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What software testing strategies can startups follow?

A software testing strategy is created to do testing in a planned and methodical manner. It is used to establish the levels, methodologies, techniques, and instruments that will be used during testing. The techniques also decide on test cases, test specifications, and test case choices before assembling them for execution. Creating a test plan that efficiently satisfies a company's criteria is crucial to the success of software development in that organization. As a result, a software testing plan should include detailed information regarding the testing technique as well as the goal and needs of testing. Now we will look into the following types of strategies:

Mobile testing strategies

Web testing strategies

What are Mobile Testing strategies?

The objective of every mobile product is to offer an app experience that is original and novel. However, there are particular, required steps you must take between developing a clear vision for your app and developing a mobile application.

1. Perform cross-platform testing

If your app interacts with other apps, you may need to make some additional changes. Gathering and comprehending project requirements, corporate objectives, numerous language platforms, and user demands is critical to developing an effective cross-platform testing approach.

2. Add functionality to your features

Mobile apps typically interact with a variety of functionalities, both built into the device and integrated into the app itself. These interactions need to be documented and extensively tested. It is not required – and in fact, it is not recommended – to do functional testing on a variety of mobile devices. Instead, do compatibility testing on a single device before moving on to other platforms.

3. Application type

There are three sorts of mobile apps: native, mobile-web, and hybrid.

Mobile-web: The webpage opens in the device's web browser.

Native: The application is tailored to a certain platform.

Hybrid: A combination of native and mobile web apps.

4. Front-end evaluation

Front-end testing examines anything visible on the client-side, often known as the Graphical User Interface (GUI). This sort of testing necessitates a thorough understanding of business objectives on the part of the tester. Front-end testing should also look for the following things:

Performance checks

Regression tests

Changes or upgrades to app files that cause front-end functionality to fail.

5. Back-end testing

Back-end testing examines your mobile app's server-side. In the backend, everything input and/or stored in the front end is tested.

6. API Testing

API testing is performed to determine the performance, reliability, and security of Application Programming Interfaces (API). Software is deployed to send API calls, obtain output and configure the response received. This test is mainly focused on the logic and functionality aspect of the software rather than GUI.

7. Compatibility with several networks

The increasing popularity of smartphones and IoT devices has resulted in a proliferation of diverse brands and platforms. While it is impractical to run every test on every potential device, mobile compatibility testing is critical. This procedure should involve the following tests:

User Interface

Install & Uninstall

Functionality

Data exchange

8. Storage

Today's mobile devices lack sufficient capacity to accommodate a host of games, music streaming services, and high-resolution images that compete for space. Having clarity of storage limitations, data usage for downloads and the need for cloud storage will help design a seamless mobile app experience.

9. Battery Usage

Even though new-age mobile devices come with huge battery capacities, the power consumption is also increasing. As we continue to automate our daily lives with apps and the rise of augmented reality applications (maps, games, etc), the power needs are only going to increase. In such cases, if your software is not optimized for power efficiency, you will face uninstalls.

10. Flow of application

A properly-designed mobile app incorporates visual components as well as information, features, and usefulness. This visual flow assists consumers in navigating your mobile product. It is vital to test the flow of your mobile app architecture to identify design aspects that might prevent users from achieving their objectives.

What are Web Testing strategies?

With all of the looming problems, web app testing is more important than ever. However, testing a web application is not a simple operation, as it is dependent on multiple elements such as browser compatibility, application speed, user experience, assuring sufficient security, and so on. Enterprises must use qualified web application testers who follow best practices for evaluating all parts of the website across platforms, browsers, and devices.

1. Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing

Increased adoption of tablets and mobile phones to access websites is making businesses put website responsiveness on priority. Responsive websites use web technologies such as JavaScript HTML5, and CSS3 to ensure a smooth experience across all browsers and devices. This is achieved using cross-browser compatibility testing.

2. Examine the Application's Performance Under Different Conditions

A website that constantly crashes creates bad word of mouth and hurts website SEO. These generally happen due to minor code faults or increased load. For this, load testing under different conditions is helpful, for which one can also use automation.

3. Selecting the Relevant Usability Testing Parameters

A good website user experience creates a good impression to keep website visitors interested and convert into clients. One should evaluate critical usability parameters across UI design, navigation, speed, accessibility and content readability via usability testing before the website is made live.

4. Use security testing to confirm all security flaws

Neglecting web application security has shaken the foundations of even the most respected corporations by a single vulnerability, resulting in negative press, significant financial ramifications, and a loss of customer’s trust. This can be avoided via web application security testing for which the following techniques could be used:

Using industry standards as a benchmark

Creating plans based on external and internal issues.

Defining coding standards and quality control Developing policies in a cross-functional manner.

5. Use Exploratory Testing

Using exploratory testing, testers develop and run software testing cases simultaneously, thus saving time and leading to the discovery of unknown faults. One can combine exploratory testing with other white-hat and black-hat software testing methodologies to overcome the constraints of web app testing. This integration produces better quality of test results.

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How to set up an effective software testing environment?

The Test Environment enables test execution by configuring software, hardware, and the network. The configuration of the test environment must be identical to that of the production environment to detect any environment/configuration concerns.

Key areas to configure in the test environment

System and applications

Browser

Network

Hardware

Database server

Test data

Front-end running environment

Documents and configuration

Installation guides and user manuals

Process of software test environment setup

Tests are restricted in terms of what should be or may be tested. System administrators, developers, and testers are all engaged in the setup of the test environment. Sometimes users or techies with a penchant for testing are involved. The test environment necessitates the establishment of several unique locations such as:

Configuration of the Test Server:

Every test must be run on a remote workstation. It may be necessary to set up a test server that can support apps. For example, cron configuration, Java-based applications, Fedora configuration for PHP, etc.

Network:

Set up the networks as per the test requirements. It guarantees that any congestion that happens during testing does not harm other members (Designers, developers, content team, etc). It consists of:

Wifi LAN configuration

Internet setup

Private network setup

Configuration of the test PC:

You may need to configure various browsers for different testers while performing web testing. Desktop applications need a variety of operating systems on varied testing PCs. For instance, for an iOS phone app testing may involve:

iPhone simulators available in XCode

iOS device cloud

Providing a real iPhone to the tester.

Reporting of Bugs:

Testers should be given bug reporting tools to help identify and avoid similar issues in the future. The document must include information like defect’s description, date of discovery, the tester who discovered it, Priority & Severity, the developer who corrected it, etc.

CDefining Test Data for the Testing Environment:

Usually, businesses test their software products in a separate test environment. A widely used method is to replicate production data to test. This allows the tester to notice the same faults as a live environment without altering any production data. The strategy for transferring production data to test data consists of the following steps:

Configure production tasks to copy data to a shared testing environment.

Altering personal and sensitive data

Remove any information that lies outside the scope of your test.

Test with enough volume of data

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10 steps for effective Quality Assurance and software testing process for startups

Around 8% of startups fail due to operational and technology failures. These startups could have easily survived, if only they had an effective software testing strategy in place. Here, we have designed a 10-step process to run an efficient Quality Assurance in software testing:

STEP-1: Draft a Quality Assurance strategy

Leaving software testing towards the end can dampen your product development efforts. You need to adopt Quality Assurance into your organizational culture and ensure it is applied at various touch points across your product development and customer success cycle. Strategize where you need exploratory testing, feedback loops, process design QA, etc.

STEP-2: Document SOP for software testing

Software testing procedures should be well-planned, established, and documented. Good documentation fosters effective communication within the development team about the Quality Assurance strategies adopted, expectations, and assigned responsibilities.

STEP-3: Document SOP for formal technical reviews

A formal technical review (FTR) is a group meeting used by software engineers to detect functional and logical flaws early in the software development process. In this meeting, attendees with specific responsibilities confirm that generated software fulfills predetermined quality assurance standards and specifications. The perfect time to perform an FTR is when you have a mature product.

STEP-4: Use test-driven software development management

Implementing test-oriented management practices is an effective strategy to improve software quality assurance. One technique is to use extreme programming (XP) - a software development process that builds high-quality software that can adapt to changing needs.

STEP-5: Design user personas for user acceptance testing

User personas are fictitious figures used in product development who embody the behaviors and aspirations of your product's target audience. Pre-define these personas so that software testing teams can use them to choose where and how to look for potential bugs.

STEP-6: Strategize for automation testing

Using automated testing or automation tools to execute the tests will speed your product development. Conduct trials and budgeting for relevant software tools as per your software testing strategy.

STEP-7: Design SOP for exploratory testing

Using exploratory testing, one can examine a product without any preset test cases to determine how it truly works. The test is conducted right away, where the expertise, intuition, and imagination from testers are used to find bugs. Developing SOPs can help you gather and analyze insights to identify potential issues and develop the next round of tests.

STEP-8: Define code quality measurements

Quantifying quality targets will help you monitor and determine the ROI. While there is no single correct technique to assess code quality, designing KPIs to meet quality assurance standards is a recommended technique that is straightforward and effective.

STEP-9: Understand how to make the most of your test management software

Test management software systems assist software testing teams in structuring and managing the testing process. These systems can be connected with your test automation frameworks, continuous integration/continuous delivery tools, bug tracking tools, and other software solutions. Leveraging these tools will help you streamline your QA process.

STEP-10: Effectively report bugs

A solid bug report will aid in the efficiency of software testing by clearly describing the problem and directing engineers toward its resolution. It must be a foundational and effective method of communication between a QA professional and a developer. Following these 10 steps will provide you with a headstart to design your internal software testing process. You can customize these steps as per the nature of your product and business requirements.

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10 steps for effective Quality Assurance and software testing process for startups

Around 8% of startups fail due to operational and technology failures. These startups could have easily survived, if only they had an effective software testing strategy in place. Here, we have designed a 10-step process to run an efficient Quality Assurance in software testing:

STEP-1: Draft a Quality Assurance strategy

Leaving software testing towards the end can dampen your product development efforts. You need to adopt Quality Assurance into your organizational culture and ensure it is applied at various touch points across your product development and customer success cycle. Strategize where you need exploratory testing, feedback loops, process design QA, etc.

STEP-2: Document SOP for software testing

Software testing procedures should be well-planned, established, and documented. Good documentation fosters effective communication within the development team about the Quality Assurance strategies adopted, expectations, and assigned responsibilities.

STEP-3: Document SOP for formal technical reviews

A formal technical review (FTR) is a group meeting used by software engineers to detect functional and logical flaws early in the software development process. In this meeting, attendees with specific responsibilities confirm that generated software fulfills predetermined quality assurance standards and specifications. The perfect time to perform an FTR is when you have a mature product.

STEP-4: Use test-driven software development management

Implementing test-oriented management practices is an effective strategy to improve software quality assurance. One technique is to use extreme programming (XP) - a software development process that builds high-quality software that can adapt to changing needs.

STEP-5: Design user personas for user acceptance testing

User personas are fictitious figures used in product development who embody the behaviors and aspirations of your product's target audience. Pre-define these personas so that software testing teams can use them to choose where and how to look for potential bugs.

STEP-6: Strategize for automation testing

Using automated testing or automation tools to execute the tests will speed your product development. Conduct trials and budgeting for relevant software tools as per your software testing strategy.

STEP-7: Design SOP for exploratory testing

Using exploratory testing, one can examine a product without any preset test cases to determine how it truly works. The test is conducted right away, where the expertise, intuition, and imagination from testers are used to find bugs. Developing SOPs can help you gather and analyze insights to identify potential issues and develop the next round of tests.

STEP-8: Define code quality measurements

Quantifying quality targets will help you monitor and determine the ROI. While there is no single correct technique to assess code quality, designing KPIs to meet quality assurance standards is a recommended technique that is straightforward and effective.

STEP-9: Understand how to make the most of your test management software

Test management software systems assist software testing teams in structuring and managing the testing process. These systems can be connected with your test automation frameworks, continuous integration/continuous delivery tools, bug tracking tools, and other software solutions. Leveraging these tools will help you streamline your QA process.

STEP-10: Effectively report bugs

A solid bug report will aid in the efficiency of software testing by clearly describing the problem and directing engineers toward its resolution. It must be a foundational and effective method of communication between a QA professional and a developer. Following these 10 steps will provide you with a headstart to design your internal software testing process. You can customize these steps as per the nature of your product and business requirements.

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Top Tactics to Improve E-Commerce Testing That No One Will Tell You

E-commerce has become the preferred solution for shopping for millions of customers around the world. Last year itself, e-commerce sales soared to a whopping $4.2 trillion worldwide, and there is no sign of the trend slowing down. Therefore as an e-commerce website, to remain at the top, you need to deliver on consistency, performance, and user experience. This is what makes testing an e-commerce platform regularly so important in order to remain competitive. Why Is Improving E-Commerce Testing Important? When running an online store, a business is likely to run into a myriad of problems. The site might be difficult to navigate, the shopping cart might drop selected items, or the service toolbar might be shaky. All of these problems contribute negatively to user experience and make website testing so necessary. Nevertheless, in order to remain ahead of the curve, keeping the site bug-free shouldn’t be your only consideration. Market trends are constantly changing, as is customer behavior. So for your e-commerce site to evolve with time, you need to improve your e-commerce testing as well. How can website testing be better? Using Automation Testing Automation Testing is the final check of the tools and software you’re using and making sure they are performing as expected. This means testing for bugs, defective codes and any other problems that might creep up. Automation testing cuts away the need for your team to test each software individually. It saves time and resources while providing in-depth and multi-faceted reports. This means simplified testing, faster results, and better planning. Focusing on Regression Testing Regression Testing is a quick and assured way to find out any changes that might have taken place on your website. For security testing services, it’s a dependable way to check for updates or any changes in codes that might affect the functionality of the site. Regression testing makes it possible to uncover bugs, optimize source code, add new features or update an old one. These frequent modifications help an e-commerce site to improve quality and adapt to the changing market conditions. Integrating Cross-Platform Checking A major stumbling block for many e-commerce websites is making the platform compatible across various platforms, browsers and devices. The possibilities are seemingly infinite. Therefore when it comes to website testing, checking the site’s behavior across platforms is crucial for quality assurance. Tools like BrowserStack and Testize makes it easy for website owners to test the adaptability of their sites. Knowing this helps in developing a smoother interface that allows users to log in from a variety of platforms without any issues. Adaptable to Mobile Platforms Making an e-commerce site mobile-friendly is almost a no-brainer. Aside from adversely affecting user experience and sales, a website that feels clunky to use on smartphones, is likely to hamper your site’s SEO. This calls for greater attention for testing the compatibility and responsiveness of a website across various software, screen sizes and OS. Also, remember to reduce the load time ensuring a faster and more responsive application.

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A complete guide to Quality Assurance in software testing for Startups

“Give them quality. That’s the best kind of advertising.”

~Milton Hersey

When software quality is not taken into priority, it can lead to a massive blow to your brand’s reputation. Consider this example - In 2012, Knight Capital Group had a software problem that caused a 30-minute trading outage. The cost? $440 million – four times the company's total profitability in 2011! The projected cost of Samsung's Note 7 troubles was $10 billion. While the original suspicion was that the problem was caused by a faulty battery, subsequent examination revealed a less obvious underlying cause, which most likely included software difficulties. Today, we aren’t only adopting technology, but are increasingly reliant on it. Hence, the monetary cost for such debacles has skyrocketed. Apart from costs, such situations also result in brand image tarnishing and loss of trust among customers. In this guide, we help you understand how one can avoid software failure controversies by implementing a robust Quality Assurance framework using software testing that is designed to scale as your startup grows.

Why do startups need Quality Assurance?

A majority of startups either neglect quality assurance or micromanage their employee’s work - leading to inefficient and unscalable product development culture. Instead, having a QA process in place can help startups to:

Gain perspective on development: A QA analyst, in essence, keeps developers in check. No matter how good the product is, there are several uncontrollable elements in the real-world usage of your service/product that will affect its performance. Combined with the feedback and expertise of a software testing team, one can propel developers to deliver a far more efficient and higher-quality output.

Measure product capability: Software testing helps you define contextual usage metrics that benchmark your product for delivering the best results. This includes adhering to various compliances across data, usage, privacy, etc.

Control critical milestones: Software testing ensures your startup’s defining moments like product launch runs smoothly, where a QA audit helps discover any defects before your customer does. For established businesses, Quality Assurance is also critical during times of digital transformation to guarantee the new system is operating together with legacy processes without errors.

Maintain brand reputation: Product failure controversies, especially data leaks, destroy a brand’s reputation irreversibly. Also, a bug-free user experience propels word of mouth, helping develop your business that is loved by its customers.

Hiring for quality assurance talent or software testing services is generally affordable and can bring valuable prestige to your business, thus generating a long-term ROI.

What are the biggest challenges in Software Quality Assurance for startups?

“Sometimes when you innovate, you make mistakes. It is best to admit them quickly and get on with improving your other innovations.”

~Steve Jobs

Quality distinguishes all products in the world, and software is no exception. As the technology ecosystem matures, startups need to predict potential product pitfalls in their development stage itself to ensure software quality. Early-stage ventures must focus on recruiting software testing talent to maintain the software quality assurance of the products and services and draft internal quality assurance standards. But building a startup involves several challenges that need to be considered:

Product uncertainty: Startups start with researched assumptions during early-stage product development, thus the requirements tend to be unclear and iterate frequently for the software testing teams to deliver standard output.

Small teams: Consistent and frequent communication is critical in every software development and testing project. A startup’s poorly managed small or remote team can lead to asynchronous communication.

Undefined goals: Team members should be aware of the product's outcome and whether or not it matches customer expectations using the jobs-to-be-done framework.

Lack of strategy: Delivering a product on schedule in an acceptable condition cannot happen without a suitable strategy. End-users must be identified, and current processes enhanced to ensure that they meet customer expectations.

Lack of resources: Since startups have a resource crunch, hence designing and implementing effective quality assurance programs and software testing procedures hardly takes precedence.

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