Software Testing Archives

Should Trivial Code be tested?

by admin | Jul 23, 2019 | Software Testing, Blog | 0 comments

Trivial code, as the name implies, refers to computer code that governs the performance of minor aspects of a web page or a software application. These could include invoice dates, the number of a purchase order, the value of a buy order, and other such factors. Veterans in the domain of Software Testing recommend the execution of functional tests on such code. Other members of the testing fraternity assert testers must execute Software Testing on trivial code only in case of an express requirement to do so. However, an overwhelming majority of the testing community holds that trivial code may undergo evolution and gain heft in terms of importance; therefore, such code merits functional testing in the early stages of its digital existence.

This approach finds a primary plank in the assumption: no code is trivial. The advocates of this approach state that Software Testing is the cause, and the implementation of such testing comprises the effect. Therefore, per this approach, the term ‘trivial’ does not emerge in the context of modern Software Testing initiatives. Champions of this school of thought also argue the term ‘trivial code’ is misleading and can trigger serious damage should newbie testers encounter the term during their learning phases. This approach also advocates testing code in small, formalized steps that add value to the overall Software Testing initiative.

This represents a critical input when testing professionals working on behalf of a Software Testing Company conduct test exercises. Those that endorse this approach to Software Testing value the feedback gained from testing exercises. The resulting information can be deployed to refine a body of computer code or upgrade the status of a software testing matrix above the mundane. Therefore, this approach negates the notions of some testers who ridicule writing Software Testing scripts for trivial code or automatic properties engineered into a software application or package.

Trivial code can ensure smooth execution of the overall functionality of a system. This critical learning negates the original question as to whether such code should undergo testing. For instance, code that governs a single property, such as setting the correct date inside a digital trade document, can wreak havoc should it undergo systematic malfunction. Another instance emerges when we consider the ‘minimize’ button in a browser window. Any malfunction in such functionality can mar the user experience, therefore creating a solid business case for Software Testing of these minor functions.

Both these methods of Software Testing should be deployed when test professionals verify the functionality of trivial code. Veteran testers assert that the use of automated tools allow testers to expand the scope of Software Testing to every bit of computer code that animates a software application. Further, said testers advocate both manual and automated methods may be used because of the distinctions in outcomes. For instance, Software Testing of trivial code using manual testing methods may unearth deficiencies in functionality overlooked by automated testing. In addition, professional test engineers favor mechanisms that detect instances when trivial code transforms into mainstream functionality inside a package.

This technique evaluates the quality of Software Testing undertaken by testing professionals. Such testing methods introduce deliberate glitches into source code and then the tests are executed. The resulting failures point to the areas of code that need re-structuring or re-compilation. Such testing, when applied to trivial code, assist testing professionals to verify the robustness of such code. The outcomes of mutation testing also indicate the quality of unit tests being administered to a body of computer code.

This represents an interesting scenario wherein Software Testing professionals set out to test trivial code developed by third parties. At one level, testing professionals should inculcate the stance to execute wide-ranging tests; at another level, they may work to test trivial code developed by third parties as part of their commitment to guarantee an excellent end-user experience. Some commentators in the Software Testing domain note that this represents an artificial distinction that has no bearing in the real world. However, others view this distinction as important to efforts that drive comprehensive Software Testing regimens.

The thoughts and views encapsulated reinforce the impression that no code is trivial. The Software Testing community must understand and appreciate the view that every piece of code makes a significant contribution to the overall performance of the larger application. Hence, trivial code (and its many variations) deserves their full attention in the interests of ensuring flawless bodies of computer code that trigger high levels of satisfaction among end-users at all levels. We are veteran testers and have experts in every realm of testing. Connect with us to gain the advantages.

Know How Testers Can Enable Top Class Customer Experience

by admin | May 29, 2019 | Software Testing, Blog | 0 comments

A comprehensive understanding of customers and a focus on customer experience can help the testers establish priorities before creating the tests. Hence, it is pertinent for a QA company to incorporate the process of ‘thinking from the viewpoint of customers’ into its testing technique. Testers can ensure that testing is suited to customer needs if they clearly understand the preferences of the customers, along with their expectations with regard to functionality, performance, and security of a software product.

Software Testers can enhance customer experience by tailoring the testing process in accordance with the expectations of the customers. For improving customer satisfaction with a software product, testers would need to think like customers and test the functional and non-functional traits of the product. They would need to define and validate requirements related to customer interactions. They should specifically test the look and feel of the product under testing, its ease of navigation, speed, performance on different devices, and seamless working of intended functions.

By performing Customer Experience Testing in a meticulous manner, testers can comprehend the ‘pulse’ of the customers as they would be testing holistic solutions rather than just systems. The customer-focused testing procedure gives testers the ability to test ‘full customer journey’ including custom settings, personalization data, cross-channel browsing and interactions, as well as complete and incomplete transactions. Thus, an organization can respond to both inevitable and unpredictable product failures in a timely manner so that the customers do not opt for a competing product. Overall, Customer Experience Testing makes the testers the custodians of customer experience, thereby enabling them to help an organization provide the best possible experience to its customers, attract new customers, and retain existing customers. Connect with us for assured consistent top quality customer experience.

Java: Useful Snippets for Automation Testers

by admin | May 19, 2019 | Software Testing, Blog | 0 comments

We have a conviction that our day to day work should be a combination of hard and smart work. In automation testing, we can arrive at a solution for a problem in umpteen numbers of ways. However, at times a complex problem might have a simple solution. In this article, we are going to share Java snippets which are much useful for automation testers to do smart work.

Snippet #1-How to check a string contains only numeric value?We can check this criteria using Regex pattern or you can try with Long.parseLong method. However, we recommend you to use Apache Commons Lang3‘s NumberUtils to check whether a string has only numeric.

String str = "1234";
if(NumberUtils.isCreatable(str)){
System.out.println("True");
}
else{
System.out.println("False");
}}

Snippet #2-How to get Apache POI Numeric Cell value as it appears in Spreadsheet? If you want to get the Numeric value from a cell as it appears in Excel, use the below snippet.

strCellValue=new DataFormatter().formatRawCellContents(cell.getNumericCellValue(),
                 cell.getCellStyle().getDataFormat(), cell.getCellStyle().getDataFormatString());

Snippet #3-How to set Network Conditions in Selenium? If you want to run your Selenium script in different network conditions, you can do it using Chrome CommandExecutor as shown below.

System.setProperty("webdriver.chrome.driver","drivers/chromedriver.exe");
ChromeDriver driver = new ChromeDriver();
CommandExecutor executor = driver.getCommandExecutor();

//Set the conditions
Map map = new HashMap();
map.put("offline", false);
map.put("latency", 5);
map.put("download_throughput", 5000);
map.put("upload_throughput", 5000);

Response response = executor.execute(new Command(driver.getSessionId(),"setNetworkConditions",
ImmutableMap.of("network_conditions", ImmutableMap.copyOf(map))));
driver.get("http://google.com");

Snippet #4-Filtering WebElements using Regular Expression

driver.get("file:///C:/sample.html");

List&lt;WebElement&gt; elements=driver.findElements( By.xpath("//input[@type='checkbox']"));

elements.stream()
     .filter(element-&gt;Pattern.compile("check_(\d+)_box").matcher(element.getAttribute("id")).matches())
     .forEach(element-&gt;element.click());

Metrics and KPIs for Software Testing

by admin | May 18, 2019 | Software Testing, Blog | 1 comment

Simply put – metrics are standards of measurement. In the realm of software, “a metric is a quantitative measure of the degree to which a system, system component, or process possesses a given attribute”. Software metrics measure the quality of a project, providing insights into the efficacy of the software testing efforts. These metrics enable testers to diagnose particular problems within the process of software testing, which if ignored could lead to poor quality software.

A KPI or Key Performance Indicator is a type of metric aligned with the critical business goals. Within an Agile project, KPIs help to understand whether the processes being used are enabling faster testing, elevated quality of software, faster and frequent releases, and a consistently high ROI for the business. To understand whether a metric is a valid KPI within Agile Testing, the testing must have relevance for the objectives of the business. Any metric that matches this description, would be a valid KPI. The metrics used by Agile Testers must always have an applicative and practicable purpose, and they must avoid any futile or purposeless metrics (the ones that do not help to evaluate the testing process or uncover any issues with testing)

Automation is a critical component of the speeding up the testing process, since it is important that software testing does not pose an obstacle for Agile Testers in their endeavor to regularly release high quality software to the market. It is necessary for testing to match the pace of development of the software. Monitoring the progress of automation is necessary to understand the pace of testing for each build, and the more automation is achieved from the tests that can be automated, the quicker would be the pace of release.

Another key feature of top quality software is that the application ‘behaves’ and ‘acts’ exactly in the way that the user would expect, and that it does what the user needs of it. To ensure high quality software, it is necessary that testers create tests that are able to verify the functionality of software. The KPI of coverage requirement helps to track what percentage of the requirements are being covered by a single test – this would serve as a pointer or guide for both the efficiency of the testing and the quality of the software.

Yet another method to evaluate whether the software testing efforts are working is the KPI of escaped defects. This means that a negligible number of defects would ‘escape’ into the production cycle, and by counting the number of defects per testing cycle, it would be easy to understand whether the Agile Testers are doing their job effectively. It would therefore, be necessary to effectively record and report this data back to the business.

With Agile Testing, velocity is another useful and specific measurement – measuring the amount of work the testing team is able to complete within a timeframe. Velocity is estimated by committing a certain amount of time by each team. To understand whether the velocity is achieved and the speed at which the team is able to put out working software, is by comparing the actual velocity with the time committed. Within SDLC, testing typically is the slowest part, and a higher velocity would mean progressing faster with software testing.

Businesses that operate outside the realm of IT and Software would naturally have concerns over the efficacy of metrics and KPIs in the testing process, and hence would need the expertise of a knowledgeable software testing partner to allay their apprehensions. Such a partner would be able to deliver tangible benefits and results, by ensuring that software testing is never measured at an individual level, for example, counting test cases done by individual testers. In addition, an expert service partner will actually use the contemporary Agile Approach, as opposed to some who may simply have ported from the old Waterfall model, without making an evaluation of the benefits within the context of Agile. It is therefore, imperative to make an informed and right decision with regard to the software testing partner. Despite these hurdles, the fact remains that both metrics and KPIs serve to enhance the quality and delivery of software and serve as methods for continuous improvement. Of course, these are only parts of the entire gamut of software quality testing, and a business would benefit from working with a partner that can provide a holistic approach of quality and improvement within this realm.

For a business it would be wise to consider the objectives and values they can benefit from through the Agile Methodology, before measuring a load of team metrics and KPIs. Partner with a QA company that will execute these software testing metrics and KPIs to improve the overall effectiveness, accuracy, and speed of the software, resulting in the best quality possible. It would be advisable to remain cautious that measurements must never be viewed in isolation as they would present a distorted picture of the testing efforts. Connect with us to get a holistic approach, enabling the collation of useful test metrics and KPIs that would provide a collective and unified view of software quality.

How to Write Test Documents

by admin | Jun 10, 2019 | Software Testing, Blog | 0 comments

To prepare a good test plan, the test engineer or QA team lead should first prepare a suitable introduction to the Test Plan document, highlighting the objectives of the testing activity. Thereafter, the assumptions while testing the software should be enumerated. The other important testing components to be included in the test plan are:

•The testing approach
•Resources required
•The features to be tested
•Types of testing to be used
•List of test cases
•Testers responsible for testing
•The deliverables for testing
•The test completion schedule and goals to be accomplished
•Potential risks involved during the test process

The main aim underlying writing test cases is to validate the test coverage of the software under testing. Writing test cases is a complex activity involving the various inputs, steps, and conditions that can be used during the testing process. Software testing companies consider the ability to write effective test cases as a competent skill that comes with experience and with the knowledge of the software being tested.

Test cases can be of different types – functional test cases, logical test cases, negative test cases, error test cases, physical test cases, and UI test cases, among others. Some general components of a test case are:

•Test case ID
•Product module and product version
•Purpose/li>
•Assumptions and pre-conditions
•Steps
•Projected outcome
•Factual outcome
•Comments/post-conditions

The creation of test scenario – also known as Test Condition or Test Possibility – is a vital activity for a company providing software testing services. Although the term ‘test scenario’ is occasionally used interchangeably with ‘test case,’ the difference between the two is that a test scenario includes a number of test cases with countless steps whereas a test case has only one step. In a test scenario, the various test cases may either be independent of one another or may follow a sequential execution in which each test is dependent on the output from its preceding test.

In writing test documents, the test scenario is typically a one-line statement that provides information about what specific area in the software will be tested. For some areas in the software, one test scenario may suffice, while for other areas hundreds of test scenarios may be required due to the complexity of software.

The Requirement Traceability Matrix – simply called Traceability Matrix – document comprises a table with which the requirements during the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) can be traced. When test documents are written, it is pertinent to link the requirements in the RTM document with their associated test cases so that tests can be performed in accordance with the stated requirements.

The RTM document helps to verify that the development of the software is in accordance with the requirements. In addition, the document also identifies the root cause of bugs and traces the developed documents during different stages of the SDLC.

Writing a perfect test document is a crucial task that facilitates the evaluation of the testing effort required for the software under testing. Therefore, before writing test documents, the people responsible for the task should first understand the purpose of writing test cases and then ensure that the tests are clear and consistent. Overall, it must be noted that a test document should have one standard format all through and it should provide excellent readability and optimum test coverage. Our team consists of experts in this realm and more – connect with us to get the best possible software and documentation.

Explaining Co-located Testing Teams and Their Benefits

by admin | Jun 22, 2019 | Software Testing, Blog | 0 comments

Software testing teams that share the same location are well positioned to collaborate and share views on technical topics in real time conditions. A QA Company that co-locates its team with software development groups minimizes confusion and cuts the scope for re-work. These translate into emphatic business benefits that exert a positive impact on the bottom-line. In addition, co-located software testing teams can leverage the higher scope of communication to drive better decision making and problem solving, thereby delivering perfectly on client mandates.

Co-located software testing systems and practices result in improved ROI for a QA Company. This benefit arises from the fact that a co-located environment provides testers and developers with a better environment for undertaking ‘Agile’ practices. Co-located testing approaches are more suited for the demands of ‘Agile’ environments, since such a model helps to resolve issues quickly, while also addressing management issues and concerns. Often, co-location also creates a significant impact on app development, thereby boosting the efforts of testers to meet and exceed client requirements.

Businesses often maintain a sharp eye on reigning in the costs of business operations. This objective is decidedly achieved by hosting entire software testing teams in a single location. This choice of action helps lower overhead costs and cuts recurring expenses associated with maintaining substantial technical infrastructure. Co-location also promotes the old school concept of face-to-face meetings, thereby avoiding the charges incurred by lengthy and not as efficient video conferences that would otherwise be required to connect distributed team structures.

We have looked at some of the key benefits of co-location in the software testing industry. The business benefits are emphatic, as are client commendations when they peruse the work outcomes of co-located work teams. The appreciation from industry observers appears to reinforce these impressions, which has resulted in companies seeking vendors that promote co-location practices. Connect with us to experience fast, efficient, and transparent processes resulting from our co-located teams working round the clock.

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Small, Formalized Testing

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In Conclusion

Understanding the Customers

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Adding Customer Experience Testing to the Existing QA efforts

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Differentiation between a Metric and a KPI

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Do Metrics and KPIs actually improve the Testing Process?

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In Conclusion:

Writing a Test Plan

Writing a Test Case

Creating a Test Scenario

The Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) Document

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