Best Practices For Software Testing And Quality Assurance

“Quality matters the most” – You might have heard this famous saying when it comes to software development. It is indeed true because delivering projects on time and within budget would be worthless if the developed software isn’t high-quality. Undoubtedly, software quality assurance has become an essential part of the software testing process that builds customer trust and business credibility. 

After struggling amid a pandemic, software development companies have realized the importance of software quality and are looking forward to adopting best practices and essential measures during the software development life cycle (SDLC) to develop bug-free software.

To stand out in today’s ultra-competitive market environment, one should cautiously care about creating bug-free software or following best practices for software testing.

So, if you feel your current testing process is a dime a dozen and doesn’t help you catch every bug before each new release, Hiring expert QA testing services from ForceBolt can help you improve your product, app, or platform’s performance, security, and compatibility.

Following these Software Testing and Quality Assurance best practices will change how you incorporate testing into your development process and help you improve speed, scale, and coverage. 

Best practices For Software Testing And Quality Assurance 

Planning 

Planning comes in the first stage of Quality Assurance. It gives the roadmap of all the software elements explaining all the details like what needs to be tested, how to carry on with the testing, and evaluating the outcomes. It helps to create milestones moving towards a wholly tested software. 

It is essential to document everything in your testing system to keep your team on track. Whatever type of testing you are carrying out – manual or automated, documentation becomes training material and the foundation of configuration documents and manuals. 

Prioritize Bug-Fixes Based On Usage 

As you carry out the software testing plan, you must track the bugs or unexpected issues. Many of these bugs may even crash your software. If some bugs have a higher frequency, they must get resolved before moving to others as you keep the bugs at bay, which becomes equivalent to producing quality software.   

Test throughout The Lifecycle 

Testing throughout the SDLC helps to reduce the burden on QA. The higher the number of tests you conduct and the earlier you test, the higher the chances of finding and fixing errors. You may reduce the pressure on your workforce when testing at all stages.  

Clean The Code

The more concise the code, the easier it becomes for the other developers to follow in a scenario of future testing. A simpler code is synonymous with easier maintenance. 

Merge Test Automation & Manual Testing

Your quality assurance (QA) testing methodology should include automated and manual testing. The key is to determine what type of test is best for each aspect and phase of the product.

Manual testing covers a wide range of conditions and scenarios. Manual testing is preferred for exploratory, usability, and ad hoc testing. Ideally, manual testing should be performed by highly skilled and experienced testers representing different end-user profiles and using various devices and operating systems.

To save time during testing, manual testing can be complemented with frequent automated tests. Automation is the best solution for white box testing, load testing, and other performance testing.

Any tests that need to be repeated should be automated. Automated testing is convenient and reliable, helping you ensure that your application is working correctly from a technical point of view.

Run Regression Testing 

When you modify code to fix an issue, it usually leads to another problem. This generally happens at the end of SDLC with a need to add additional features to the software. The problem is avoided with Regression testing.

Reusable regression tests are best practices to follow when working with Agile methodologies. This ensures that the code added to fix one problem does not lead to another. 

Regression testing can also be carried out after the completion of the software. You must ensure to run regression testing when you change the software after releasing it. 

Write good test cases.

The environment for development and customizing & executing test cases should be different. Every test should be based on clear expectations and lead to measurable results.

Break each test case into a series of short steps. Following these steps will tell you whether a feature is working or not. You can consider writing test cases as a series of actions related to the questions. And when an action is taken, the automated test or QA testers must answer simple questions to measure the success of the action. Instructions written for each test case should provide testers with a clear understanding of their expectations. 

Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Delivery (CD)

Continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) are the most effective strategies used in software development that complement the agile methodology. You can include a continuous testing strategy in CI and CD.

Without CI and CD, developers divide their work and assemble different code segments at the end of the development cycle, resulting in a lack of cohesion, compatibility, and problems with how different code segments interact.

With continuous integration, the code is stored in a central repository. The developer is working on minor changes to the code and regularly uploads small pieces of code to the central store. You can incorporate quality management into this methodology by running tests every time the code is updated.

Continuous delivery allows you to run new iterations of your product regularly. This is a fast and effective approach to dealing with errors and issues affecting the user experience.

QA Testing Best Practices To Follow:

1. Test one thing at a single time: Each test should have a clear purpose. The test should focus on a single feature or deal with things like the user interface or security.

2. Familiarize yourself with the types of tests available: From load testing to user acceptance testing (UAT), you need to understand the differences and how to use them.

3. Use regression tests: QA specialists must use regression testing to estimate the impact of updates on existing functionality and ensure that new additions don’t cause new bugs or system crashes. 

4. Bug Reporting and Tracking:  Define how bugs will be reported and what kind of data is needed. Choose either an open-source bug tracking tool, or develop one that suits your workflow.

5. Use analytics: Keep a record of each test performed and use that data to determine where a failure might occur. This data will help you design new tests that address problem areas.

6. Choose the right test environment: Try to cover a variety of scenarios, including different devices, operating systems, and user profiles.

7. Use unit and integration tests: Unit tests isolate each application component, while integration tests evaluate how well each subsystem is performing.

Conclusion 

Thorough testing is critical to quality assurance, and following best practices for software testing can ultimately lead to high-quality, bug-free software. However, effective QA testing is an art and a science which requires the best QA team to ensure the best results.

Choosing a team that follows software quality assurance best practices can ensure success throughout all the phases of SDLC. This is ForceBolt, the leading QA company. We offer a complete QA testing service covering all aspects of performance, compatibility, security, and usability. Contact our skilled QA consultants to get the most out of our reliable and high-quality QA services.