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Monitoring Makes for Better Testing

Monitoring Makes for Better Testing

Monitoring of tests is a crucial management activity that has the ability to improve the overall software testing process and enable the successful completion of a software development project. With test monitoring, comparisons can be made between the original project plan and the progress achieved at a given point of time.

Monitoring Makes for Better Testing

Monitoring can ensure improved testing of the software because it creates a streamlined process of evaluation and feedback. It makes sense to evaluate some of the reasons which illustrate that monitoring makes for better testing.

Comprehensive Assessment of System Performance

Efficient monitoring of tests, especially in production, is useful in gauging the performance of the system with regard to real users and real data. The information collected by means of performance testing and monitoring can be expanded for a detailed insight into the application. It also ensures a provision for spotting the bottlenecks in performance and being able to address them in a timely manner.

Effective Supervision of the Testing Process

Monitoring is important in testing because it allows the person in charge to monitor the complete testing process, by getting regular feedback from the testing teams. The Manager monitoring the tests can guide the testers towards achieving the goal of an organization – that of top quality software. In addition, monitoring also provides for increased test coverage and a broader understanding of the status of testing at different stages. A well-supervised testing process gives the project team clear direction and vision of the test results.

Proper Appraisal of the Progress of the Project

In the test execution phase, monitoring ensures that the testing team works on the assigned tasks to ensure that the actual progress of the project coincides with the original plan. Monitoring of tests also leads to early detection of, and appropriate response to, any deviation or change to the plan.

Monitoring is important in testing

It assists the Manager is ascertaining whether the project is progressing on the right track consistent with the project objectives. It also allows organizations to modify their budget and adjust their resources.

Efficient Test Control

Monitoring enables a software testing company to standardize its testing activities and apply a powerful test control mechanism. With standardized testing process and tools, the testing team can take swift corrective actions and improve the testing process, based on some metrics or information collected. Hence, if required, tasks can be reassigned and schedules can be fine-tuned in order to accomplish the project targets.

Faster Release Cycles

It is possible for an organization to achieve faster release cycles if it has a robust mechanism in place for monitoring automated testing. Monitoring can enable a shift in the testing approach ensuring that production environments are test-friendly. Additionally, the time spent in pre-production can be reduced because of the focus on time-to-market and iteration. Towards that end, problems detected in the project are duly recorded and reported. They are also appropriately resolved.

Collaboration among Different Teams

One of the benefits of test monitoring is that it creates an environment of collaboration among different teams. In a DevOps scenario, the cooperation between development and testing teams is extremely important during the execution and monitoring of tests in parallel. It gives the organization an all-inclusive view of the application as it passes through the development and testing phases, and eventually benefits the entire development lifecycle.

Prompt Analysis of the Effect of New Change on Quality

Test monitoring allows Quality Assurance (QA) teams to analyze the impact of a change or feature on the final quality of software. Since testing is linked to the quality of a product, monitoring of tests holds great significance when features, fixes, and changes are deployed frequently. Test monitoring is also necessary for determining the response of users to the ever-changing production systems and ensuring a high-quality product compatible with the pre-established standards. It, thus, gives QA teams a chance to add immense value to the business.

Complementary to Continuous Delivery

Top software testing companies endorse the test monitoring mechanism because it can complement the Continuous Delivery process for bringing software rapidly to the market. Quicker iteration times give testing teams the ability to shore up the process of rapid software releases. Given the effect of monitoring, new fixes can be put into production quickly after testing, so that their effect on user behavior is measured promptly.

In Conclusion:

The process of test monitoring is essentially a management-level practice that oversees the software testing efforts. It encompasses a continuous observation of the testing process, with the central idea of enhancing the design and functionality of the software. Monitoring can greatly augment testing because it enables the Test Manager to observe the core elements of an application closely, and ensure the effective working of the key user journeys. Our team consists of top experts in this realm and more – connect with us to augment the software of your company.

Importance of Continuous Testing in DevOps

Importance of Continuous Testing in DevOps

Continuous Testing (CT) is a relatively new concept in Software Engineering that fits in perfectly with two of the core aspects of DevOps – continuity of the process of development and a source of uninterrupted feedback. The practice of Continuous Testing pivots around test automation as well as early and frequent testing (shift left).

Diligent implementation of a fully automated Continuous Testing process by an organization can lead to an uninterrupted software delivery cycle. Since DevOps incorporates testing throughout an agile project lifecycle, Continuous Testing becomes extremely important in DevOps, for a number of reasons:

Continuous Testing in DevOps

Facilitates the Continuous Delivery Process

Continuous Testing is a crucial component of the software development cycle that includes continuous development, integration, and deployment. In DevOps, Continuous Testing plays a vital role since it results in efficient testing services owing to the use of methods and concepts of agile development for the purpose of testing. Increased communication, collaboration, and innovation enabled by Continuous Testing aid the Continuous Delivery process for an organization.

Ensures Continuity in the Software Development Life Cycle

The inclusion of Continuous Testing in the DevOps process can ensure continuity throughout the SDLC. Continuous Testing encourages different teams in the development value chain to coordinate effectively with one another. Since there is, generally, an overlapping of roles in a DevOps scenario, Continuous Testing allows everyone involved in the software development process to contribute across the value chain as and when required. Hence, there is continuity in development, and quality becomes a joint responsibility.

Enables Comprehensive Test Coverage

A top software testing company would aim at comprehensive test coverage with the help of Continuous Testing tools such as Selenium and others. Development teams in DevOps can initiate the Continuous Testing process by testing the performance and functionality of the code developed by them. In addition, other tests that are carried out for increased test coverage include tests such as UI, API, and regression testing, among others.

Software Test Coverage

Enables Quality Assessment at Every Step

With Continuous Testing, the evaluation of the quality of the software is possible along the entire line of development. The key objective of Continuous Testing is ‘test early and test often, (shift left), with the various stakeholders in the process being the developers, DevOps, Quality Assurance (QA), and Operational system. The improvement in product quality from Continuous Testing is a result of finding and addressing risks effectively, and gaining instant feedback at the different phases of development.

Helps Upgrade the Delivery Pipeline for Feedback

To achieve the ‘continuous feedback’ objective of DevOps, it is important to upgrade the delivery pipeline for an effective feedback mechanism. Towards this end, the automation and implementation of Continuous Testing early in the development cycle are very useful as they can deliver actionable feedback in accordance with the stage of the delivery pipeline. In essence, Continuous Testing can link together Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD) more closely.

Integrates Seamlessly into DevOps Process

Continuous Testing plays an important role in DevOps given its ability of seamless integration into the process of accelerated development in an agile environment. Since the cooperation of development, operations, and QA teams form the crux of DevOps, Continuous Testing enables teams to work as one cohesive unit. With the undisrupted development and testing of software on a continuous basis, and quick bug fixes, an organization can align the development process with business demands.

Allows Faster Software Delivery to the End User

Continuous Testing is a constant testing process which, when meticulously used by an organization, can lead to faster delivery of new software to the end user. With newer software continuously developed, tested, and deployed, an organization can notably improve the speed of software delivery since the changes made to the software can be set up speedily in production. Consequently, an organization can employ effective marketing strategies to further improve its revenue potential.

Helps Organizations Cater to the Needs of Dynamic Markets

An organization using Continuous Testing in DevOps is capable of meeting the ever-changing requirements of its business. This is possible given that Continuous Testing entails repetitive and automated testing of software, from the creation of the build to the final release of the product. The diverse testing path in Continuous Testing, together with effectual QA methodologies, ensures a bug-free final product, enabling an organization to stay abreast of the needs of dynamic markets.

In Conclusion:

Continuous Testing holds great significance for organizations using DevOps for the regular deployment of software into production. The use of Continuous Testing in DevOps essentially interweaves testing efforts into all stages of designing, developing and deploying the software. When Continuous Testing is implemented properly, an organization can get a constant insight into the robustness of the latest software build and ensure speedy delivery of high-quality software. Leave the worry of Continuous Testing to the professionals and experts – connect with us.

Technology Behemoths Know Best

Technology Behemoths Know Best

Research to identify the root causes of failure of software startups, shows that substandard quality assurance during the development process is the chief reason. A top software testing company would prevent poor quality of software through strict and robust quality assurance testing, since these experts know that this could lead to huge losses in reputation and finances.

Learn About Testing Software and Quality Assurance

With the amount of technology in use today, customers expect the highest performance of software from any company, and are quick to shift to a competing company if they do not get what they want in the first instance. Top software development does not suffice today – stringent testing for QA for seamlessly working products has become quintessential to success.

It is no surprise then that there are several software testing companies today, but it would be helpful to learn about software testing services and QA from the behemoths of technology – the likes of Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, and Spotify. Their success does not have one ‘recipe’ but it certainly involves their laser like focus on ensuring the best quality software before ‘taking it’ to the end users.

Google

With more than 25,000 engineers working on more than 2 billion lines of code, it would seem near impossible to maintain top quality. Right? Wrong. As the company continues to grow, their QA strategy has transformed as well. Their mammoth size does not translate to ‘big’ – instead the company prefers brief and clear tests, coupled with frequent releases, which allows them to have a better control on any changes that their users may experience and resolve any issues quickly and effectively.

Google invests consistently and a lot into integration and unit testing, saving end to end testing only when required. They ensure the efficiency of their QA team by urging them to find innovative way reduce test failures, while accelerating testing cycles.

Software Testing in Google

The company moved from conventional testing teams and focuses on expert engineering job roles, in a bid to holistically enhance their QA bandwidth. Google ensures regular communication through a report on product quality, which is aimed at heightening ownership and goading the team to improve quality each day.

Facebook

The automated testing is driven by a code coverage tool that obtains the large amounts of data for them. The code coverage is always at maximum using some different techniques, which depend on the language of the code. They use PHPUnit to test PHP, forming a massive part of the framework for Facebook. Developers, dedicated testers, and the software itself, are responsible for running tests. Developers instantly receive a notification of any failed tests, and these notifications are logged into a database to which developers have instant access.

Their mammoth team of developers works with 61,000,000 lines of code (with almost an infinite number of ways these line could work), but without their robust culture of stringent code coverage guidelines and testing, these huge numbers could have easily posed some serious issues and risks.

QA Testing in Facebook

The great part about Facebook is their approach and mindset towards QA and the testing process – they accept their flaws and empower employees to write tests for their code. This means code ownership and responsibility, which in turn ensures top quality of software. To accelerate these efforts, the line of code written by one employee is reviewed by another. This not only encourages the employees to write top quality code, but ensures that the reviewer is able to objectively check defects and or suggest any changes and improvements. Best coding practices and new code therefore, permeate the company without any extra effort.

Amazon

While Amazon’s lack of QA infrastructure and number of QA professionals has been questioned and even criticized, the company remains unshaken. Their stance is that their ratio of testers to developers is not an input but rather an output variable. When they notice changes in customer behavior in terms of decrease in customers due to website issues, the company accelerates their testing efforts. Given that the company’s development and deployment processes are so advanced and established – they are known for installing software every 11.6 seconds – they do not see the need for elaborate testing processes. Their whole approach is towards making software easy to use and adopt, and in the event of a failure the software easy to recall.

Microsoft

Testers and developers are treated at par here, with equality of pay. Their higher ratio of testers to developers is due to the fact that a major portion of their revenue is from products that can be shipped to be installed on the computers of their customers. The company therefore would rather spend time and money on ensuring that their products are top quality before they are shipped to customers – this is better than ramping up the products later in case they are found with bugs or issues.

Spotify

For Spotify the priority remains product stability and the ability to test the product over time. Looking at quick fixes is not part of the culture at Spotify, as they aim to maintain quality and coverage at all times. The software development teams are termed as tribes and squads, responsible for certain areas. This ‘division’ helps not only to meet the objectives of quality assurance, but also keeps a synergy between the product and development teams. The company’s ability to scale development comes from testing automation, but they are careful not to use this as a ‘treatment’ or solution for every issue with quality. Test automation is used as a tool to help QA engineers become more effective, and to keep their focus on the goal of holistic product quality.

In Conclusion

The increasing emphasis on quality comes from the need of all businesses to deliver software to their clients / customers. Depending on the quality of software, a company can either reach its business goals or cause itself major problems. While the behemoths of technology can provide guidance, each business must find its own unique approach to QA and software testing. The good news is that it is easy to choose from the many testing companies offering software testing services. You just need a partner with expertise, experience, and knowledge about the tools and platforms, and the pertinent approach to QA for your company – connect with us!

Is your Website Ready for Peak Traffic on Open Enrollment?

Is your Website Ready for Peak Traffic on Open Enrollment?

With so many companies, products, and services the consumer is spoiled for choices, and it has therefore, also become exceedingly tough to decide instantly in favor of a particular offering. People now take time to research, gather information, check customer reviews, and do whatever is required to make an informed decision. However, this in-depth scrutiny bodes well for companies – it gives them the opportunity to draw more traffic to their websites, but the spike in traffic is something that they must be prepared to face. When open enrollment for products such as insurance offerings, it is critical for a company to ensure that their website is ready to manage the load.

Load testing and performance testing play a critical role in ensuring that the apps, APIs (application programming interfaces) and websites are running at optimum ability. These tests conducted only by a top performance testing services company will prevent memory leaks, low response times, and poor user experience. The busy customer of today is eager to work with companies offering seamless user experience during open enrollment, top quality products, and efficient service, and are unforgiving of companies unable to live up to their expectations.

Website Peak Traffic

One angry comment can potentially drag down the reputation of a company within seconds, and recovering from the damage could be extremely hard. Rather than risk the destruction of reputation and angry customers, it would make business sense to invest in the services of a top performance testing company. Let us look at some of the ways your company can be ready to face peak website traffic during open enrollment and other times.

Any top class QA testing company will tell you that testing for peak traffic can never be enough or too early. Preparing for open enrollment for example, it would make business sense to plan sufficiently and test regularly. The aim of performance testing and load testing is to discover bugs, errors, and to know the peak load that the apps and websites can manage. Finding these issues obviously will not suffice, and hence time and resources would be required to fix the problems and make improvements where necessary. Post fixing the issues, tests would need to be conducted once more to ensure that the systems are performing at their optimum.

Before conducting load / spike tests, it would be necessary to ensure that the issues with the current settings are sorted out. Scaling up levels of load and performance would ensure that your apps and websites are working well at every level.

Website Peak Traffic

As you ramp up the tests, ensure that your performance testing service partner, monitors the results and provides proper documentation for each level before ramping up to the next level. An expert performance testing company, will run a functional test to ensure that functionality of the apps and websites are running as required, followed by a calibration test to ascertain the performance of the platform and any problems associated with its functioning. Once these tests are done with satisfactory results, running a performance test would make sense.

The next step would be to run a stress test / load test. This will ascertain how well the site will perform under added ‘pressure’ / load especially during times of open enrollment when traffic increases significantly. If your company has such periods of peak traffic / open enrollment times, stress testing will ensure that issues with respect to capacity, limitations, stability, and usability are resolved before the apps and websites are hit by high loads.

It is important to note that normal performance and performance testing are necessary and must replicate the actual traffic scenarios as closely as is possible. Guesswork or predictions of performance could prove costly, and it is highly recommended to work with an experienced partner who can test the limits and capacity of your apps and websites regularly and provide round the clock support.

At peak times such as open enrollment and holiday seasons, companies tend to pay attention to their servers, often remaining ignorant of the fact that the real problem could be with their applications and or websites. Investing resources into determining the optimum functioning and performance of the applications and websites would help in seamless user experience.

Load Testing Company 2019

Experts in the realm of performance testing will understand the importance of not only criteria for success, but for failure as well during the testing phase. By setting the failure criteria, there would be transparency in the communication and your business would have upfront answers on whether the system failed to perform as per the service level agreement or from the business perspective. The experienced team of professionals working with your service partner would be able to lay down the criteria which would need to be the threshold during testing. They would also have the right testing tools, methodologies, and technologies to run the tests required to ensure that your company’s systems work smoothly under both normal and stress conditions such as open enrollment.

In Conclusion:

Scaling quickly from a few to millions of users is no mean task. Open enrollment, holiday seasons, and other such times can prove extremely stressful and even risky for a business if the applications and websites do not run as per the user expectations. The good news is that it does not require your business to hire extra personnel or learn new technologies to combat these high traffic scenarios. Connect with us for ongoing commitment, support, and in-depth know how of all such situations and more, and get ready to rake in the ‘spoils’ of the business that seamlessly working apps and websites would bring.

The Saga of Quality Assurance and Software Testing

The Saga of Quality Assurance and Software Testing

It is human nature to want the best quality – in everything we buy and use. Quality is the measure of excellence of any product, or service, experience or process, comparing them with things similar. For decades humankind has attempted to better whatever they created, specializing in their realms of work, and seeking to become experts in those areas.

Quality Assurance and Software Testing

If we look at ancient constructions and architecture, we can see how people began to raise the standards of what they did. Most of those structures continue to stand tall and beautiful even today. Before the industrial era, Guilds monopolized the markets – they were a union of craftsmen. They took on the responsibility of ascertaining the quality of good and services offered by the members – the masters of the guild would perform inspections in a bid to ensure that quality was maintained. This meant that quality was dependent on the view and mindset of a person or a group of persons. However, slowly specialization became the order of day, thereby taking quality from being focused on a person to being process oriented.

Quality Assurance in the Realm of Software Testing

With QA services becoming the buzzword now in almost every realm, including software testing, it does make sense to look at the history of software quality assurance to understand the reasons for the emergence and use of certain methodologies – Agile and Waterfall being two of them.

It is also necessary to understand how the failures, challenges, and successes of the past affect our view of quality as we know it today. Quality Assurance, Testing, and Quality Control are terms often used in the realm of quality, but it is incorrect to use them as analogous terms, since there are some significant differentiations. However, using these terms interchangeably has its roots in the origin and the fact that the implementation of each, intersect in the realm of software development.

Quality Assurance in the Realm of Software Testing

Defining Quality Assurance

Any top quality QA company will tell you that QA is a proactive process, aimed at preventing problems and issues. The emphasis for QA companies therefore would be to include meticulous planning, diligent documentation, and close attention to the guidelines required to ensure top quality software. In order to gain full understanding of the business requirements of the client and the project, QA as a process must begin at the start of the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC). The next step would be developing a structured and robust plan to meet the required expectations and criteria. Of course, QA must continue through the SDLC to ensure quality does not fall.

QA testing companies will tell you that software quality is about the level that a system meets the specified criteria and the needs of the users. Quality of software is also about the design quality, and can be determined by scrutinizing several variables – both internal and external. External quality would be user experience, while the quality of coding would deal with the internal quality. Software testing is an integral and critical component in the process of software development because this is what maintains quality. Software testing too has undergone several and major changes during its evolution, and the evolution has been segregated into various phases based on time.

Avoid ConfusionAs mentioned earlier, QA, QC, and testing must not be used interchangeably, and to make matters simple it would suffice to look at the three as a grading of processes. While QA cements the process to build a product and assess its quality, quality control ensures that the QA process is implemented right, and testing is one component of the QC process. Software testing has seen a rather evolutionary process, resulting in its advanced form today – that of end to end framework based testing. Studies conducted on the subject discuss the evolution of this realm based on time and based on usage of tools, methodologies, and processes.

Looking Ahead and In ConclusionQA and software testing constitute important components of software development, and with companies working with limited resources in terms of personnel, time, and money, it would make sense to partner with an expert QA Outsourcing company. Not only would these professionals work within these limitations, they would also provide value added services and support. They would also be able to guide your business with regard to which process require manual testing, and which ones need automated tests. With knowledge of tools, such experienced testers would ensure that projects are completed faster and with laser like precision. The skills and knowledge of such QA and software testing companies is becoming indispensable. To gain the benefits of top class QA and software testing, connect with us today, and leave it to us to uncover the countless possibilities for your business.

Software Testing Strategies and Methodologies

Software Testing Strategies and Methodologies

Testing software accurately and using several different approaches is critical to the success and quality of the software. Software testing companies use a number of testing strategies and methodologies to ensure that the application / website ‘behaves’ and performs exactly as it was fashioned and envisioned. These testing strategies and methodologies included end to end testing, system and unit testing – all aimed at ensuring top quality. It is a wise business decision to invest in the services of a renowned software testing company, which will be proficient in using all the testing methods to ensure your product is the best.

Software Testing Strategies and Methodologies

Software testing is conducted at several stages during the development of software, and has many different facets – including defining testing before building and consistent testing. Testers prefer to use automated tests for regular and routine tests in order to save time. The need and objective of using a number of testing strategies and methodologies has to do with ensuring that the software would be able to run optimally in several environments and devices across platforms and operating systems. Software testing is bifurcated into functional and non-functional testing, and these together ensure that only the very best quality software is released to the market, which in turn means that it can be easily adopted by the end users. Functional and non-functional testing using the right strategies and methodologies helps to build a robust and sustainable testing framework.

Unit TestingThis constitutes the first level of testing, and is usually conducted by developers. This step of testing ensures that at the code level the individual ‘units’ of the software function as designed. The developers typically write the test scripts and run the tests before they pass the software or ‘unit’ to the testing team. While manual testing is possible, automating will help to expand test coverage and would speed up delivery cycles. Given that this is an early stage testing, finding bugs and defects would be easier and fixing them would be simpler and faster too. A company offering top software testing services will serve as a guide and leader in all aspects of testing.

Integration TestingPost thorough testing of each unit is completed they would be integrated to create modules or sections crafted to perform specified activities or tasks. Each section is then tested to ensure that they function and ‘behave’ as required and that there is seamless integration between each unit. This testing can be conducted either by developers or testers, and is a combination of both manual and automated tests.

System TestingThis is a black box method of testing and is used to appraise the functioning of the integrated parts as a whole. A separate testing team conducts this end-to-end testing, before the software goes into production.

Acceptance TestingThis is the final phase under functional testing, and is conducted to test the delivery readiness of the software. Acceptance testing ensures the compliance of business requirements and whether the software meets the needs of the end user. Beta testing is to ensure feedback on usability from possible customers and testing by the QA team.

Types of Tests under Non-Functional Testing

Performance TestingThis is conducted to assess the ‘performance’ of an application under varying real user conditions – testing for stability and responsiveness. Performance testing consists of four types of testing:

  • • Load testing The method of applying increasing amounts of replicated usage on the software / application / website to ascertain whether they will withstand the load they are intended to handle.
  • • Stress testing is a further step intended to assess the behavior of the software beyond the peak load – it is a method of testing by purposefully overloading the system until it crashes and is used to ascertain the ‘break’ point of the software and its ‘response’ to this condition.
  • • Endurance testing tests the ability of the software to function over sustained usage and this helps testers to uncover any memory leakages. This is a longer process than load and stress testing.

Security TestingAs cyber-attacks and hacking are increasing, the concern over security of data in software use and storage is growing too.

Security testing aims at uncovering loopholes and possible security risks within the system to prevent unauthorized use and loss of information. This type of testing verifies the following ethics of security: integrity, confidentiality, authenticity, authorization, availability and non-repudiation – thereby covering all aspects of possible breaches.

Mobile App Security Testing

Compatibility Testing This tests how suited / harmonious the software or application would be in varying environments such as operating systems, platforms, browsers, devices or resolution configurations. This is necessary since customers would use the software or application as per their convenience.

Usability TestingSince applications and software are produced for an end user, it would make sense to test the ease of use and performance excellence from the perspective of the user. The design, aesthetics, navigation, and speed must meet the expectations of users, making usability testing a critical part of the overall testing methodologies.

Conclusion

Since software testing is a fundamental activity for system development, testing must be meticulously planned, using a gamut of strategies and methodologies. Without robust testing your business could end losing revenue and a large part of its invaluable customer base. Your business would need a trusted partner to drive testing, and deliver top quality software, optimally using the strategies, methodologies and tools, and yet keeping to budget and timelines. If you seek such a value added partner, connect with us today.