Test plan tricks

Test analysis book? Most experienced developers understand that software testing isn’t a singular approach, although, in the broadest sense, it refers to a collection of tests and evaluations that aim to determine whether a software application works as it should and if it can be expected to continue working as it should in real-world use scenarios. Basically, software testing aims to ensure that all the gears are churning smoothly and work together like a well-oiled machine.

My original comments on test estimation are as follows, “Arrrgh… test estimation. Get your team to get it right and you may have uncovered one of the mysteries of the world. Enough said.” Then I thought I better expand a bit… Your organisation has many unique factors that you need to take into account. The best form of estimate can be based on past test execution history – generally only available when you have previously collected metrics on test execution. Other than that you will need to have your team factor in as much as you can regarding areas such as environment, quality of resources, past test execution history, and technical difficulty.

Lucian Cania is an experienced international IT delivery and software test manager with a vast experience in test management. He founder Cania Consulting by leveraging a vast background in Transformation Programs executed across Europe in the areas of ERP, BI, Retail, Billing and Integration. As a young graduate I started looking for potential career opportunities and this eBook has shown me the beauty and complexity of the Test Manager profession from a theoretical standpoint. Find a few more details on Istqb Test Manager.

Testing is about reducing risk. Testing, at its core, is really about reducing risk. The goal of testing software is not to find bugs or to make software better. It’s to reduce the risk by proactively finding and helping eliminate problems that would most greatly impact the customer using the software. Impact can happen with the frequency of an error or undesired functionality, or it can be because of the severity of the problem. If you had a bug in your accounting software that caused it to freeze up for a second or two whenever a value higher than $1,000 was entered, it would not have a huge impact. However, that would be a high enough frequency to be very annoying to the customer. How can a professional manual tester who runs routine tests regularly become more creative? There are some useful pieces of advice that might be of help to any tester.

Work at home software testing tip of the day : With the switch to teleworking we’ve been using Google hangouts with web-cams. We first tried it without webcams but since we’re used to being in the same physical space most days, it has been helpful to see people on the camera. It also forces people to fully engage in the meeting and not be multi-tasking doing other things. So we’d recommend using video and audio if practically possible. The online tools for release and sprint planning we use (SpiraPlan in our case) work just as well in-person as remote, so as long as you’re not relying on physical boards, should be minimal adjustment. If your team is using physical Scrum or Kanban boards, now is a good time to move to an online planning tool. See a few more details at cania-consulting.com.