testing

Articles

Hand placing block in row of blocks with left arrows Fitting In Regression Testing by Shifting QA Left

Fixing a bug in one area of the software may break something in another area. To detect whether defects have been introduced, we need to perform regression testing—executing certain test cases again to see whether a change has affected other existing features. But how do you make time for another testing cycle prior to every production release? You need to get QA involved earlier in the software development lifecycle.

Shuja Naqvi's picture Shuja Naqvi
Smartphone showing the word "ERROR" False Errors in Test Tooling

Traditional GUI automation is linear; it follows a set of steps. The first time you run it, it can't add any value, as the feature isn't done until the automation runs. Once test automation runs a second time, it effectively becomes change detection. This leads to a large number of "failures" that are not actually failures. Whether they are false positives or false negatives, we need a way to fix the automation tooling.

Matthew Heusser's picture Matthew Heusser
Person parasailing 5 Steps to Getting Started with Risk-Based Testing

Risk-based testing is an approach to testing that helps us handle our limited resources. It’s also a valid model for years to come because it focuses testing resources where they can have the most impact—regardless of whether limitations are due to budget, tight schedules, or even the uncertainty of an unexpected situation like COVID-19. Here are some practical tips, examples, and steps you can use to adopt risk-based testing.

Shawn Jaques's picture Shawn Jaques
Bug on a leaf How to Respond to Retest Requests without a Clear Bug Fix

After finding and reporting a bug, a tester may get this response from a developer: "Please rerun the test on the latest version of the code and check if the bug still reproduces." This seems like a rational request; just as a change can cause a bug to appear, it can also fix a bug. But is following up the responsibility of the tester or the developer? And if the bug is no longer there, how do you classify and close it?

Michael Stahl's picture Michael Stahl
X-ray of a computer's motherboard X-ray Vision and Exploratory Testing

Imagine you have X-ray vision. Instead of seeing through walls, you can see the inner structure of programs, the bugs lying inside, and how to expose them. Anyone could execute the steps you gave them to reproduce the bugs. The difficulty in testing, then, is not in executing steps; it is figuring out what steps to take. How do you find those hidden bugs? We need to be the X-ray vision.

Nicholas Snogren's picture Nicholas Snogren
Breaking through a fence to see cars speeding on a road Enterprise Test Automation: 4 Ways to Break Through the Top Barriers

How can mature companies with complex systems achieve the level of test automation that modern delivery schedules and processes demand? There are four strategies that have helped many organizations finally break through the test automation barrier: Simplify automation across the technology stack, end the test maintenance nightmare, shift to API testing, and choose the right tools for your needs.

Wolfgang Platz's picture Wolfgang Platz
Timelapse photo of cars speeding down a road How to Accelerate Your Release Cycles with Agile Testing

With the traditional waterfall method of testing, achieving quality and faster time to market is difficult. Agile testing has emerged as an alternative, where development and testing take place simultaneously instead of operating in their respective silos. Let’s look at what it means to perform agile testing, what practices are necessary, and how agile testing can benefit your software releases.

Akshaya Choudhary's picture Akshaya Choudhary
Agile developers and testers collaborating Testing in Agile: How to Get Started

There is a lot of interest in organizations around a transformation to agility. However, the focus is usually on agile development, so it may not be clear how software testing is done in agile. If you're responsible for leading your testing teams, don't let them be left behind. Here’s how you can make testers part of the transformation, too—step by step, because this is agile, after all.

Balazs Schaffhauser's picture Balazs Schaffhauser
Coins falling Where Your Money Is Lost in Testing

Companies that want to reduce testing costs usually try working with fewer people, or even cutting back on the amount of testing done. But with those approaches, quality usually suffers. Releasing a critical bug and suffering the subsequent pain usually costs multiple times what testing would. There are better ways to save money, and it can be done just by being smarter about our test cases and their structure.

Maximilian Bauer's picture Maximilian Bauer
Tester and developer shaking hands across a table How to Collaborate on a Brand-New QA Team

As a quality analyst, when you raise a bug, developers sometimes react as if you were personally attacking their job. The situation can be even more difficult if you are starting a new QA team, where you will work with people who have never had the quality assurance component. Here is some advice for ways you can be effective when you’re starting on a team that has never worked with quality analysts before.

Juan Pablo Aguirre's picture Juan Pablo Aguirre

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