Software testing best practices & solutions

Software testing , April 1, 2020 11 mins read

Software Testing best practices and solutions

What is Software Testing?

Software testing is the most crucial phase of a successful software development lifecycle. This step focuses on evaluating whether the developed software is generating the expected results and is bug-free. 

The process not only aims to fix the bugs but also find and fix whatever permitted these bugs in the first place. So, software testing is the Verification of Application Under Test (AUT). The testing process involves the execution of the software to detect errors, gaps or missing requirements contrary to the actual needs. 

Depending on the preference, it can be done both manually or using automated tools.


Levels and types of Software Testing

Most of the time, the software QA process is carried out at the last moments just before the release of the project that results in a massive loss if any bugs are detected. 

To avoid this problem and have a reasonable quality assurance, software testing is performed at different levels that are:

  • Unit testing

This is the most basic level of testing, which is performed on individual units or components of the software designed. This step aims to validate the performance of each element as per the requirement.

  • Integration testing

The word integration is self-explanatory for the testing level. This testing takes place after integrating the individual tested components of the software and further performing the testing on them. This level of testing checks and exposes the faults that may occur on the interaction and integration of the former individual units.

  • System testing

The process of testing the complete and integrated system is called system testing. The purpose of this level is to evaluate the system’s compliance with the cited specifications. 

  • Acceptance testing

Checking the developed software for the acceptability is known as acceptance testing. This level aims to evaluate the system on the basis where it fulfills the business and user’s requirements and is acceptable for delivery.


Best practices for proper Software Testing

Software quality affirmation exercises ought to arrange and plan while the starting stages of software development to accomplish ideal outcomes.

By working in the extra but proper time for testing, you can come up with the best possible product in the appropriate time framework without any quality compromise. 

Best practices for software solutions continue to adopt the ‘‘Test Early and Test Often‘ principle to deliver a high-quality product to the customers. Some of the best software testing practices and solutions are :


Thorough research on project objective

To achieve big, one must follow small steps that include research, plan, execute and test. The software development life cycle also starts with thorough research on the problems and solutions to it. 

So, it becomes imperative to comprehend the objective of the project and the path that leads to the end target. To achieve this, it becomes mandatory for every team member working on a project to have information about the whole application, engineering/development part, tools used, inputs, outputs, and every factor of the project funnel. 

Thus, monitoring the reason from a business point of view helps in characterizing better test situations that consider all client interactions. Investing energy and the proper time for analysis of the objectives and selecting a path to follow is the best-proven practice in software development.


Plans and strategies for test cases

Test procedures ought to be all well planned, arranged, characterized, specific and brief. These plans include answers to what to test when to test, how to test, and who will test? 

A test plan and strategy is a document that helps to reduce the risks of failure and make the product cost-effective and profitable. Excellent documentation is the apparatus that fabricates effective correspondence inside the software team. 

Though the testing plan cannot be restricted to a finite list of resources, yet they can be prioritized.

  • Firstly, the project should include the testing activities for the product and its functions that include all the features to be tested and not to be tested.
  • Secondly, every team member’s role should be defined clearly.
  • The document should include Test approach (testing levels, types, techniques), Suspension criteria, Defect/Enhancement Logs, Test Reports, Test environment, and a proper Schedule
  • Along these lines, a robust test strategy involves the making of the quality and following test plans for a correct approach in building a successful project. 

 Primary components of a test strategy include:

  • The scope of testing and Test objectives
  • Industry standards and Budget limitations
  • Testing measurement and metrics
  • Defect reporting and tracking
  • Configuration management
  • Risk identification

Create test cases

Test cases are the most crucial document consisting of a set of conditions or actions which are performed on the software application to verify the expected functionality of the feature. The test case creation process goes hand in hand with the coding process so that there is no hustle during the QA evaluation. 

This step should begin as soon as the software specifications and requirements are approved and frozen. While creating the test cases, one must ensure that they are unique, simple, clear as per the customer requirement and maintainable. 

As there exists a wide variety of test cases, one must be very careful in identifying and acknowledging their types that are negative test cases, positive test cases, regression test cases, and smoke test cases.


Test cases for Regression testing

At any point, if there comes another form of the product, there is a constant possibility that the old functionalities of the product may be affected.

So it is prescribed to have a regression test cases list arranged to keep a check and control on any kind of hampering to the existing functions. So before any new release to the QA team, the QA group should update the current test cases to guarantee top-notch testing. 

Maintaining the list of regression test cases will definitely help in ensuring that the old code works even after the addition of a new system.


Smoke testing

This practice plays an essential role in software testing as it determines whether the deployed product is stable or not. The purpose of this testing is to check if the developed software is working as per the fixed ·requirements, and there will be no further hitches.

Also, known as “Build Verification Testing” or “Confidence Testing”, it helps to qualify the product for the end goal formal testing called the functional testing. This testing is a mini but rapid form of regression testing that helps you in confirming whether the QA team should jump to further testing or not. 

Passing a smoke test acts as a green signal for the in-depth examination of the product, so it should be reviewed many times to meet the following conditions:

  • The smoke test cases should not be in large numbers and cover every functionality in depth.
  • The tests should not be ambiguous and include every fine detail required in software.
  • No function should be missed during the creation of smoke test cases.

Positive and negative test cases

Every software developed allows the execution of some tasks, and for some, it ends in error notification. The type of testing that evaluates a product on its working in the positive scenarios is known as positive testing. 

The other side of the coin is negative testing, that is the software designed should pop up the error notifications if it detects any fault during its functioning. These error messages pop-up on the input given by the user. 

Testing your product on the basis that it does not work if any wrong data is entered, is called negative testing. To quote the above type of testing, let’s take the example of incorrect date formats, incorrect syntax, improper semicolons or brackets. 

If any coding methodology is right, but the syntax is wrong, the program does not run, which means it passed the negative test cases.


Performance testing

Performance Test Cases are responsible for evaluating the performance of the framework developed. How the structure reacts to various sort of volume of the load is checked under this testing. 

Performance testing of the system includes the working speed that may get faster or slower after the release of the product.


User acceptance testing

User experience is the end goal of every industry that can make or break someone’s reputation. So, at the point when the application goes to the customer, full documentation ought to be made clarifying the strategy for the establishment, any open deformities, different jobs, and so forth. Improve your product for the better user experience, as ultimately it’s the users who trust each other and not the sellers.


Conduct formal technical reviews

A Formal Technical Review (FTR) is a review performed by programming architects to uncover practical and legitimate blunders at the beginning times. An FTR is a gathering meeting in which various officials guarantee that a created programming satisfies the predefined guidelines and prerequisites.

The best time to run an FTR is the point at which you have developed products. An authentic FTR requires a group of designers with specific jobs as speakers, analysts, or makers.


Incorporate code quality measurements

Despite doing everything if you are still wondering how to improve the programming testing process, ensure your quality measures are quantifiable, archived, evaluated, and followed. There’sThere’s no single right approach to quantify code quality. 

The best guidance is to pick measurements that are straightforward and viable for your work process. The guide should include the essential metrics to confirm the code quality are performance efficiency, security, rate of delivery, maintainability, testability and product usability.


Make an effective bug report

A decent bug report will help make programming testing progressively productive as it will enlist every bug that has occurred and may occur in the future. Along with the list of occurrences, it should also include the possible solutions for engineers. 

The type of bug report can have an intense effect on the product and create big chaos. Every valid bug report must follow specific guidelines like the inclusion of solutions to occurred bugs, be clear and precise with the screenshots, addition of bug summary.


Conclusion 

Quality always overpowers quantity, so to beat your competitors in the IT industry, it becomes imperative to have holistic testing plans and strategies. 

Following the path of being the best and exceptional, test your product before someone rejects it. Consequently, your quality strategy should cover all crucial aspects: effective planning, a test-oriented quality management approach, and a dedicated QA team.

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Ravi Sharma

Ravi is an out of the box thinker, mentor, advisor, and consultant to businesses, helping them in choosing the right technology partner. With more than 2 decades of work experience in global IT business, he possesses a talent for putting in place unique strategies and measures for streamlining operations, invigorating businesses, and heightening productivity.

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