What are the various phases of an Agile Testing Life Cycle?

 

The agile testing lifecycle comprises the planning of a sprint, designing a test case framework, conducting actual testing, ensuring product stability, and executing regression testing.

The digital landscape of today has given enterprises the tools, technologies, and methodologies to achieve a slew of objectives. These include improving the quality of software applications according to the market demand, accelerating the time to market, taking quick decisions in real-time, and becoming competitive. Agile has been one such methodology that has enabled enterprises to streamline their development, testing, and deployment processes based on the ever-changing demands of the end customers. Its structured approach balancing quality and speed can deliver value to the enterprises and their customers.

The high point of Agile way of development and delivery is increased collaboration between processes. Here, development and testing are not mutually exclusive and siloed processes but part of a continuum called sprint. The agile testing approach allows development and testing to be conducted simultaneously and throughout the SDLC. Further, the testers are involved in gathering requirements thereby facilitating the creation of test cases. Agile testing also involves the running of regression tests whenever a new feature is integrated into the software application. Using the agile model of development-testing-deployment, the QA team bakes in code quality and achieves robust business outcomes.

What is agile testing all about?

To overcome the inadequacies of traditional ‘waterfall’ testing methodology, the cross-functional agile quality assurance process integrates testing into the development phase. As testing is conducted incrementally (and iteratively) and in real-time, both development and QA are able to communicate and exchange information about the hidden glitches in the code to get them fixed.

In agile test management, a sprint is created to conduct specific development and testing related activities to be reviewed later. The sprint begins with a meeting where the development and testing teams realistically finalize the tasks to be accomplished. Thereafter, daily meetings are held to discuss the progress of testing and solutions are arrived at post brainstorming to sort out any challenges.

Agile testing strategy – advantages

The benefits of following an agile testing strategy include

• The requirements and modalities of testing are discussed collaboratively as a team. This offers team members with better insights into the business and technical aspects of testing enabling better alignment.
• Each testing requirement is defined based on a metric, which is measurable. This allows the QA specialists to understand whether the task has been completed.
• Test estimates are not overlooked as the QA specialists participate in the planning phase within a sprint.
• Regression testing is executed by leveraging test automation.
• The overall quality of code becomes the responsibility of the whole team (development and QA) rather than that of QA alone. At the beginning of development (and simultaneous testing,) the whole team agrees to the test strategies, prioritization of tests, and test cases.

Decoding the lifecycle of agile testing services

Following is the workflow of agile quality assurance involving both developers and testers.

Planning of a sprint: A sprint constitutes the total time given to the team to complete a user story. Here, development and testing are divided into small iterative and incremental processes. At the beginning, the project owner, developers, and QA specialists discuss the objectives to be achieved and activities to be performed within the sprint. It also includes the daily stand-ups to plan the course of the day.

Designing a test case: While the developers build user stories, the QA specialists design the test cases. The latter include various tests, parameters, and metrics to be conducted/monitored. The initial design of a test case determines how the subsequent test cases would be. The same is then shared with the development team for review. Thereafter, both the teams decide on the test cases to be automated.

Actual testing: In an agile environment, the testing team tests the user stories that are created by the development team. By working in tandem, the teams are able to detect (and fix) glitches early in the product lifecycle. The automated test cases are executed across the development cycle and the defects are fixed therein.

Product stability: The best part of working in an agile environment is the ability to add new features to the product at any stage without making it complex. The agile testing team ensures product stability after determining the requirement flow.

Regression testing: Post addition of a new user story to the development process, both manual and automated test cases are run to understand the impact of the new user story on the functioning of the product.

Conclusion

Agile testing breaks the barriers between development and testing processes and helps to eliminate glitches from the software code early. It is certainly capable of addressing the myriad challenges of the modern software development process compared to the traditional waterfall model. 

Article Source:

https://www.sooperarticles.com/technology-articles/software-articles/decoding-agile-testing-life-cycle-1787797.html

Why it is important to transition from Quality Assurance to Quality Engineering?

 

The inscrutable march of technology continues taking convenience, quality, capability, scalability, and user experiences to a whole new level. Enterprises are looking at implementing new technological paradigms and tools to develop quality products and services, generate new revenue models, and stay competitive. As the technology landscape transforms at a rapid pace with the advent of technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, the Internet of Things, Predictive Analysis, Big Data, and many more, traditional models are no longer adequate. When the stakes are so high with driverless cars and IoT devices on their way to become the new normal, traditional software quality assurance services need to give way to quality engineering. 

The quality engineering approach is about driving quality into the core of any software development process rather than following it along the way. This helps to reduce the possibility of errors/bugs to get into the system. Thus, quality engineering is more of a pre-emptive way of reducing glitches and ensuring the applications running the IT ecosystems of tomorrow are of proven quality. Further, the below-mentioned developments or observations highlight the predicament of following traditional software quality assurance services –

• About 30 percent of glitches or defects are due to wrongly configured test environments (Souce: an IBM study)
• Poor quality software leads to a loss of $60 billion annually in the USA
• Enterprises can save costs by optimizing the use of tools (Source: Gartner)
• Software testing comprises more than 50 percent of the development cost. This calls for automating the QA process and improving its effectiveness (Source: Journal of Systems and Software)
• Actual resource utilization for testing is about 57 percent instead of the expected 75 percent (Source: NIST Journal)

Why transform from quality assurance to digital quality engineering?

The benefits of switching to a robust, all-encompassing, and qualitatively superior QE services are as follows:

Driving the DevOps pipeline: DevOps envisions the marriage of development and operations to improve the quality of products and customer experiences on a continuous basis. Software quality engineering envelops DevOps by bringing the management, ideation, design, systems, product management, and operations together. It is a holistic approach to develop and deliver software applications that are safe, reliable, robust, secure, and scalable.

Maximum test coverage: In enterprise quality engineering, the entire span of the value chain (requirement to delivery) is covered in testing. It includes both shift-left and shift-right approaches of QA wherein the former testing is incorporated in the build phase itself. While in shift-right, quality is built into the delivery phase with continuous releases to ensure user satisfaction. Thus, software QE services cover the entire span of the SDLC including aspects like setting up and managing the test environments.

Powering CI/CD: DevOps is about developing and delivering software involving phases like build, test, and deployment. Here, every code change based on feedback from the QA team leads to faster integration and delivery in a transparent manner. The endless loop of feedback, code change, integration, and delivery ensures a better quality of products for the customer. Also, with the blurring of lines among departments and the initiation of a change in culture, quality is not merely the responsibility of the QA team alone but every stakeholder in the SDLC.

Better planning: There may be times when QA specialists identify an issue in the code requiring significant rework. This would lead to cost escalation and stretch the turnaround time. On the other hand, quality engineering services help in better planning at the initial stage of ideation and product development. They provide better insights to recognize limitations surrounding product implementation early on. Thus, identifying the potential glitches early in the development process can add to significant savings on cost and time. 

Better communication: Digital quality engineering specialists can test a product like the end-users and draw traceability into the systems should some glitches be identified. Their knowledge about the whole span of product development, testing, and delivery, helps in understanding issues from the perspectives of the system and users. They can contribute to enhancing the processes within the SDLC for churning out top quality products at every stage and iteration.

Conclusion

With quality becoming the cornerstone of product development and ensuring competitiveness for an enterprise, the thrust is towards eliminating glitches during the planning stage only. This is why it is important to transition from QA to QE to facilitate quicker releases through the CI/CD pipeline and ensure superior customer experiences.

Article Source:

https://community.nasscom.in/

Top ERP Testing challenges faced by the Enterprises

 

 Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) has become the cornerstone of achieving success in the competitive world of business today. An ERP software suite helps an organization to conduct its operations seamlessly by integrating the departments, branches, processes, and activities. The ERP software suite comprises multiple applications with the capability to collect, store, organize, and analyze data emanating from multiple processes and functions. It can be easily deployed on-premises or on-cloud depending on the business objectives. It can help organizations in optimizing costs, enhancing efficiency, better monitoring of resources, quicken decision making, and improving competitiveness.

However, not everything is hunky-dory with implementing an ERP software suite and may involve a few daunting challenges. The challenges can be attributed to poor management of the suite including inadequate training of the people using it. The people should have the expertise in conducting ERP testing to ascertain if the software suite is capable of meeting all business requirements. Further, testing ERP systems can bring out (and fix) the glitches or issues within the systems before they are deployed. Let us understand the main challenges testers face during ERP implementation.

Challenges for ERP application testing services

ERP can transform the manual operations of enterprises into digital and bring about transparency, speed, flexibility, accuracy, and convenience. However, any ERP software testing exercise can face a raft of challenges as:

Choosing the best ERP software suite: The market has many ERP systems with each claiming to be the best. This makes it difficult to choose one that suits your business requirements. So, at the outset of choosing an ERP software suite, find out the business requirements and how the ERP software could help addressing them. Further, the ERP software suite and its various applications should align with your business domain. Analyze the features of the suitable ERP software for your business and choose one with attributes like robustness, customizable, secure, and easy-to-operate.

Technical challenges: For proper ERP implementation, the entire system comprising software applications, databases, hardware, servers, network, and users should collaborate and work seamlessly. However, unless an enterprise is using a cloud-based ERP software suite, the hardware and servers may need to be changed. In addition, the speed and bandwidth of the internal network should be considered along with its interface with mobile devices. If these issues are ignored then there could be issues like latency or even system malfunction. Enterprises can weigh between implementing ‘as a service’ cloud-based or on-premises ERP systems for both can have their pros and cons.

Quality of data: The ERP implementation solutions can have compatibility issues with the data generated through legacy resource planning systems working within organizations. Thus, proper project planning should precede the implementation of any ERP centre of excellence. The planning would highlight the modifications the ERP system would need for its smooth functioning.

Adequate managerial support: An ERP software can trigger comprehensive changes in an enterprise’s traditional business model, practices, and operations. Also, the information keyed-in by one user in a process within the ERP suite may trigger an instant response in other processes in real-time thereby disrupting the entire ecosystem. And unless a change in the working culture of the organization is initiated from the top, the real benefits of implementing an ERP system may remain a distant dream.

Adequate training: The success of an ERP system would depend on the people using it. So, the employees should be adequately trained and motivated in operating the system. The ‘resistance to change’ among employees can be addressed by explaining the benefits of the system clearly. The managers may initiate ‘one-to-one’ communication in explaining how the system will make things easier and convenient for them. This will help employees to accept ERP validation for various operational aspects.

Inventory management: Zeroing on the perfect quantum of inventory can be tricky, for it could either be too less or too much for the organization’s requirements. So, it is important to consider the lead time wherein proper procurement of the inventory can be done in real-time instead of waiting until the inventory is exhausted in the warehouse. The ERP system can monitor the levels of inventory and let the management know once a shortage is noticed. For example, any shortfall in inventory should alter the status of sales by making it unavailable for any new requests.

Conclusion

Pulling off any ERP implementation and addressing the various challenges would entail detailed planning and monitoring. A proven approach to ERP testing including the conduct of due diligence is critical to streamline processes and achieve proper business outcomes. 

Article Original Source:

https://medium.com/@hemanthkumar989/what-are-the-main-challenges-faced-in-erp-testing-72e28ffc947a

Why is RPA so important for Mobile Testing?

 

The dominance of mobile phones as the preferred medium for accessing the internet is an established fact. This has created an app ecosystem where enterprises are competing among themselves to develop attractive, robust, customized, feature-rich, and secure mobile apps across verticals. Mobile testing has emerged as an integral part of this app ecosystem thanks to the rising cyber security challenges and fast-changing market dynamics. In fact, the criticality and complexity of mobile application testing are underpinned on the following criteria:

•  Testing of mobile apps should be done across browsers, operating systems, versions of operating systems, device platforms, and networks
• Quick release of newer OS versions and patches
• The varying hardware configuration of devices in terms of screen sizes, memory, processor speed, and others can be challenging
•  Unavailability of specific device platforms during testing
• Choosing a combination of devices, operating systems, and browsers to optimize testing
•  Availability of various categories of mobile apps – native, hybrid, and web and their need for testing

To address the myriad testing challenges, enterprises are increasingly veering towards adopting RPA (Robotic Process Automation.) If statistics are to be believed then the global RPA market is expected to touch $10.4 billion by 2023. Let us first understand what RPA is all about.

What is Robotic Process Automation or RPA?

It is an IT solution that lets enterprises automate many standard and mundane repetitive activities. Consequently, these activities are performed accurately and up to the desired expectations without any human intervention. It helps organizations to improve productivity, enhance efficiency, and accelerate a product’s time to market while upholding quality. RPA can be implemented in executing a plethora of tasks related to areas such as supply chain management, customer service, data analytics, and others. Its vast potential can only be achieved through meticulous planning.

When it comes to mobile testing, RPA can eliminate human errors and infuse reliability, accuracy, and transparency into the development and testing processes. It can easily scale the testing requirements, reduce the cost of testing, and take customer satisfaction to newer heights. Further, automated processes like RPA can significantly reduce the development and deployment lifecycle cost and duration of a mobile application. When a significant portion of testing is automated, the QA specialists will have the time and wherewithal to advance their skillsets and bring greater value to the business.

RPA helps enterprises in detecting anomalies in processes where anomalies are the outlier data patterns that do not seem to appear as normal. Such anomalies can constitute malicious codes to cause cybercrimes like data and identify thefts, data breaches, and malicious attacks, among others. To ensure that RPA performs its role in mobile app testing, enterprises should consider:

Processes to automate: It is not feasible to automate every process as there may be a need for human intervention. Besides, RPA can automate processes that are standardized, structured, and rule-based. So, the ones without standardization cannot lend themselves to automation.

Resources: There is a lack of trained resources for RPA given its relatively recent origins. To further add to the worries, there is a lack of availability of structured data across processes making the implementation of RPA and achieving accuracy a challenge.

Management approval: The implementation of RPA can cause disruption across the value chain due to its requirement for changes in the IT infrastructure of an organization. So, the management should approve of the implementation and oversee the disruption.

Benefits of implementing RPA in mobile application testing

RoboticProcess Automation can accrue a host of benefits for enterprises/developers/testers as mentioned below:

• Since RPA is run by specific tools, there is no need to remember any syntax.
• The QA team can create a test case by taking a simple drag and drop approach.
•  The capability of RPA testing of mobile applications can be enhanced by assigning specific jobs to different workstations.
• As a minimal workforce is needed, organizations can save significant costs on overheads.
• ince the process is executed by bots that follow a standardized approach, accuracy is assured.
•  Since there is no manual activity involved, testing can be carried out in non-stop iterations.
  
•  RPA can be flexible and does not depend on the type of testing – web-based or mobile-based. Moreover, it allows the parallel execution of tests.

One of the major challenges to testing mobile applications is managing the frequent updates and changes. So, by automating the repetitive tasks, enterprises can achieve efficiency and better detection of glitches. Also, since mobile test automation needs to be carried out on multiple platforms, virtualized devices or emulators can be leveraged. The implementation of RPA will have the below-mentioned features:

Total test coverage: RPA testing should be comprehensive and cover every aspect of development and testing – functional, non-functional, and integration.

Scriptless test automation: RPA does not need the human resource to have any programming skills. Any business analyst or Subject Matter Expert (SME) can learn to use the RPA tool. Since the bot can access the end-user system through a controlled user interface, there is no need to have any program to run the system.

Parallel execution of mobile automated testing: Customers are wont to use multiple mobile devices from different OEM vendors. And unless an application is tested across devices its quality is not validated. The RPA should ensure the parallel execution of app testing on multiple device platforms.

Continuous integration: The integration of various APIs should be properly verified.

Network testing: The functioning of a mobile application depends to a great extent on the available network. RPA testing should evaluate the mobile apps’ compatibility with different networks.

Security testing: One of the aspects of security testing is checking if the app adheres to the various security protocols and regulations. Also, since app stores will include an app only after ensuring it does not have any offensive data, prior testing should be conducted to verify the app’s adherence to all industry standards.

Conclusion

Leveraging the RPA tools can help enterprises in validating the quality of a mobile application across platforms. However, it should be done after meticulous planning to ensure efficiency. It is only by adopting the right approach for automation (web-based, cloud-based, and lab-based) that RPA can deliver the right outcomes.  

Article Original Source:

https://dev.to/cigniti/how-can-you-leverage-rpa-for-mobile-testing-3f32

Why is Test Advisory needed to set up a Testing Centre of Excellence?

 

The global IT landscape is in a state of flux due to the advent of new technologies and methodologies, changing customer preferences for better quality products, the emergence of newer cyber security threats, and rising competitiveness. To meet such challenges, enterprises should possess and ensure streamlined processes, quality software applications, quick decision-making, accelerated time-to-market, and a better customer feedback loop, among others. Traditional QA paradigms are woefully short to meet such challenges and do not have the capacity to keep pace with the new realities of the day. This is where a Testing Centre of Excellence (TCoE) can help enterprises to gain a holistic insight into the processes and operations. It can ensure the quality of software systems across the value chain, reduce operating costs, and quickly develop and deliver software applications that are customized to the needs of the market.

A TCoE can deliver proven results in terms of optimal performance, better alignment between IT and operations, better choice and usage of test automation tools, and increased QA efficiency across processes and functions. The testing centre of excellence can function as an integrated command centre using the latest testing methodology and practices, test automation tools, and metrics to foster efficiency into the testing environment. It allows the management to gain insights into quality across SDLC and take suitable risk-based deployment decisions. At the software testing centre of excellence, the team of specialists performs multiple roles and draws insights into the challenges and goals of software development, testing, and delivery.

Why does your organization need a test centre of excellence?

A testing centre of excellence can help an organization to achieve its quality testing goals, seamlessly and efficiently. Its need arises because:

·         The QA processes are aligned to specific project goals instead of the overall organizational goals.

·         Projects face high training costs due to the unavailability of QA specialists with proper domain knowledge.

·         The aim to reduce testing time without impacting the quality of systems.

·         Absence of a standardized QA process or methodology.

·         Projects suffer from defects and missed deadlines.

·         Use of dated QA testing trends instead of the latest ones.

·         Lack of continuous improvement in the Agile-DevOps mold.

·         Every project team reinvents the wheel instead of leveraging tools, components, and test scripts from a centralized repository.

Test advisory to set up a QA centre of excellence

The roadmap to set up a transformative TCoE may have the following elements.

Timeline and scope: Identify and define the activities, scope, and timelines for implementing the setup including the earmarking of transition, stabilization, and operational phases.

Goal setting: Set goals for activities covering areas like test automation, test environment, test processes, and governance.

Interface: Decide on the broad parameters and outcomes when the test centre of excellence interfaces with sundry quality initiatives, management, projects, and service providers.

Training: Assess the requirement of skills, identify resources followed by the hiring and training of such resources.

Core team: Since the QA process driven by an efficient and functional software testing centre of excellence would require proper control and management, a core team should be formed. The team comprising SMEs can be for areas like test automation, asset management, and governance, among others.

Tools: Identify the tools addressing the testing imperatives. Choose the tools based on their cost and maintainability.

Communication: Make sure the TCoE concept is backed by the management and every department in the organization is on-board. This is important for the success of this initiative.

Automation: All repeatable tasks should be automated and the reuse of test cases to the extent possible should be ensured in order to optimize cost and time.

Governance: Integrate the testing centre of excellence services into the IT structure of governance after defining the KPIs. Make sure to align the KPIs to the organizational and project objectives comprising the level of quality, cost optimization, flexibility, speed, and agility. The focus on the governance aspect means a continuous evaluation of the test processes, standards, and tools.

Conclusion

Delivering TCoE solutions can help organizations in reducing their cost of operations, fostering agility for the QA processes, and establishing a metrics-driven continuous improvement process, among others. Setting up a TCoE might seem a herculean task at the outset but with proper planning, investment in resources and tools, and training, the benefits can be visible in the long run. It can increase the overall quality of applications and reduce the time of delivery – all guided by a competent team of QA specialists. 

Article original Source:

https://www.sooperarticles.com/technology-articles/software-articles/why-test-advisory-needed-set-up-testing-centre-excellence-1786046.html

 

How to prepare for Security Testing

 

The advancements in digital technologies are matched by an increase in the incidences of cyber security. Threats from hackers are all-pervasive and it appears they can wreak havoc at their time and place of choosing. However, there are two sides to a coin. First, hackers seem to be one step ahead of software developers and have the technical wherewithal to break into the software architecture at will. On the other hand, most software applications are vulnerable to hacking as they have inadequate defences and do not mandatorily follow security testing in the SDLC. The result of not performing application security testing by many enterprises shows in the form of rising incidences of data breach.

According to statistics, around 7 million data records are compromised each day taking the annual figure to 2.55 billion (Source: Varonis). Also, the world economy is going to cough up around $6 trillion annually by 2021 on account of cybercrime damages (Source: Cybersecurity Ventures.) These statistics are alarming enough for every stakeholder to strengthen the cybersecurity measures. No one can hide behind the thought that ‘we are too insignificant for the hackers to attack us’ anymore. So, in the ultimate analysis, it is finally a choice between creating and implementing an application security testing strategy or waiting for the hackers to play havoc. 

Why security testing?

It is a type of testing in the SDLC where testers aim at identifying flaws or vulnerabilities in the architecture of a software application. Security testing ensures the application remains protected from cyber-attacks and continues to perform the intended functionalities. The six basic elements to be covered by the security testing services include confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, authorization, resilience, and non-repudiation.

With an increase in online transactions using web portals and mobile applications, cyber intruders are on the lookout for vulnerabilities in software. Thus, a dynamic application security testing ensures potential vulnerabilities are identified and plugged before the application reaches the end-users. Further, any software security testing exercise can pre-empt the following possibilities:

• Losing the trust of customers
• Downtime and latency faced by the application or system resulting in not meeting the delivery schedules
• Expenses on restoring services including taking backups etc
• Additional cost incurred in making the application secure against future attacks
• Legal suits filed by regulatory agencies, clients, or customers for not upholding adequate security measures

Types of security threats

There are many types of cyber security threats that hackers use to exploit the vulnerabilities in a web or mobile application.

SQL Injection: Malicious SQL statements are entered into an input field to get critical information from the database.

Privilege Elevation: Hackers use an account on the application to upgrade their privileges to a higher level.

Denial of Service (DoS): The hacker manipulates the system, application, or network to deny the availability of resources to legitimate users.

URL Manipulation: The process involves the manipulation of the URL query strings to capture critical information. It takes place when the application passes information between the client and server by using the HTTP GET method.

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): This type of vulnerability allows hackers to inject client-side script into pages to trick users into clicking on the URL.

Devising a security testing strategy

To plan, prepare, and implement dynamic application security testing in the SDLC, the following approach can be followed.

Understanding the security architecture: Begin with understanding the IT architecture, business requirements, threats, and security objectives of the organization. Every factor or requirement needed to ensure PCI compliance should be considered during the planning phase.

Analysis of security architecture: Analyze the application’s security requirements including the vulnerabilities.

Classification of testing: Get information about the software application and network in terms of their hardware configuration, operating systems, and technology used. Thereafter, classify the security risks and vulnerabilities based on the aforementioned elements.

Threat modelling: Prepare a threat profile of the application based on the information collected for classification (mentioned above.)

Planning for the test: After identifying the vulnerabilities and security threats, prepare a test plan and traceability matrix to address them.

Selecting a tool: Test automation becomes critical to identify glitches or flaws, which otherwise cannot be done manually. To execute the test cases quickly, a reliable testing tool should be chosen.

Test case execution: Execute the test cases including the regression ones to identify defects, quickly, accurately, and consistently.

Documentation: Study the test reports generated by the test automation tool to understand the vulnerabilities, risks, open issues, and threats.

Conclusion

Security testing has become a critical requirement in the DevSecOps-led model of software development. It ensures the identification (and subsequent fixing) of vulnerabilities or security-related risks in any software application. It also enforces software applications’ adherence to established security protocols.

Original Article Source:
https://devdojo.com/hemanthkumar989/the-main-elements-of-security-testing

How to Build an Effective Digital Testing Strategy

 

An effective digital testing strategy is paramount to validate the functioning of a product or service and lend credibility to it in the market. It leads to faster identification of glitches and delivers superior user experiences.

Digital transformation is aimed at streamlining processes, improving the quality of products, reducing waste and delivering superior user experiences, among others. However, not all digital transformation efforts bear fruit as shown by the increasing number of failures of many start-ups. A major part of the problem is the way digital testing is conducted as an integral part of digital transformation. The end result of such half baked digital assurance testing is the release of shoddy products. When glitches are left unattended due to lack of monitoring during the testing process, the overall customer experience takes a hit. Consequently, the business enterprise in the middle of it suffers from financial losses. Since digital assurance and testing play a critical role in driving profitability for any enterprise, the focus should be on developing an ideal digital testing strategy.

Steps to develop an effective digital testing strategy

Merely blaming the result (poor quality product) will not do any good unless and until the process is set right with a robust strategy in place.

# Set up testing goals: Unless the goals are clear the path cannot be determined. To create an effective digital marketing strategy, begin by setting the QA goals related to operations, UX, functionality, regression, security, and others. Each testing process should be planned, defined, communicated, and properly documented. The strategy should be able to answer the following queries:

• Name and type of product to be tested
• Which part(s) of the product should be tested?
• How the parts should be tested – manually or automation?
• What should be the test metrics?
• What should be the start and end criteria?

# Form the test team: Post deciding on the type of tests to be done, it is time to form a team of QA specialists. The team members should be chosen based on their test expertise and knowledge of programming languages. The latter comes in handy for writing test automation scripts. Importantly, your test team members may have the best web design and UI skills but they need to be reoriented to test the user experience.

It is better to use testers who did not work on developing the product as they can bring a fresh perspective and look at things differently. For example, developers-cum-testers may think of a feature as intuitive since they have been using it for days whereas the same may be difficult for the end-user to understand. In the era of globalization, digital products should be tested for an international audience. So, ensure the usability testing is done by the native users to find the kind of issues that are location-specific.

# Specify when to test: Incorporating the testing process at the right stage in the SDLC is crucial to get effective results. It must be decided in advance whether to implement digital QA testing after the integration of a new feature, at every stage of the development process, or at the end of development. Remember, an effective QA strategy should be a combination of high intention, sincere efforts, intelligent direction, and skilful execution.

# Specify devices to test: Bugs or glitches do not spare specific devices and so, it is necessary to test as many devices as possible. Also, bugs may be partial to certain configurations. For example, there may not be any bugs in an Android phone with the latest OS update but may be in plenty in the older OS. And as the older Android device may be used by thousands of users, any bug can play havoc. Further, the market has thousands of devices with many OS variants and versions and it is practically impossible to test each one of them. Hence, it is important to select devices for testing that are used by most number of target users. This information can be obtained by conducting market and user tendency analysis.

# Scenario-based or exploratory testing: The former is about testing each function of the product based on some preset parameters. It is a good testing option to ensure the smooth execution of various functions. Exploratory testing, on the other hand, lets QA specialists find bugs while exploring the product or service.

Conclusion

In addition to the above steps, the bugs identified should be properly noted, described, tracked, analyzed, and fixed. Once the steps of digital QA and testing are selected, conducting digital testing shall be a breeze. And it is only through a robust testing mechanism that an organization can address the expectations of users and stay competitive.

Article original Source:

https://www.sooperarticles.com/technology-articles/software-articles/how-build-effective-digital-testing-strategy-1784046.html