“Collaboration is the safest way to do the business in an efficient and economic way and it has an outstanding track record in the industry. It creates a win-win situation for the participants or partners. Same happens with any tech project development work as well. In fact, IT industry mostly runs with collaborations and that result marvellous end product. The term outsourcing is highly used in relation with IT industry and IT projects; may it be web development work or hardware projects or mechanical projects or our concerned mobile testing projects, outsourcing is always there. Mobile apps are in the highest buzz in the industry; the iOS and android app store are having around 1.5+ million apps each; and this population proves the potential and future of mobile apps in the industry. With this population, as a smart client you must ensure that your app is truly check-worthy before it goes to production stage. And for the same, you should take the help of offshore software companies. Why? Let’s check them out..”
More options are always better: When a client thinks of outsourcing his mobile testing project to a foreign entity; there are large numbers of dedicated mobile app testing companies come into the picture. As a result, he gets enough room and scope to choose the best one for his requirement and purpose. There are many criteria to consider before deciding which company to choose for their purpose. Considerations like budget, time frame, expertise and post production support play important roles during the process and can never be ignored. So, it is always better to have more options in hand; that will help the client in calculating and comparing their strength, weaknesses and track records before handing it over to a foreign body. In turn, he will get a better end product as per his desire and requirements.
Globalization can help you in choosing a better one: The 21st century has seen and has witnessed the true potential of Globalization; Globalization has made everyone to think out of the box and so the case with IT industry and IT projects. It has enabled the users to take the benefit of their peers who are absolutely far away from them, but can be helpful through the biggest gift of twentieth century i.e. Internet. Through internet, we can interact with anyone who is far away from us in a hassle free manner. Consequently, clients from anywhere can get the access to millions of software companies around the world for their ambitious mobile app testing project. Now, it is not necessary to say what is the importance of mobile app testing? Because, testing is the only way to get rid of all types of bugs, issues and errors; and enable an application to become near to perfect. So, there is a terrific demand of mobile app testers in the industry and there are many software companies working dedicatedly for this purpose. Now, with outsourcing, a client will get more chances to interact with better options in the market and this will help them in choosing the best one for their requirements.
Expert testing companies can provide utmost care to your brain child: With the aggressive growth of mobile devices and mobile apps; industry has witnessed a tremendous competition among the app developers to sustain in the industry. You can throw a keyword into the search box of any smart app store; and you will get many apps that are closely related to that. This increased population has made the industry to strive for a tougher competition in ecosystems like Android, iOS and Windows etc. So, it becomes essential to give as much priority as possible to your concept before it goes live in order to make sure that, it can really withstand the challenge. This can only be possible through extensive and professional testing of your app with the expertise from the industry talents. Offshore software companies are usually having expert professionals to deal with the ever changing demands of the industry and must be used effectively for your mobile app testing for maximum benefit for your business.
Talented professionals at lower wages: Outsourcing is usually done in between two geographic locations, for example USA and India or such pairs. If country differs; currency will differ and hence the wages of software testers will differ. The most trusted outsource destination of the IT world is India where one can find thousands of software companies having dedicated software professionals working around the clock to fulfil the demands of their client and of course of the industry. They are highly talented, experienced and potent enough to bend your app to perfection with their third degree testing approach. Their expert mind makes no mistake in finding a loophole in your ambitious project and they ensure you are getting the best quality mobile app at the end of the course most importantly at much lower cost.
Cost savings is on the way too: Already discussed about the low wage talented professionals, i.e. due to the currency difference. You may astonish to know that the difference is somewhat in the range of forty to sixty percent less as compared to any western country and that too without compromising on the quality of testing! Moreover, no need of infrastructure development, no hiring process and better support are there as added benefits for your mobile app testing. What more you need? With all these benefits, you can get a good and healthy mind to think beyond your project work and could concentrate more on your business and personal life.
Experienced hands mean better quality of testing: Offshore mobile app development companies usually keep many expert professionals in order to provide best in industry quality service. They used to have many expert teams having more experience in certain domain or field. If it matches your requirements, you are certainly going to get the best in the industry quality service for your brain child i.e. Mobile app concept. Their experience will help your app to be perfect enough to handle the user’s mood of the industry in an efficient and effective manner and that will bring more benefits and revenue for your business.
Quality support: Offshore software companies are usually highly professional and trustworthy; because, they need a good reputation in the industry to move on and sustain in the industry. They will not only work for your reputation in the industry, but to save their own dignity in the industry. So, you will get more for less. They will give you much better quality of service not only during the app testing process, but also after the project is over with very affordable fee and it makes a lot sense for a wise entrepreneur.
A flawed software application can have a huge impact on the developer’s revenue, credibility and reputation in the longer run. So before delivering the software to the client, each company needs to ensure that it is working flawlessly and meeting all requirements or specification of the client. There are many instances when minor flaws in software have resulted in both human and monetary loss. That is why; software testing has already becomes an integral and significant part of the software development life cycle (SDLC).
The agile software development principles further do not consider software development and software testing as two separate processes. The agile methodology emphasizes on the programmers and testers working as a single team, and work together to improve the quality of the software. As an integral part of SDLC, software testing process aims to assess the completeness, correctness and quality of the software before its delivery. At the same time, the test results help businesses to check if the software meets all requirements or specifications of the client.
Why Software Testing is Important for Modern Businesses?
A number of studies have indicated that the cost of fixing bugs in the software increases, if they are not identified and fixed early. When the defects or bugs in the software are detected early, it becomes easier for programmers to eliminate them. That is why; most companies nowadays introduce testing in early phases of SDLC. They further deploy independent QA professionals to assess the software during various stages of development.
Nowadays, IT companies to develop custom and mission-critical software applications. A minor bug in the mission-critical software application can result in both financial and human losses. For instance, a minor flaw in the software used by an aircraft can result in irreparable losses. That is why; the IT company must perform a variety of tests to identify and eliminate all defects, bugs or flaws in the application before it is delivered to the client.
Each modern user has option to choose from thousands of identical software applications. So to keep the users interested and engaged, each enterprise must deliver high quality software. When the software is tested thoroughly and repeatedly, its quality can be assesses more effectively. Based on the test result, the company can launch a high quality product that will stay in the market in the longer run.
Software testing further becomes essential for businesses due to the differences between the development and production environments. While developing the product, programmers focus mainly on its features and functionality. But the features and functionality will have different effect on individual users. When the application is assessed in the testing environment, it becomes easier for QA professionals to assess the user experience accurately. As testing environment and production environment are identical, the performance of the software can be assessed more accurately.
Often clients require developers to include new features in the software during different phases of development. Each time a new feature or functionality is added to the application, the code needs to be tested thoroughly. The QA professionals perform regression testing to ensure that both legacy and new features are working flawlessly. The tests will further help the business to assess the quality of the updated product before it goes live.
The modern websites and web applications must be compatible with multiple operating systems, devices and web browsers. So the enterprises must assess the web application’s performance on various devices, platforms and browsers. The seasoned testers use advanced tools to assess the website’s compatibility across multiple platforms and devices. The test results further help developers to make changes to the code to enhance the website’s compatibility and accessibility.
Many businesses deploy independent QA professionals to protect their goodwill in the competitive market. The online forums and social networks have made it easier for modern users to highlight the defects or flaws in a particular software application. So the enterprise needs to ensure that the end user detects no bugs of flaws. When the software is tested thoroughly, the chances of bugs detected by users are eliminated. Thus, software testing will help developers to impress users and stay in the business over a longer period of time.
With more and more businesses adopting agile development methodologies, software development and testing have now become inseparable processes. Each business has to invest in comprehensive software testing to get higher returns, enhance its reputation, and retain clients.
Mindfire Testing Practice has a unique combination of skilled software engineering & testing teams with proven expertise in testing tools and methodologies for a wide range of solutions. If you have any testing requirements and are looking for an ideal IT partner offering expert QA/Testing services, send in your queries to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com and we would get back to you in 72 hours.
Software testing is a pretty new kid on the block which is slowly becoming an integral part of the software development lifecycle. While it is still a huge debate whether or not the software testing procedure actually helps in saving money or not, its importance is becoming clearer day by day. Contrary to a popular myth, software testing actually ends up saving a lot of company money, time as well as hassle by detecting errors which can then be rectified before the product has been in production or shelved. It also helps in the process of maintaining customer satisfaction by providing them with quality products with a minimal bug level.
Although most people think that software developers are capable enough to test particular software and no external team is required to do the same, thus saving up, in reality qualified testing professionals are a different lot of people altogether. These people have a whole different outlook as compared to the developers and variable skills. Software testing is actually a lot more than just clicking away on an application to just check whether it is working well or not. Also, it is less likely that the developers will detect their own flaws. The software developers are trained to detect bugs and performance issues and do it with perfect ease.
It is best to hire an independent testing company for your software application from the very beginning of the developmental process. This will help in detecting any flaws that are created from the beginning itself so that the errors don’t pile up at the end of the process. Continuous detection of the flaws will also help in the continuous rectification and thus in strengthening the whole application.
Apart from being perfectly safe and reliable with your software application, the independent testing company will also provide you with a range of services which will ensure maximum test coverage. Another huge advantage of hiring an independent testing company for your software application is the fact that they are dedicated to software testing only and are pro at the job. So you won’t have to take a headache of the process and yet your job will be done with perfection, allowing your staff to concentrate solely on the developmental procedure.
When you have decided to hire an independent testing company for your software application, make sure that you do a background check on the company to get a hang of their reputation or the quality of service they provide. These companies usually maintain confidentiality so that your application is absolutely safe with them and since they are good at their job, so you are secure on the service front too. You should check for their experience too. While instructing them about the work, be absolutely clear on what you expect to see as a result of the testing procedure. These companies are very fierce when it comes to safeguarding the client’s data and they usually a pretty updated and fierce security system so that the critical information of the client’s application is not leaked in any way.
Now that you are absolutely sure about the safety of hiring an independent testing company for your software application, you can now choose from the array of service providers available, so that they fit your requirements and create bug free software.
Whether or not to have an independent testing team is no more a bone of contention. However, outsourcing it or having an in-house team is most certainly a topic for debate. After weighing in your pros and cons, if you decide to go ahead with outsourcing software testing, then Mindfire Solutions has to be your ultimate choice. With the entire gamut of offshore software testing services provided by Mindfire Solutions, you can never go wrong by choosing them for QA of your software products.
“Lack of Proper Planning is the biggest mistake of testers. Planning makes everything near to perfect if not perfect. Many times, we find software testers don't have any prior planning for their test case instead they directly jump for the Testing procedure. Unplanned Testing means dread of bogus application and that happens with 99% practical scenario. So, testers need to plan their Testing approach from the very beginning so that they can build a strong Testing approach for the application architecture that will definitely help them in executing the process in a well-organized manner. Moreover, they should study each and every module of the software application and accordingly prepare their plan to test those modules. Every module differs from other and so their Testing approach should be different. Let’s see the rest 9 common mistakes that a Software Tester makes during the Testing process”.
Lack of proper communication with Client and other resources:
Usually, testers remain idle most of the time during the development process of the application. But, this is really a serious concern. Usually, client changes his requirements in between and the Project Manager discusses the same with the developers. If the tester remains isolated from the system, then he will be unaware about the modified or revised requirements of the client and this will definitely create trouble while testing the application as per his previous or outdated knowledge. So, it’s the duty of the tester to take participate in the client communication so that he will remain in touch with the application throughout the development process.
Overlooking the UML (Unified Modeling Language):
UML i.e. the core design of the application plays the most important part in software application development. It informs how the application will look in different scenarios? How it will behave in different scenarios? And how the validations should be given within the modules or forms? If anyone from the project is unaware about the core design of the application, then it leads to an inefficient way of development process and it hampers the Testing process as well. So, it is necessary to understand each and every component of the application from the core design before you start coding or Testing the application. It also makes the skilled QA/Testing professional aware about the importance of various fields and modules of the application and gives enough scope to design his Testing approach far ahead of time.
Giving more priority to Positive Testing over Negative Testing:
This is yet another problem with testers since a long. They used to give more priority to Positive Testing and neglect the Negative Testing for the application. This is a terrific issue and can never be accepted for any enterprise standard solutions or applications. In fact, Negative Testing has more importance than Positive Testing; because with strong Negative Testing we can perform the Positive Testing without our knowledge; but the reverse is not possible! So, every tester should focus more on Negative Testing than Positive Testing. One more thing, as a smart tester you should also check for boundary value testing for better quality of Testing.
Avoiding Load Testing:
Load Testing has significant importance in web industry particularly if our application is dealing with smart phone browsers. In fact, it is necessary for every type of applications including desktop applications. Imagine an application that takes too long for a request process; then? Isn't annoying to you, and just imagine what would happen to the innocent user? He will simply close your application and look forward for a better alternative. So, it's highly recommended to create and develop highly efficient and optimized application that can really have some value for the end user. Now, it can only be possible if the application has undergone several stage of load testing during its development phase. So, every tester should be highly enthusiast to perform the load Testing; because by the process, you can end up with better user experience.
Hurry to release:
I don't know why this happens with most of the software testers? They remain idle during the development process done by the developers but try to finish the Testing at the earliest. In that way, the performance and productivity of the software tester decreases tremendously. Because the same module will need to be tested again in future when get noticed by the same tester or the client side tester. It makes the process absolutely inefficient and unorganized. It's always better to perform a single perfect Testing instead of multiple counterfeit Testing.
Cross platform or browser Testing:
Today's industry is severely influenced by the presence of modern web browsing devices like smart phones and tablets. There are many browsers available in the industry and new and innovative browsers are also getting born with time. Is your application renders properly in those browsers? Test it properly first else the user will dismiss your application. Moreover, your application should give similar user experience in every platform mostly in Android, iOS and Windows. It's the duty of software tester or web tester to test the compatibility of your application for all these platforms and devices. Cross platform Testing, Cross browser Testing and responsiveness Testing can help them out!
Never trying to learn the exact scenario:
This is yet another issue with software testers; don't know is it due to confidence or over-confidence or ignorance. Whatever the reason may be; as a smart software tester you should be cautious enough for your assignments and you should have that much passion for your job; otherwise all your effort is vague. So, before Testing make sure you are truly competent to test the application. Make sure you are the right person to test the application. This only can be possible by the virtue of your knowledge that you have earned over the application by hard study and effort.
Asking help from developers- the biggest mistake:
Imagine if the goat will make friendship with the grass; similarly, if the tester asks question to the developer to help him in testing the modules or understanding the module, then what will happen? This is absolutely wrong. From the developer's point of view, the application is good enough to go live else why should he commit the code to the production stage? So, your doubt needs not to be cleared by the developer during Testing; you can do the same before the Testing process as a smart and serious tester.
Lack of genuine intention to explore bugs:
This is really a passion and should be within every tester to be a successful one. If something that you are doing is not giving you pleasure then, it's not worth a profession. So develop the thirst within yourself to explore more and more bugs, issues and all so that the application will be more perfect and your productivity will increase.
Mindfire Solutions has been providing exemplary QA/Testing services to its clients across industries and geographies and has carved a niche for itself in the testing domain. To avail our services to test and develop your desired applications, send in your requirements to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com.
Nowadays each IT company has to deliver high quality software applications to retain clients in the longer run. So most companies deploy seasoned QA professionals to verify and validate the software thoroughly to ensure that it is working according to the client’s requirements and expectations. While assessing the software, the testers have to test it from positive as well as negative point of mind. That is why; the QA professionals have to perform both positive and negative testing to assess the quality of the software more effectively.
As the name indicates, positive testing is performed to verify and validate the software based on valid input data. While performing positive testing, the testers focus on the behaviour of the application based on expected inputs. On the other hand, negative testing is performed using invalid input data. While performing negative testing, QA professionals have to check how the software behaves with negative or unintentional user input. Thus, the primary objective of negative testing is check if the software shows errors when it is not supposed to, and does not show errors when it is supposed to.
Negative testing can be described more effectively through an example. For instance, the software has a field that is required to accept only integer value. So the testers have to perform negative testing to check if the application shows a validation error message each time users enter a non-integer fields. The certified QA/Testing professionals have to assess the software behaviour of the software by entering invalid or negative inputs like alphabets and special characters. Thus, negative testing helps QA professionals to identify if the application is crashing under different situations.
Common Negative Testing Scenarios
Both desktop and web applications include fields marked as required. So the testers need to assess the application’s behaviour when the required field is empty. They can simply display a message box to the user, and compel him not to leave the required field empty. They can perform negative testing to ensure that the application responds correctly when the required field is empty.
Most software applications accept user inputs through forms or dialog boxes. The controls allow users to submit a variety of data including text, numeric and date. So the testers have to perform negative testing using inappropriate input to ensure that the user input perfectly complements the field type. They can assess a date field by entering “02/30/2015” or validate an age field by entering “abc”.
The applications also contain fields that need to accept user input up to a particular limit. For instance, a textbox accepting the user’s age must not accept 220 or -10. So the testers must test the performance of the application by entering invalid data into such fields.
Some applications even require integer fields to accept data in certain range. For instance, a website may allow users to enter numbers in a specific field ranging from 10 to 100. To assess the applications behaviour accurately, the testers have to enter numbers less than 10 or more than 100. They can write negative tests to ensure that the users are not allowed to enter numbers less than 10 and more than 100.
Sometimes developers have to restrict the size or length of user input. For instance, they have to create fields to accept user’s name with a specific number of characters. In such scenarios, the QA professionals have to perform negative testing to assess the software’s behaviour when the number of characters into the field by a user exceeds the allowed limit.
Some websites provide information only to registered users. So each user needs to login before accessing any internal web page. The testers have to perform negative testing to ensure that the web pages cannot be accessed by random visitors.
On the whole, negative testing and positive testing complement each other. The QA professionals must perform negative testing to enhance test coverage and find more bugs in the application. The testing will further help the enterprise to deliver a more reliable and stable software application that does not crash under different situations. However, negative testing must be performed once positive testing is completed, but before the software goes live. The testers, however, have option to perform negative testing based on any input value to get more accurate and reliable test results.
Mindfire Solutions has been providing expert QA/Testing services for the last 16 years and is adept at using both Negative and Positive testing techniques for ensuring the quality of the software applications. If you are interested to hire the software testing services of Mindfire Solutions, send in your requirements via email to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com and we will get back to you in 72 hours.
Software testing is an important part of the software development lifecycle that is slowly gaining importance in the IT industries these days. As the software techniques and procedures are advancing, there have been certain best practices of software testing that has been developed for the optimum checking of the software so that it can be made error free to the maximum possible limit and customers will be satisfied with the product you are offering them.
Although the software testing process for web application is by far one of the most important phases of the software development life cycle that starts before the developmental phase and ends after the developmental phase has been over, yet the process is one of the least invested areas which is often ignored.
The software testing life cycle comprises of the following common phases.
1. Unit Tests: Unit tests are usually performed to check if the various modules of the software (which are basically the building blocks of the software) are performing well individually. It makes sure that the separate units are functioning as they should on their own.
2. Integration Tests: These tests include the likes of “white box” testing which are accomplished by the testers who are close to the development team or are pa part of the development team. These tests checks how the various components or modules of the software work along with each other. Instead of individual action, they actually check the system as a whole with the various integrated components.
3. System Tests: System tests or qualification tests should be performed by a team which is remote to the development team. Best left in the hands of the “off shore” testing team, these test checks how the system would work in varying real life situations. They are run on the basis of the “black box” logic which pays least importance to the individual modules or the integration of some of the module. It pays attention on how the various components combine together to give rise to the whole system.
4. Acceptance Tests: Acceptance tests are conducted by the pilot users who will be using the software in the near future when it gets launched. These tests include the likes of “alpha” and “beta” testing when the users are allowed access to the software at an early stage of development so as to see whether the web application provides the desired function and fulfils the requirements of the organization or not.
Apart from the various phases of the test, there are also the varying nature of tests which are to be kept in mind by the expert Testing/QA professionals:
1. Functional Tests: Functional tests checks if the web application is providing the required functions to the various customers.
2. Platform Compatibility Tests: Platform compatibility tests are the ones which are responsible for checking the feasibility of the web application in various OS or browsers that the customers may be using to access it.
3. Robustness Tests: Robustness tests checks the functionality of the web application in unfavourable conditions which it may face in the real world like the sudden shutting down of the machine.
4. Performance Tests: Performance tests are usually performed after the web application has been completely configured to check the performance issues that may have cropped up during the developmental phase of the same.
5. Scalability Tests: Scalability tests are performed to check the performance of the web application under increased load.
6. Usability Tests: These tests are performed to check the web application’s user friendly nature.
Thus we have discussed some of the best practices that you can follow in order to test your web application.
Mindfire Solutions has been providing expert web application testing services to its clients for the past 16 years. And we have always made sure to follow these best practices as we continue making the code bug free. If you would like to hire our expert testing professionals then do send in your requirements to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com and we would respond to you in the next 72 hours.
Before getting to whether we should or should not do penetration testing, we should have a fair idea of what penetration testing actually is. Most often penetration testing is confused with the likes of “vulnerability scan”, “compliance audit” or “security assessment”, but in reality it is a world apart from the above tests. Penetration testing is the type of tests which not only brings forth the vulnerabilities of developed software but at the same time, exploits these vulnerabilities to show the extent of damage that may be caused due to these flaws.
Penetration testing may look like automated testing practice and can be conducted with the help of the automated tools available in the market, but the core of the test lies in the hands of the individual testers or the testing teams which pushes the detected short comings to its end limits. Although the highly precise automated tools are well capable of testing your software, they were made by human and the unique human mind may conjure newer techniques of penetrating your software which makes manual tests a vital part of penetration testing. The main aim of penetration testing is to detect the real world attacks that the software may face due to the pertaining security breaches that are available. It fixes a target and attacks it with various vectors to explore the probable chances of attacks that may occur.
Penetration testing is important for a particular type of software due to the following factors that gets determined by the testing procedure.
1:: It gives the developers a reality check about the feasibility of the vector sets that attack a said target.
2:: It helps in the determination of high risk vulnerabilities which occurs as a result of integration of several low risk vulnerabilities, which occur in a particular sequence.
3:: There are certain vulnerabilities which do not get detected without automated testing procedures and applications which scan the vulnerabilities of the software being tested.
4:: It helps in assessment of the magnitude of risk that may be inflicted up on the business or the software due to attacks that are successful.
5:: It helps in determining the ability of the network defenders in detecting and preventing the various attacks that may be brought up on the software.
6:: It proves why it is important to pay attention to and invest more in security personnel and technology to C-level management, investors, and customers for risk management purpose.
7:: It shows why the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requires both on-going penetration testing (after any system changes) as well as yearly testing.
8:: Penetration testing is essential in determining the validation of the newly engaged security system over the incumbent one. Along with forensic results, penetration testing recreates the attacking vectors in order to check if the system is prone to further breach or is perfectly capable of defending itself against further attacks (both the existing and new kinds).
So, now you see the various aspects which can be resolved with the help of the penetration testing issues. However, the true worth of the test depends on the criteria or purpose of the software that has been developed and the organization using it. It is for you to judge (taking the various purpose of your software into consideration) as to which kind of penetration testing you need to perform on your software. In case of low security software you may want to utilize the basic tests which are time saving and cost effective, but in case of high security software, you may want to avail the pro penetration testing to completely secure your software.
Mindfire Solutions has the largest certified QA/Testing team in India and has been continuously delighting customers over the past decade with bug-free code. If you are interested to hire an experienced QA team for ensuring your codes are clean, drop in a mail with your requirements to sales at Mindfire Solutions dot com.
