Controlling Development and QA Costs with Test Management Software

Effective test management is essential for optimizing the features, functionality and quality of a software application. The process further ensures that best product is developed by deploying limited resources, while implementing smart test management practices at various stages of the project. Many organizations, nowadays, use test management software programs to make plan and manage the testing process effectively. These programs are further effective in covering a wide variety of test activities including test planning, test authoring, test execution, test tracking and test reporting. Further, an organization can use test management software to build complex applications by deploying teams deployed across different geographical locations, while controlling both development and quality assurance (QA) cost.

Using Test Management Software to Curtail Software Development and QA Cost

1. Enhanced Software Quality:- The quality and performance of the software will have a direct impact on its popularity. So each enterprise has to deploy both manpower and resources to carry out QA activities. Some of these applications also need to be tested frequently to fix all errors, bugs and flaws through additional coding and testing. The test management software enables organizations to cover all test activities. So an organization has option to reduce operational cost by reducing manpower and resources.

2. Easy to Outsource Projects:- Most companies outsource software development and QA projects to control labor cost. The test management software makes it easier for such organizations to coordinate between the members of its distributed team residing in different location. Thus, an enterprise can easily outsource the project to a region that has favorable payroll standards. Many reports have already highlighted how test management software facilitates quality assurance efforts, and brings down QA cost.

3. Option to Hire Experienced QA Engineers:- The outcome of a software testing project is often affected by the knowledge, expertise and experience of the QA engineers. It is also important for an enterprise to hire experienced QA engineers to optimize its QA efforts. But each organization, nowadays, explores option to beat competition by cutting down project cost. That is why; most organizations hesitate to hire experienced QA engineering team to control cost. The QA management software enables companies to avail the services of an offshore team of experienced testing professionals without incurring any additional expenses.

4. Reduce Software Development Cost:- A constant increase is noted in the number of organizations adopting test driven development (TDD) approach. At the same time, many companies even automate their testing efforts to avail the Agile benefits. Each organization can use real-time test management software to release a high quality and flawless product, with reduced development time. As the tools enable developers to access the current updates, they can easily implement the coding or bug reports changes at once. Further, the most current and updated version of the software can be evaluated to identify errors in the early stages of the process. As many reports have highlighted an organization can control development cost by identifying and fixing bugs earlier in the product cycle.

5. Optimize Bug Identification Efforts:- An enterprise can get higher ROI in the long run by constantly optimizing its QA efforts. Also, each organization must use test automation tools according to specific needs of a project. The right test management software will definitely optimize the organization’s bug identification efforts. The software further helps enterprises to enhance both efficiency and productivity by adopting Agile project management techniques. Similar to Agile development model, the test management software also enables QA engineers to evaluate the software early and often. Further, the test cases can be reused in future production cycles to save both time and resources.

Each enterprise has option to choose from several test management software programs. But the organization must evaluate the pros and cons of each application to ensure that it is effective in bringing down the software development and QA cost. And for this you would need to hire software testing companies who have proven expertise and experience in handling projects relevant to your business domain.

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.

A Wakeup Call for Software QA

A constant increase is noted in the number of enterprises integrating software QA as part of the development cycles. Also, many companies are adopting test driven development approach (TDD) to enhance quality, efficiency and productivity. But a number of reports have highlighted how the software QA strategies of many organizations fail despite putting time, resources and funds. Several experts have further opinioned the software testing industry needs a reality check in order to thrive in upcoming years. According to these experts, software QA industry, just like manufacturing industry, must explore innovative ways to meet the constant changes in test automation tools, testing methodologies and application architecture. At the same time, each organization also needs to understand how to make its QA strategy more realistic and effective.

How to Make Software QA More Realistic

1. Identify Key Elements of Software Testing: While making the testing strategy, you must identify the key elements of software QA like test strategy, test plan, test cases, test environment and test data. Each of these elements contributes towards optimizing your software QA. These elements can also be considered by your manual as well as automated testing strategy. Each aspects of a QA must concentrate on these elements to emulate the real user behavior and environment. Further, these elements will help you in deciding the test automation tools required to create the perfect environment for software QA.

2. Eliminate the Unnecessary Processes: While planning software QA, many people forget that many quality control techniques have evolved from the manufacturing industry. These techniques and practices often make software testing both process-driven and procedural-driven. There are always chances that some of these process-driven or procedural-driven techniques may not complement the latest trends in software testing. That is why; it becomes essential to evaluate each of these processes based on what you need to check. You must identify and eliminate these process-driven and procedural-driven methods to effectuate your QA strategy.

3. Avoid the Over-Hyped Tools: When you decide to automate your software QA, it becomes essential to invest in test automation tools and programs. You have options to choose from loads of testing tools available in the market. Most enterprises prefer the latest test automation tools to get better results. But you must remember that often companies launch marketing campaigns to hype their software testing tools. There are also chances that the latest tools available in the market may not complement your specific needs. So you must evaluate the pros and cons of each tool to ensure that it is managing both quality and coverage, while articulating the risk properly.

4. Decide the Test Cases to be Automated: You have option to automate all or selected test cases. Many experts advise QA engineers to automate the test cases that need to be tested repeatedly and frequently. At the same time, many experts even recommend enterprises to automate most of the test cases to get high quality and ROI. An organization has to invest more funds to automate its software QA completely. But one must not ignore the test cases that can be evaluated only manually. The testing strategy of an organization must seamlessly integrate both automated and manual test cases to deliver quality test data.

5. Prevent Context Leakage: Many companies outsource software QA to save both efforts and funds. However, the outsourcing of software testing projects can have a negative effect due to context leakage. Similar to software development, context is of great importance to both testing and QA reporting. Also, the QA engineers deployed by the outsourced company do not have access to the primary source of information that results in more context leakages. So you must explore option to prevent context leakage while outsourcing software QA. It is always important to coordinate with the QA team constantly to make the testing more contextual and realistic.

The software QA strategy of an enterprise must consider the latest trends in software application testing. It must emphasize on some of the best practices and industry standards to make the process more productive and efficient.

We provide software testing services. If you would like to hire software test professionals from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

5 Aspects of Software Testing

A consistent increase is noted in the number of enterprises looking for innovative and customized software testing options. In addition to increasing productivity, efficiency and ROI, the right software automation strategy also enables organization to Agile project management. Each organization also has option to use test automation tools and programs to evaluate the performance of an application at each stage of development. However, it is always important for an organization to identify various aspects of software testing to make the process more effective and efficient.

5 Important Aspects of Software Testing

1) Test Strategy: An enterprise must perform several types of tests to evaluate the quality and performance of an application. In addition to white-box and black-box testing, an organization also needs to perform unit, integration, incremental integration, functional, regression, system, load, acceptance, stress and end-to-end testing. So it becomes essential to make and implement a comprehensive strategy to decide the type of testing required along with the sequence and schedule of each type of test. At the same time, the strategy will further determine the amount of time, effort and resources required to find all defects in the application. Also, the test strategy will address the time and resource constraints to deliver desired results.

2) Test Plan: As a part of software development project, test plan deals with the tasks and activities related to testing. In addition to deciding who will perform a specific task, the plan also decides schedule, sequence and timeframe of each task. The plan also highlights the activities and tasks required to evaluate various aspects of the software application. Once the test strategy is finalized, the test plan can be made by creating a critical path by taking into consideration the required preparation work and efforts. However, the test plan, just like test strategy, needs to be modified frequently as the project evolves.

3) Test Cases: Based on an organization’s strategy, some or all test cases can be automated. However, the test cases must be developed before testing starts. Along with emphasizing on the requirements and acceptance criterions for the application, each test case also need to consider quality dimensions from customers’ point of view. At the same time, the test case will further assess the current risk to identify the flaws and bottlenecks in the project. It is also important to clearly define the expected result to make the test plan more effective in getting quality test data, while uncovering defects in the project.

4) Test Environment: The complex and complicated nature of software application make it essential for enterprises to create a comprehensive test environment. The environment must be build by emulating the real thing. However, the test environment can be scaled down by including the components essential for actually run and evaluate the application. It is always important to select separate computers, servers, networks and tools to evaluate the application. The use of dedicated test efforts will make it easier to modify or customize the environment according to specific needs. Normally, the components required to build the right test environment for a specific project is decides as part of the test strategy. These components are further rechecked as part of the test plan. However, the test environment must be developed completely before software testing starts.

5) Test Data: The quality of test data will impact the execution of test cases. So the various types of information and data used by the system need to be decided in a systematic manner. Normally, the test data includes the details required by the application to run including names, addresses and other variables. Along with the input data, the test data also need to consider the information stored on various data sources. There are always chances that the functionality of the application needs to be evaluated by inputting dynamic and additional data. So the test data must be selected and developed as part of individual test case development process.

Along with understanding various aspects of software testing, an organization also needs to explore option to identify and fix the errors, flaws and bugs in the applications as early as possible. It can always automate the entire software testing to achieve predefined objectives. And for this you would need to hire software testing companies who have proven expertise and experience in handling projects relevant to your business domain.

We provide software testing services. If you would like to hire software testers from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

Software Testing vs. Dynamic Testing - What's your pick?

The complex and time-consuming nature of software development has made it essential for organizations to implement a comprehensive software testing strategy. Some enterprises still use conventional and manual testing methods, whereas others automate software testing to save both time, efforts and cost. However, the software testing plan of each organization must concentrate on a number of additional points to improve both efficiency and productivity. The software application verification activities can be divided into static and dynamic testing.

Under static testing, the QA engineers refer to a checklist to ensure that the process is going according to preset standards including coding, deployment and integration. Some of the widely used static testing methodologies are inspection, review and walkthrough. On the other hand, dynamic software testing aims to evaluate the quality of an application by giving input values and checking the expected output. The commonly used dynamic testing activities include unit tests, system tests, acceptance tests and system tests. So the software testing plan must identify if a verification activities will fall under static or dynamic testing methodologies.

Key Differences between Static and Dynamic Software Testing

1. Objective: The software testing strategy of an enterprise must emphasize on both static and dynamic testing techniques. However, the objective of each type of testing will differ. The static testing techniques must be used to assess the design, code and documentation based on checklists and predefined processes. But the dynamic testing techniques must aim to identify the errors, flaws, bugs or bottlenecks in the software.

2. Execution of Code: The static testing methodologies are used to improve the software quality by identifying errors in the early stages of development. These methods identify flaws in the application checking the code, specifications and design documents manually. So code is not executed under this testing. On the other hand, dynamic testing methods aim to check the functional behavior of the application, required resources and overall performance of the system by executing the code.

3. Types of Defects: The static as well as dynamic testing must be performed to find two distinct sets of defects, errors or flaws in the application. As static testing is conducted in the verification stage, it identifies defects like syntax errors in the code, missing requirements and design defects. But dynamic testing is performed in the validation stage. So it uses several techniques to identify defects like if the variables are not constant or the output is meeting the expected standards.

4. Testing Techniques: The testing techniques used for static and dynamic testing also vary. Static testing normally used certain techniques to prevent defects by verifying the process. So it uses techniques like informal and technical reviews, walkthrough, inspection and static code review. But dynamic testing uses several techniques to identify and fix defects in the application, while doing validation process. Therefore, dynamic testing uses techniques like unit testing, system testing and integration testing.

5. Coverage: Normally, static testing can be carried out before compilation. But dynamic testing can be done only after compilation and linking. Also, each type of testing will cover different aspects of the software. Static testing will provide structural and statement coverage to improve quality through reviews and comments. At the same time, dynamic testing will cover the executable file of the code to identify and fix all types of bugs.

6. ROI: Unlike dynamic testing, static testing is performed in the early stages of development. Therefore, static testing is considered to be more cost-efficient in comparison to dynamic testing. The static testing techniques are further considered to get higher return on investment (ROI) as no test automation tools are required. However, static testing requires more meeting and manual efforts in comparison to dynamic testing.

An effective software application testing strategy must include the static as well as dynamic testing methodologies to improve software quality. The static testing methods can be used to for the purpose of verification, whereas the dynamic testing methods will involve validation.

We provide software testing services. If you would like to hire software test professionals from us, we would be glad to assist you at Mindfire Solutions.

What should your Testing Checklist Contain?

Before we make our websites public we must get things right. I have jot down a few points in my checklist to keep in mind a website must have before it is published to the web. Any site more or less must be usable and attractive and should explain its presence as well. Common problems that designers face by addressing their own sites in a Usability checklist of sorts. We work on many things like interacting with requirements of projects with clients, designing prototypes, coding, programming and testing – there’s a lot to keep track of and a lot to make sure gets done for the completion of a successful project.

Points to remember for a Testing Checklist:

• ID: is the identity of the site, it is usually found at the top left of a page right next to navigation of any kind. It’s also very important that the ID links back to the home page of the site, or at least add a “Home” link in the navigation on sub pages of a site.

• Page Name: is as important as the Site ID, the Name of any page being browsed needs to be made very clear to the user. It must define the page content or what the page wants to narrate. It must be framing the content unique to that page, prominently placed and styled to show that it is indeed the page heading. The Page Name is often the largest text on the page which clearly emphasizes its importance.If the name of a page matches the text linking to the page, a user will have no trouble identifying what page they are on.

• Navigation: is a must for a site, and it must be constant throughout all the pages. So that users can quickly browse through whatever information at a glance without any usability issue. There are two types of navigation primary and secondary ones.

• Primary Navigation: contains the parent pages of the site, main parts of the site. It is a top level navigation, explains to the user what the main sections of the site are and helps them get to those sections. Usually the Primary Navigation is a part of a site's global navigation.

• Secondary Navigation: divides primary navigation into subsections. Tertiary Navigation divides those subsections into even more sections and so on. Structure your navigation by keeping it simple in all the pages of the site. So that people can easily run around the sub-menus and main menus.

• Utilities: are parts of your site that don't really get connected to the primary sections of your site. Examples of utilities include: About us, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, etc. Be sure to include the most important ones for your site in a place where your viewers will easily find them, but don’t make your navigation too crowded by including lots of utility navigation links.

• Navigation by Search: There are users who don't have time and search for the pages which they need to focus on so they directly search for those pages only which they need. It is the second form of navigation pretty much every site should have is navigated by searching. Some users prefer browsing, some prefer searching, so it’s usually wise to include both.

• Current Location: We must highlight the buttons we are currently working on though a nice page title isn’t quite enough to tell a viewer where they are on a website. So that users are aware of where they are in relation to everything else.Signs all over large airports that clearly mark your location as well as locations of all the other important places.

• Highlighting: In many ways a website is like a large airport. The viewer doesn’t really know how big the site is and without some sort of grounding a user will have a tough time placing themselves on the map. Some sites highlight the section of a site a user is about to explain to them where they are, while other sites may use breadcrumb navigation or other means to show the viewer where they are on the site. Perhaps one is more useful than the other in certain situations, but the point is a site should somehow always show the user where they are in relation to everything else.

• Tagline: Taglines are a great way to explain the purpose of a site to a user quickly. They are useful because it gets the messages across. It’s just a small, well crafted summary about your site that’s shown right next to the Site ID, usually no more than a few words. Taglines are not mottos which describe the motivation or intention, but instead descriptions that convey the point of something. They are critical because people scan websites, especially first time visitors who are just beginning to understand your company.

• Clear Visual Page: We must not forget the fact that content is the king of any website. It should be clear and precise. Content on a page isn’t something to be taken lightly. Newspapers as a classic example of how a content hierarchy should appear online. Well constructed pages using clear headings to organize content and subheadings to make that content easier to read and appear. User should not get lost inside page, content need to be relevant up to date and well organized and should be written uniquely for each page of your website and should be written as if you are talking to the customers.

A very good website must engage the customers spend more time on their pages engages the readers, increase search engine rankings and traffic and promotes the likelihood of quality links from other sites. For a successful website it must attract both the visitors and search engines. Testing plays a critical role in the development of any web site and its long-term maintenance. While smaller web sites—especially those with more limited budgets—may not need to follow the formal testing procedures that are required for large-scale, commercial web sites, every site needs to be thoroughly tested to ensure that it’s error-free, user-friendly, accessible and standards compliant.

The Testing checklist above will help you test your site both during development and after. We must crib for a very good website liked by all and gets more demanding by them. All information should be up-to-date, with new technology being used and new techniques. Planning, Design/Layout, Usability/Accessibility, Content, Website Optimization/Standards and Search Engine Optimization/Marketing these play a vital role in a site's success. If we are alert in these areas while developing our own site, then nothing can beat us from being successful and more wanting among the professional and novice users. So if you are looking to hire offshore software testing partners, make sure they follow these testing checklists.

We provide web application testing services. If you would like to know more about our expert software testers, please get in touch with us at Mindfire Solutions.