Testers Need Serious Help – Are We Listening to Them?

They are in deep trouble. And we should address them now, or never. A tester’s day cannot always end at checking the pile of latest builds after his fellow developers submit codes at late hours. The day also cannot start with writing a multitude of repetitive test cases, managing multiple versions of test runs, sending defect items to developers in spreadsheet or document format, and then again wait for final builds to come.

There has to be a better way of doing things that is faster, non-repetitive, and progressive.

Estimating test efforts is always critical

Testing effort estimation depends on a number of factors such as size of a system (in terms of function points, use case points, lines of code), types of testing (load testing, installation testing, help files testing), non-testing activities, number of test cycles and the need for scripted or exploratory testing. Estimating time for these regular activities is a challenge on its own. Any cross-tool activity and cross-team communication that adds to these core testing functions can make things practically unmanageable.

With the paradigm shift in software development culture to agile practices, and the growing needs for continuous delivery, testers’ jobs are no more limited to writing repetitive test cases, manual test execution, frequent regression testing, manual defect submission and continuous follow-ups to developers for re-testing the repaired codes.

You cannot even expect testers to hop around analysts’ or developers’ desks, or exchange hundreds of emails in a day to maintain records of relations between source requirements, test cases, and defects.

Needless to say, a simple project in manual testing may need you to write 30-40 test cases a day, and executing 40-50 test cases per day.

So, imagine the amount of efforts needed to establish traceability relations (requirements>test>defects) for all new and existing defects raised in a day. The emergence of testing earlier into the lifecycle also keeps tester awaken throughout the project cycle.

Testing is no more a sub-process

Today, QA and Testing as a functional group represents the bigger picture of Software Test Life Cycle – STLC. It is no more considered as a subset of development functions, but a standalone operation that demands quick turnarounds and uncompromised software quality. The need for process agility and continuous deployment has fueled the demand even more.

Identifying problems is the first step to curing them

The competitive nature of software delivery plans and usage of varied tools by cross-functional team members has left ‘Testing’ nothing but a zone of uncertainties and unmanageable emergencies.

Let us see the major concerns or expectations, any testing department would have in common.

Concerns/ demands of fellow testers:

• How do we get involved early in the overall development process?
• We need an automated update whenever a business requirement is changed, the development process ends, or the defects are fixed.
• How do we drill-down into the artifacts submitted by other stakeholders from different tools?
• Our team needs to update analysts about the source requirements for which test cases were written and have failed. But, how do we automate the feedback mechanism?
• How do we automate test scheduling, test runs, and defect capturing?
• Can we run test automation scripts in different tools directly from our working tool interface?
• Do we need to learn new tools to exchange data with other team members?
• Are our vendor-locked test tools be able to sync with other popular COTS tools like HP QC, RQM, Selenium, QTP and more?
• We want to add test requirements to our test tool directly from excel, csv, or 3^rd party tools, but how do we do that?
• Can we jointly review the test cases to detect early errors?
• We want to send data to and fro analysts and developers right from our own systems. But, how?
• How do I know which other parts of the application need retesting since I have been working on a specific part of it?
• We need to continuously update our fellow developers about defects raised and track resolved defects. Can we automate the end-to-end defect tracking system?

Concerns/ demands of test leads:

• How do we get a consolidated test coverage report real-time?
• Can we create a standard test management workflow and automate it for process and performance enhancement?
• Our testers don’t have a single source of information to collaborate on. How do we achieve that?
• We need to send weekly reports on Cost of Quality, Cost of Testing to our supervisors. Are the data readily available in a presentable format?
• We need to have an access to real-time reports like Defect Submission vs Fixing vs Closure trend, Avg. Defect Turnaround time. Is it possible through graphical charts? Can I drill down the data for detailed analysis?
• Will our existing test platform support Continuous Integration (CI) as it seems really important for our Agile teams? We want agile planning teams, developers, and testers to collaborate on a single system to address high-priority customer issues?

Concerns/ demands of QA manager:

• How do we optimize our testing effort, man hours and tool usage?
• Is there a tool to guide me through the implementation of processes, procedures and standards in the context to verification of developed software and desired requirements?
• I need a single data repository for all test artifacts across teams and project lifecycle.
• I need a well-knit platform from where all the different organizational tools across development chain can be easily accessed.
• I need to know the productivity and quality gain after introducing static code analysis, code coverage test, unit testing, and code reviews?
• Are we on track to reach the delivery deadlines set by customers?
• I need a full visibility into the test projects, team productivity, and opportunity costs across global teams.
• I need a better control on the cost of quality and delivery schedule. Are the test data readily available to work on? Are the reports and metrics easily forthcoming from intended tools?

 Helping Testers and QA Leads in Need

 All the above problems or needs are varied in dimensions, nature, and complexity. You cannot deploy multiple tools to cater them all at a time. Adopting an integrated set of testing and other development tool suites makes sense. Let us see what an integrated test management tool is up to.

Collaboration is the key

Using a comprehensive platform for managing end-to-end test cycles that support automation ensures that your testing effort is always paid off, no matter how complex the testing scenarios are and how large your teams and toolsets are.

Once the entire testing team is connected to the software lifecycle tool chain, the test artifacts get exposed to other ALM tools making testing progress visible to relevant stakeholders. Similarly, developers, business analysts, and other team members can easily share their working files with testers and exchange feedbacks on each other’s work progress.

Automation needs a re-look

Running automation test scripts is the next step to achieve momentum in testing progress. For a simple project in automation testing, a tester may need to write 8-10 test scripts and execute 5-10 test scripts per day. Testers must be able to trigger test automation scripts without leaving their preferred testing tools and thus save valuable time in an effort to achieve daily targets.

Historical data helps in effort estimation

Using a test management tool helps to compare data between current and earlier projects which aids in decision making. Such a tool also provides a top-down or a bottom-up view of testing approach to refine test effort estimation strategies.

Contributions from Kovair

Kovair offers an Integrated Test Management – iTM platform – a one-stop solution for all your testing needs. The tool helps you track every aspect of software quality – functionality, reliability, portability, efficiency, maintainability and usability.

With Kovair iTM you can –

• Streamline your existing test tool setup and focus on process-oriented activities
• Make a smooth transition of your testing team from waterfall model to agile methodologies
• Introduce collaborative test case review system to embrace changes
• Integrate with popular tools like JIRA, HP QC, RQM, Test Link, RFT, QTP & Selenium
• Simplify test automation effort and eliminate human error
• Perform both manual and automated testing in a single place
• Automate the entire defect management process
• Align testing with rest of the development activities and view traceability relations
• Incorporate DevOps system for agile teams
• Create a QA platform supporting CI/CD

Fig: Achieving DevOps with Kovair iTM

If you are yet to make your mind about how Kovair iTM caters to all these advanced testing needs, please contact QA experts at Kovair and subscribe for a live product demonstration.