developing a software application, the company has to address both technical and business quality issues. As the application needs to be developed rapidly within a stipulated timeframe, there are always chances the defects may naturally creep into the software. Similarly, the constant changes in end-user requirements results in several business quality issues. These issues must be addresses during each stage of development to deliver rich user experience. Thus, QA must be integrated into the development processes from the initial stages to handle different quality issues without putting any extra time.
3. Meet Exact Needs of a Business: The enterprise software applications are developed to solve specific business problems efficiently. So there must not be any gap between the end user requirements and the software delivered by development. The software also needs to be evaluated at various stages of development according to the requirements of the client. Further, there are chances that the client will want new features and functionalities to be included in the software during development. So QA must be integrated seamlessly with each development process to ensure that the product is meeting end user requirements exactly.
4. Save Both Time and Resources: Most business software applications, nowadays, need to be integrated with third-party solutions and services to deliver rich user experience. Further, the complex and complicated nature of the applications makes it a daunting task to complete the project on time. The extremely tight deadline also does not allow organizations to take additional time to evaluate the software’s efficiency and performance. When an organization considers QA as a distinct department, the testing professionals evaluate the software once the development is over. So many organizations are adopting test-based software development model to save both time and resources.
5. Facilitates Distributed Development: Within a short span of time, distributed software development has becomes widely popular among companies as a medium to curtail project cost. Many organizations deploy seasoned software developers and QA engineers who work in different regions. When a software program is being developed in a distributed environment, it becomes essential for the organization to integrate quality assurance in each process. When software testing is conducted at the end of development, there are always chances that the developers have to rework. But the gap between the end user requirements and software developed in a distributed environment can be eliminated by adopting QA as an integral part of the overall development process.
As an ongoing process, software quality assurance further makes it easier for enterprises to beat competition. Along with reducing time to market, the process will further make the software application popular by delivering flawless user experience. If you are planning to hire testing software companies, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!
We provide QA and testing services. If you would like to hire software testing engineer for your software projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
A gradual increase is noted in the number of organizations developing software applications in distributed environments. Under distributed development plan, bulk of the software development and testing efforts are outsourced to developing countries to curtain the project overheads, while a small team of consultants or in-house manages work on site with the business stakeholders. Further, many organizations implement Agile methods in the distributed environment to deliver quality software on time and on budget. According to the 8th Annual STATE OF AGILE survey, over 35% of software development companies use Agile with distributed development teams. So your organization can avail several advantages by using Agile to address some of the common problems related to distributed development.
Why Over 35% Companies Apply Agile Methodology to Distributed Development?
Facilitates Uninterrupted Communication
The Agile methodology facilitates smooth and uninterrupted communication among distributed teams regardless of their geographic location. Along with one-to- one communication, the methods further emphasize on on-the-fly interaction between team members. According to the methodology, an organization has to allow remote team members and project owners to communicate in a real time environment through emails, conference calls, video conferencing and texting. So the organization can eliminate the need to schedule formal meetings required according to the conventional project management methods. An organization can further avail competitive advantages by adopting Agile communication model.
Maintains Transparency across Distributed Teams
Unlike conventional project management techniques, Agile methodology emphasizes on uniting the members of distributed teams to unite around the team’s common goals and vision. The elimination of ownership silos results in code sharing and training among team members. At the same time, the Agile methods further require the project information to be shared continuously between stakeholders, product owners and development teams. The daily scrum or standup meetings between different stakeholders ensures that each party stay tuned to the current status of the project. Also, the frequent reviewing of requirements makes it easier to incorporate changes in the process to deliver better usability results.
Optimizes Decision Making Process
Often companies find it a daunting task to take quick decision in a distributed development environment. Along with defining the team’s common goals and vision to each member, Agile methods further empower distributed teams to decide how to complete the assigned tasks on schedule. So each distributed team can carry out its activities without waiting for the centralized management’s direction or approval. At the same time, each member of team clearly understands his responsibilities, along with having the authority required to take sound decisions according to the iteration’s requirements. So the prompt decision making process is no way affected by the different geographical locations of the teams.
Enhances Scope for Automated Software Testing
The Agile methods further optimize the scope of automated software testing in a distributed environment. As many developers can make changes to the code in a distributed environment, there are chances that feedback received from a tester many become both faulty and outdated. So automation testing techniques are used to share quick and reliable feedback with development teams. As end-to-end use cases to written to constantly evaluate the software’s critical features, the testing can be completely automated to deliver flawless user experience. At the same time, each team can use automated test metrics to set goals and keep track of progress. These metrics will further help the teams in identifying the issues that slow down the performance, despite not having any impact on the products.
When you decide to use Agile methods in a distributed development environment, it becomes essential to make and implement a comprehensive plan. The inclusive environment created by embracing Agile methodology will further make it easier for your organization to meet widespread challenges. However, it is also important to avoid adopting a specific process or methodology without evaluating specific requirements of the software development project. If you are planning to hire software testing companies, you must evaluate them to see if they are sufficiently agile or not!
We provide agile software testing services. If you would like to hire software testing engineer for your software projects, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
The software market is ever-expanding and with that it is being targeted by new applications launched by companies. This has made the development process more complicated and complex. The work of software developers has become consistently aimed towards the fixing of functions, mistakes, errors and bugs so that user experience can be improved. They also have to ensure the smooth performance of the software in varying environments so that it becomes successful. For this, effective techniques for software testing must be deployed by the companies so that effort, time and money can be saved. The size and nature of project determines the method adopted for software testing. But all in all the easy-to-use and flexible nature makes automated software testing extremely popular.
Benefits
Saving time- The testing process is actually sped up resulting in the shortening of the lifecycle of testing along with saving a lot of time. Scripts can be easily run in the night which gives you night shift and day shift. Moreover, you will be able to run scripts on multiple platforms as well as multiple machines at the same time. But the major advantage is the running of the scripts that is a hundred times faster when compared to manual tester. So no more deploying teams of professionals for testing and investing of more resources as well as time. This helps you to save both resources and time. In fact you can target many user interfaces simply by reusing the scripts.
More effective utilization of manpower- This evaluation helps you apply your time along with skills elsewhere. Automation allows for the execution of most regression as well as functional testing unattended. If compared with manual testing, manually just new feature validation can be carried out but automated evaluation may be used for regression as well. Other areas like security as well as performance can be showered with more attention if you can relegate the testing responsibilities.
Repeated testing easily conducted- Some specific tests have to be administered repeatedly sometimes, so that all bases can be covered. Since generally the projects have complex nature repeated testing manually results in a lot of effort to be put in there. In fact bugs along with glitches are hard to find in case of manual evaluation but in this once the tests are configured according to some parameters, the tests can be administered over and over again.
Cross-platform applications tested quickly- For applications to be successful each must be compatible with the major devices as well as operating systems. So cross-platform applications are developed by major companies these days. So a web application developed should run on web browser like Opera, Chrome, Firefox as well as Internet Explorer. To make sure all the functionality and features of it are supported by major operating systems along with web browsers the testing team must put in lots of efforts as well as time. However, automation of testing process ensures that the performance evaluation can be done easily.
Increasing coverage- With this kind of evaluation the coverage scope increases drastically. Same tests can be done on multiple configurations. With more configurations you can reap more benefits. Each and every feature of your application is covered by regression suites, even those which may have been tough to manually accomplish according to the size of your application. The identical automation code can be reused with just some minor modifications.
Precision along with accuracy- After a few rounds of manual evaluation, the entire process tends to get boring and attention span starts to wane, leading to mistakes. Using tools will lead to the same tests being performed perfectly as well as results being checked every time.
Utilization of tools cannot act as substitutes for testers themselves; rather they help the testers perform the job better. In fact, sometimes there can be no substitute for manual evaluation. But having a strategy for test automation outlines the parts which are perfect for manual evaluation and which are suited for automation. This helps you enjoy the benefits of both the worlds. You can hire testers from top automation testing companies in India who can help you build mobile apps within allocated budgets and time schedules.
We have a large team of certified automation testers. If you are looking forward to outsource automation testing services, please get in touch with us. We will be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.
QuickTest Pro is a function, fully automated and functional for graphical user interface testing, say experts. Yes, we are talking about the invention of HP, the Quick Test Professional (QTP). This is a tool which allows users to have their actions done online automated on a real time basis. The same can be said for those who work on client based needs and even with apps meant for desktop use as well.
What Quick Test Pro can do
- It integrates itself with the well known quality center
- Test cases can be automated on a real time basis
- Direct execution is now possible from the well known quality center
- Runs your tests through the local system monitoring
- Helps with versioning
- Calls actions dynamically while a test run is being done
- Fully functional library that runs well and at one time
- With XPATH, QTP identifies objects easily
More features
- One can use regular expressions while dynamic object properties are around for simplifications. All of this can be done through regular expression evaluator. The latest version of QTP 11, can help tests with high numbers of expressions, say experts. It helps solve as well as simplify things, no matter how complex they are
- Once the function is set up, the latest version would be worked on by experts as well as engineers, and they will see new properties nestled at object repository visual relation identifier. In doing so, the engineers now would be able to identify which object is what, while the tests are run, which in the past meant writing logics to find objects within the app. In this day, the tool helps find one object's relationship with another with ease.
- The QTP11 result viewer is the best to feel as well as use. Data is summarised and displayed well, there are pie charts that speak of runs, previous or current. Each run has a quick link which brings the past results too.
- Quick Test Pro 10 had the load as well as run action feature, which was used extensively. The latest version has made things high in dynamism along with bringing in better run time loading too. All you have to do is to use the loadfunctionallibrary command, that is it
- QTP11 can be used best with FIREFOX3.6. For this, one would need to install patches and then automate QTP on Firefox, say experts.
- Quick Test Professional 11 can be ordered or instructed to parameterize data input while recording is on, which saves time too
- QTP11 automation helps support silverlight as well, which is an add-in that is shown in the managers column when upgrade from QTP10 is made to QTP11.
- QTP helps users use extensibility accelerator with ease. It is customised, thereby helping with automation support as well. The web controls are strong and they aren’t object oriented. Hence, QTP11 surely rocks!
- CSS and XPATH just like how it was with Selenium, helps with object identification, faster as well as better. The properties thus help QTP11 to come up with a strong presence.
- Service test integration is possible with Quick Test Professional 11. The service testing scripts are now with QTP scripts and this makes it possible to evaluate under various scenarios, including SOA and GUI.
Taking into account all the reviews and studies on QTP11 being done so far, the upgrade is well worth the wait. The transition is painless, and with so much support as well as features available, it is really worth having a look. So go ahead and get the automation site explored with the new and improved Quick Test Pro 11. If you need more help on how to use the automation for the app, there are forums available. For those still on Quick Test Professional 10, upgrading to QTP11 is a must, do not be behind competition! To get maximum benefits of QTP, you may consider hiring services of a certified custom QTP testing company to assist your development needs.
We provide quicktest pro testing services. If you would like to get your application tested by our certified qtp testers India, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
Software testing (ST) is an intricate process and asks for professionals who are highly expert as well as experienced. Even then, they cannot always avoid some technical as well as silly mistakes that spoil their days. That is the reason it is imperative that they follow a specific methodology in order to avoid these mistakes as much as possible. Let us discuss some of the errors that the software professionals normally end up committing. This will perhaps help them to be aware of these mistakes.
1) Using Element of Surprise: At times, technicians or testers are too much enthusiastic to take certain decisions without prior planning with a view to impart an element of surprise and yield the best results almost overnight. They also surprise the team with fresh mandates without any proper planning and go on with a dubious budget. This, to say the least, does not work. On the contrary, it puts the entire scrutiny program in a sort of jeopardy, thereby extending the deadline and shooting up the budget of the client. There is an old saying,“Surprise your team and watch it melt!”
2) Waiting till designing the software is finished: There are a lot of technicians who do not start the scrutiny till the fag end of the application development lifecycle. This is a very serious mistake as this may surprise them with a lot of unpleasant issues that will crop up at the eleventh hour.
3) Run the tests from a single location: This is another common error that software professionals end up doing. You will find a number of professionals conducting performance tests from within firewall mostly because of budget constraints as well as other technical reasons. However, the problem in this kind of ST is that by doing this the testers are unable to gauge the performance of the application and hence are unable to ascertain the performance when the application is used in real world.
4) Using not enough hardcoded data: It is relatively easier to test an application by using a smaller amount of static and hardcoded data. However, the problem is, when you do that it does not give you the right idea of performance that you can expect from the application once it goes live.
5) Testing with the ones who are not experts: In real life scenario, each and every ST assignment generally involves two kinds of experts – testing experts and domain experts. The testing experts are excellent in understanding and picking up the flaws as well as the vulnerabilities, irrespective of the nature of the product. Domain experts mainly pick up the shortcomings and inconsistencies but cannot spot the flaws. However, there are many companies that put the entire responsibility of testing on these domain experts. Do not be like them as this will not yield the best results.
6) Focusing on single use cases: There are ST teams that wash their hands off after testing a single use case while evaluating the performance. This will invariably put the application into troubled waters when it is live as it will not give the testers the true picture of its abilities in real life scenarios.
7) Not doing the BDD: Majority of the STs are technical instead of being functional. However, experts are of the opinion that it is extremely important to test the logical behaviour instead of testing and seeing whether the technical aspects are working flawlessly. This can be conducted with the use of BDD or Behavior Driven Design, without which, application testing remains more or less incomplete.
8) Testing in dbUnit XML dataset: This is another error that the developers end up doing. Often they are seen providing the test data in dbUNit XML dataset. This particular type of data does not represent live data at all. So it is wiser to ask the functional people to provide or maintain this type of test data.
9: Misinterpretation of the QA Role: This is another very common misconception that people have. They end up thinking that it is the responsibility of the testing team to ensure the quality of the application. This, to say the least, is wrong. The testing team only tests the ability of the software in real life scenario. The quality should be taken care of by the QA (Quality Assurance) team after the application passes through the testing barrier.
10) Improper Bug Reporting: Last but not the least, poor or improper bug reporting is a terrible mistake that leads to a lot of unpleasant scenarios. Picking up bugs is not enough – you need to be expert in properly reporting about your findings to the development team so that they can be taken care of appropriately and timely.
There are other mistakes as well when it comes to application testing. It is a highly technical task and there's no wonder that it will involve a lot of technical mistakes. However, we have discussed only 10 of them that normally plague the testing of applications. Mistakes can be kept at bay with use of some common sense and a logical approach and these are the qualities that are expected from a software application testing team. When you hire software testing companies, you must ensure that the team has proven experience in handling medium and large sized testing projects over a long period.
We provide software testing services. If you would like to get your application tested by our certified software testers, please contact us at Mindfire Solutions.
