Best Practices of Successful Software Testing Project

by Claire Mackerras Certified Software Tester

Ensuring the optimal performance of the software post the development process is essential and is considered the most crucial part of a software life cycle.

But the complicated nature of the software nowadays, due to regular code changes during its development and many other aspects make the software testing process more complex and intricate and thus requires more efficiency and efforts.

So it is important to apply some of the best practices while testing a software project, let’s discuss some of them.

Practices That Ensure Success And Precision In The Software Delivered:

1. Choose a testing environment that is secure and reliable:

Nowadays, many software testers and companies resort to cloud-based testing to leverage cloud benefits. However, they do not realize this fact that cloud has its own shortcomings as it quite vulnerable, specifically when a public cloud is used.

Therefore, software testing companies should create a robust testing environment that is completely secure and free from any cloud-based vulnerability.

If mobile application testing is to be carried out, the software testing companies should conduct testing in regional testing labs where the environment is completely secure for manual and automation testing.

2. Conduct testing at early stages:

It is a good practice to conduct testing and prepare test data at early stages of software development such as at the specification stage. This is more cost-effective, and you have to put less effort to test a particular module.

It is easier to detect software bugs and resolve them on short prototypes rather than on a completely built application.

Starting software testing at the QA stage is not a good practice, and it wastes a lot of time and resources. Each output produced during the software development process should be tested so that the testing process should not become complicated in the end.

Testing at an early stage identifies the bugs easily and thus improves the software quality. Not only it cuts down the labor costs but also reduces quality maintenance costs.

3. Maximize test coverage:

If you maximize test coverage, it increases the quality of testing. This helps the testers to prepare test cases that cover maximum areas of the software that are missing or not validated.

Even if 100% coverage is not possible, try to cover the maximum of it. If you are writing test cases for invalid as well as valid conditions, the chances are that you will be able to cover the maximum. Also, try to write test cases in the requirement analysis step. Thus the software requirements will also be testable.

4. Regression Testing is crucial to ensure smooth functioning of the software:

You should categorize the test cases to conduct regression testing. Regression testing is important to ensure that the existing functionalities are working properly even after a code change.

An effective and quick regression testing is truly valuable for the quality assurance of the software. You can also use a bug graph during regression testing to identify the faultiest part of the application.

[Relevant Read: Why To Invest Money in Regression Testing? ]

5. List down all the tests conducted:

Whether you conduct automated or manual testing, it would be a good practice to record all the tests conducted. All the observations and test progress should be recorded in a file, which is then listed in the final test reports. Thus the test reports will contain all the necessary information required for further testing.

Important things that must be recorded include the impact of the bug identified on the system, symptoms of the bugs, and the most relevant solutions to make testing successful.

6. Cleaning the test code before the software release:

If the software under testing necessitates changes in the fundamental code, it must be cleaned after the testing process is ended. Therefore, it is a good practice to keep records of the testing code. If the testing code is cleaned from the core code, it saves a lot of time and resources during the deployment of the final application.

7. Customize testing according to different use cases:

Writing customized test cases in order to suit the requirements of the project is a great way to conduct valuable testing of the software according to its various use cases. A software module has a different use case on a smartphone as compared to tablet so write tests according to that.

8. Conduct load testing

Load testing is not included in the regular software testing process. Also, it requires different resources and time as compared to other testing processes. Therefore, it is crucial to spare time for manual load testing as well and then define the deadline of the project accordingly.

9. Be clear with the testing objective:

This is the foremost thing you must consider before testing an application. In order to carry out quality testing, defining goals of testing is important.

Wrap up:

These were some of the basic testing practices that must be followed to ensure the quality and security of the software delivered. As modern-day software products are built with intricate code modules, it is essential to validate and assure the quality of each module so as to make best-in industry software.