INTRODUCTION
In the realm of software development, software testing is a crucial and integral part of the development cycle. It acts as the ultimate check for any code created for software, carefully evaluating its performance and adherence to user experience standards, guiding it towards success. Without software testing, organizations and developers remain uncertain about how their creations, whether websites, mobile apps, or system software, will behave.
As time has passed, a multitude of software testing methods, guidelines, and tools have emerged, enhancing the efficiency and resilience of the software testing process. Nevertheless, selecting the most appropriate methods and tools requires a well-thought-out strategy, one that aligns with the nature of the application (whether it’s a website, mobile app, system software, APIs, etc.) and the prevailing development culture. Let’s embark on this exploratory journey.
PART 1: WHAT IS SOFTWARE OUTSOURCING
Software testing plays a pivotal role in the software development life cycle. During this phase, the developed software undergoes thorough evaluation to ensure it meets the expected requirements and functions correctly. Developers and testers, often part of the Quality Assurance (QA) team, carefully examine aspects like code quality, accuracy, user pathways, transactions, and performance metrics. This examination is conducted using predefined test cases that come with specific instructions, inputs, and expected outputs.
The main goal of software testing is to detect and resolve bugs early in the development process before the software is deployed. There are two primary approaches to software application testing:
Manual testing: This method involves QA testers manually navigating websites, clicking buttons, performing transactions, and identifying any abnormal behaviors without relying on scripts or tools.
Automation testing: Automation testing, on the other hand, employs technology, frameworks, and specialized tools to automate the execution of defined test cases and scenarios. These tools generate detailed performance reports, enabling benchmarking and error detection. Automation testing involves scripting test cases, which can be done either during or after the development phase, allowing for continuous and 24/7 test execution.
PART 2: MANUAL VS. AUTOMATION TESTING
When it comes to testing, there are important distinctions between manual and automation testing. These differences include accuracy, speed, experience, skills, and observation.
Automation testing offers fast execution and increased efficiency. However, manual testing remains crucial in areas of software that require a human touch.
Automation testing strictly follows scripted instructions. Yet, there are situations where we need a testing method that can intuitively detect when something is wrong. This unique capability lies within manual testing, making it invaluable for identifying usability issues rather than just coding errors. Manual testing is essential for obtaining precise user interface feedback.
Moreover, for one-time testing or tasks with tight deadlines, manual testing often proves to be the better choice. Automation testing requires prior coding, which can be time-consuming. Additionally, adapting changes into automation testing can be challenging. Manual testing fills the gap, ensuring smooth operations during minor adjustments.
The only downside of manual testing is its time consumption over the long term and the potential for human errors. Human testers may overlook minor mistakes or become fatigued after extended testing, while machines remain consistent.
To maximize testing results, it’s crucial to strike a balance between manual and automation testing, depending on the situation, frequency, and timeline. As a rule of thumb, use manual testing for assessing usability and turn to automation testing for scrutinizing performance and code-level aspects.
Beyond the manual vs. automation testing debate, testing can be categorized into two broader domains:
- Functional testing: Focuses on code quality, features, and functionality.
- Non-functional testing: Concentrates on real-world performance and the overall health of software applications.
PART 3: DIFFERENT FUNCTIONAL TESTING TYPES
Functional testing, as the name suggests, revolves around assessing specific software features and user interactions to ensure their smooth operation. For instance, in the context of an e-commerce website, functional testing involves scrutinizing key components like the product page, checkout process, and online payment transactions. This careful evaluation guarantees a fully functional website where users can place orders without any disruptions. Let’s explore the different types of functional testing.
Unit Testing
Unit testing, also known as component testing, forms the foundation of functional testing. It involves examining software building blocks, including individual functions, classes, files, libraries, and modules. Typically, developers undertake unit testing, directly inspecting the written code to detect bugs early in the development process. This cost-effective approach ensures a swift integration into the software development lifecycle.
Integration Testing
Integration testing focuses on validating the interoperability of different modules developed by various teams. As developers contribute code to a shared repository, integration testing ensures seamless collaboration, identifying and resolving potential bugs and performance issues. Due to its complexity, automating integration testing is advisable, as it must run whenever changes occur in the underlying code.
End-to-End (E2E) Testing
End-to-End (E2E) testing involves a comprehensive examination of the entire software journey, from the start of a user’s interaction to its conclusion. Test cases for E2E testing can range from basic actions like login/logout to complex user flows, such as completing a purchase, including product search and online payment. While E2E test cases tend to be extensive and challenging to maintain, focusing on the user experience is considered best practice.
Smoke Testing
Smoke testing assesses the overall correctness and functionality of software features at a high level. It involves executing a limited set of primary test cases to determine the stability of the software build. Smoke testing is designed to be quick and concise, verifying that critical software functionalities are operational. Its purpose is to decide whether QA testing can proceed further.
Regression Testing
Regression testing is done to identify potential disruptions caused by recent code additions. It relies on previously established test cases, which are re-executed to ensure that new code changes do not compromise the existing application functionality. This method is highly effective in promptly confirming the absence of adverse side effects from new code implementations.
Exploratory Testing
Exploratory testing primarily serves to identify UI/UX issues and validate complex user flows. This testing approach involves minimal planning, allowing testers to explore the software with a high-level understanding. Testers navigate the application independently, adopting a discover-and-learn approach. This methodology covers more realistic scenarios and edge cases, mirroring end-user perspectives.
User Acceptance Testing
User Acceptance Testing focuses on evaluating the software from both a business and end-user standpoint. Well-defined test cases, equipped with specific instructions, are executed, and the output is meticulously compared to the input. This testing phase simulates the user’s interaction with the software, evaluating various performance metrics against predefined benchmarks.
Beta Testing
Beta Testing occurs when a limited number of users gain access to the software, becoming beta testers. As real end-users engage with the software and utilize its features, they discover bugs and performance issues. These issues are reported directly by users or logged through monitoring tools implemented by the software team. This invaluable feedback enhances software features and resolves bugs before a general release.
PART 4: EXPLORING NON-FUNCTIONAL TESTING
Non-functional testing focuses on the non-functional aspects of software, including performance, reliability, security, robustness, memory usage, and more. These aspects, often overlooked by functional testing, have a significant impact on the overall quality and user experience of the software.
While functional testing checks if your software’s features work correctly, non-functional testing assesses how well they perform. Its goal is to enhance the accessibility, reliability, and usability of your software application. Let’s explore some key categories of non-functional testing:
Performance Testing
Performance testing evaluates how effectively your software performs in relation to various server, network, and computing resource benchmarks. It identifies bottlenecks within the software, ultimately improving accessibility and availability. Common types of performance testing include Load Testing, Stress Testing, Infrastructure Testing, and Memory & Disk utilization testing.
Penetration Testing
Penetration testing assesses the security of your software by probing for vulnerabilities. It involves exploiting potential weak points in the software to determine if unauthorized access or compromise is possible. This rigorous examination encompasses hardware resources, software resources, network resources, and the operating system. Simulated security attacks, utilizing hacking techniques and tools, scrutinize the software’s security standards.
Compatibility Testing
Compatibility testing verifies whether your software can operate seamlessly across diverse resources, including hardware, operating systems, networks, browsers, devices, and mobile platforms. For example, if you’ve developed an Android app for versions 4 and above, compatibility testing ensures that your app functions as expected on all supported versions.
Accessibility Testing
Accessibility testing ensures that your software complies with accessibility standards and guidelines, making it usable for individuals with disabilities. In some countries, there are legal requirements mandating applications to provide accessibility support for individuals with various disabilities. Failing to incorporate accessibility support can result in substantial fines in such jurisdictions.
PART 5: MANUAL VS. AUTOMATION TESTING
As mentioned earlier, achieving the right balance between manual and automation testing is essential. Before delving into test automation, it’s crucial to have a clear grasp of the “What” and “Why” of automation testing:
What to Automate?
Conduct a thorough analysis of your software application, including user workflows, critical business transactions, and performance benchmarks. This assessment will help you identify the parts best suited for manual testing and those that can benefit from automation.
Why Choose Automation Testing?
Consider factors such as testing frequency, test complexity, time constraints, available resources, and your testing team’s skill set to determine when to opt for manual testing and when to leverage automation.
Depending on your software testing needs, here are some industry-standard practices for both manual and automation testing:
Automation testing has gained significant traction in recent years, and for good reason. Testing software often involves repetitively executing numerous test cases, which can become monotonous, time-consuming, and susceptible to human error. As your software application grows, manually managing and testing every aspect becomes increasingly challenging.
This is where test automation comes into play. Automation testing tools can execute repetitive test cases, freeing up developers to concentrate on improving code quality and enhancing features. Automation testing offers the advantage of swift and continuous execution of hundreds of test cases without exhausting valuable human resources.
To embark on a successful automation testing journey and maximize your return on investment (ROI), adhere to these best practices:
- Define and document test cases precisely: Provide specific instructions, inputs, and expected outputs for each test case.
- Establish key performance metrics: Define and document performance benchmarks for hardware, servers, networks, and computing resources, based on your use-case and expected traffic.
- Select the right automation tool: Choose an automation tool, whether on-premise or cloud-based, that aligns with your test cases and scenarios.
- Develop critical scripts and quality test data: Create robust scripts for business-critical processes and ensure high-quality test data.
- Consider UI changes: Develop automation tests with future UI changes in mind to ensure adaptability.
- Early testing: Test your code as early as possible within the software development life cycle.
Here are some widely-used Automation Testing tools to explore:
- Selenium
- Apache JMeter
- BlazeMeter
- QMetry
- LambdaTest
- Appium
- Micro Focus UFT
- Ranorex
- Robotium
- Katalon Studio
PART 6: CHOOSING AUTOMATED TEST TYPES
Automated testing offers a range of benefits, but it’s crucial to select the right types of tests for automation. Here are some key software tests that are prime candidates for automation:
End-to-End (E2E) Tests
E2E tests validate the entire software system from start to finish. These tests simulate real user journeys, covering multiple modules and functionalities. Automating E2E tests ensures consistent and thorough assessments, especially for complex user flows like online payments and communication services.
Unit Tests
Unit tests focus on testing individual code units, which are the building blocks of your software. These tests are best conducted during code development and finalization. Modern development frameworks support unit testing and provide automation capabilities from the command line, making it easier to perform component testing.
Integration Tests
Integration tests assess your software application as a unified whole. Complex features often involve multiple interconnected modules, such as payment processing, communication services, database operations, and more. Automating integration tests ensures the seamless operation of these critical business transactions, allowing for quick verification whenever code changes occur.
Performance Tests
Performance tests are essential in both development and production environments. As your software and user base expand, performance bottlenecks can surface, requiring resource scaling. Frequent performance testing identifies these issues and aids in resource planning. Automating performance tests streamlines this process, saving time and costs, while ensuring consistent performance across all scenarios.
PART 7: SELECTING THE RIGHT SOFTWARE TESTING
Now that you understand the importance of software application testing, let’s explore how to implement it effectively. There are three options for getting your software tested:
In-house Testing
In-house testing is conducted by an internal QA team. This approach offers complete control over the testing process and is ideal for agile environments. It’s particularly suitable when you handle sensitive data and frequently release new features.
Pros
- Precise control and agility in testing methods.
- No need for extra training, as in-house testers are well-versed in the product.
- Efficient collaboration between developers, managers, and the QA Testing team.
Cons
- Scaling can be challenging, requiring hiring and initial training of additional resources.
- Limited testing skill set dependent on hired personnel.
- Setting up a dedicated infrastructure for the in-house team adds operational overhead.
- May result in underutilized resources when testing isn’t constant.
Outsourced QA
Outsourced QA involves a third-party vendor specializing in software testing. This option allows you to leverage their domain expertise and established infrastructure for an effective testing strategy.
Pros
- Access to a larger pool of specialized talent and skill sets.
- Enhanced software quality through established processes and tools.
- Confidence in partnering with testing domain experts.
- Cost and time-effective.
- Easy and rapid scalability with various skill sets.
Cons
- Potential challenges in collaboration with software developers and managers.
- Security concerns when sensitive data is involved.
- Limited control over testing processes and methods.
Crowdsourced Testing
Crowdsourced Testing entails engaging a third-party vendor that assembles a global community of testers with varying experience and skill levels. These testers individually examine the software and promptly report bugs.
Pros
- Quick initiation with a large pool of testers.
- Higher quality results due to a higher volume of issues discovered in a shorter timeframe.
- Geographic diversity advantage for location-specific testing.
- Efficient and rapid scalability.
- Cost-effective compared to in-house or outsourced testing.
Cons
- Limited knowledge about the software and your company.
- Minimal control over testing processes and methods.
CONCLUSION
In summary, software application testing is essential for ensuring the correctness, security, and expected behavior of your software. It enhances software quality in terms of both coding and performance, ensuring the flawless execution of critical business transactions. When you require frequent and scalable testing, automation testing emerges as the most efficient choice, saving time, effort, and costs.
When it comes to assigning software testing responsibilities, you have three options: In-house Testing, Outsourced QA, and Crowdsourced Testing. Your decision should align with your preferences, software testing methodologies, and unique use-case requirements.
