The difference between delivering your app’s potential impact on the market, or having to watch it fail, comes down to the rigor of your QA process. A TAS is your perfect plan for implementing that process.
The QA automation roadmap should be comprehensive enough to consider every variable of the testing process, from the nature of your workflows to the selection of appropriate testing tools, from the selection of a QA expert to the composition of the (preferably) Agile development team.
The 8 tips below represent essential test automation best practices. It is a guide that ensures you have the key ingredients in mind when considering the right approach to developing a robust software application that will more than deliver on its promise to consumers.
1. Outsource your QA Activities.
2. Test early and often with Agile
3. The right balance between automated and manual testing
4. Prioritization of automatable test cases
5. Calculating the ROI of automation.
6. Selecting the right test automation tool
7. Selecting and developing the right automation framework.
8. Monitoring and maintaining automation
Together, these 8 pieces of advice can lead you to create better products within a better software development environment.
Not only does outsourcing QA services to an offshore (or in-house consultants) team improve the efficiency of QA and testing , but it also improves the overall performance of the software application. QA experts have strong niche training and knowledge of the general ICT industry to put the best testing strategies to work. They have the right tools, frameworks and technologies to test your product and ensure it performs as expected.
By outsourcing quality assurance, you get the opportunity to work with a highly trained team for testing & automation. In addition, by choosing an offshore or nearshore provider, you can also significantly reduce costs compared to domestic alternatives, and you can also count on domain experts who are familiar with all the latest software enhancements in your field. They can learn quickly and get up to speed with your development cycle, while the developers can stay focused on where it matters most.
If you don’t have QA experts, then outsourcing your QA testing needs is an important step toward success.
Agile testing environments are built to change. The continuous cycle of innovation and testing over multiple iterations balances function and stability. The ability to include input from cross-functional teams prioritizes the ultimate end goal of user satisfaction in all phases. And integrating QA processes early in development is more efficient and less expensive than making changes late in the delivery process.
By coupling the industry-leading approach to software development with the most efficient method of outsourcing, you can quickly scale up your operations to deliver quality products faster. An agile offshore QA relationship is ideal in many ways, as you can easily access industry expertise, improving the ROI of your projects. In addition, strong, consistent communication should be a priority. This includes a commitment to your internal communication flow that keeps end goals in mind, and it includes a commitment to dynamic collaboration with your external QA partners. By working together and communicating using the Agile testing approach, individual teams can merge over time into an even stronger software development group.
Knowing how to strike the right balance between the speed of automated testing and the human insights of manual testing is just one of the benefits of working with an outside QA expert. The only way to guarantee 100% test coverage is to supplement automation with manual testing – since neither testing strategy alone can guarantee the market performance of your product.
Manual testing is necessarily more labor intensive, but there is no better way to simulate the end-user experience than through the eyes and expertise of a human user. If your users are human, there should also be a human element in your testing phase.
Your QA partners know how to strategize the intersection of manual and automated test cases for the best long-term ROI.
It is impossible to automate all test scenarios, so it is equally necessary to separate automatable and non-automatable tescases. Once you have the complete set of automatable test cases, it is time to evaluate the ones that run frequently and are high priority.
This way, you ensure that your application properties are covered with high priority, which is crucial from a business perspective.
Calculating the ROI of automation
With proper documentation in advance of the preferred approach to automation, it is possible to predict the full ROI of automation even before an automation framework is implemented. This can also give you an idea of how much time you can save with manual testing versus automated testing. In addition, we can see how many resources need to be devoted to automation efforts. Based on ROI and future goals, we can adjust the number of automation and manual engineers within the QA team.
Manual testing will not be completely replaced by automation anytime soon, but the time savings from automated testing are too great to ignore. This advantage has led to a proliferation of automation tools. As a result, there is enough flexibility within the market to find an automation solution that fits your unique product, development environment and your team’s skills and preferences.
QA experts can help onsite teams choose the best automation tool based on project and platform requirements, and advise them to opt for the latest tools available on the market. Before starting the automation process, our QA team can evaluate the top 3 automation tools, as well as their effectiveness on the customer’s product, and then choose the best option.
Your QA resource checklist doesn’t end with the automation tools. There are a number of choices to make in how you structure your test framework, and they can have a big impact on the efficiency of your development process. Current thinking favors modular, transferable and reusable frameworks designed to cover the entire lifetime of your product. This framework is the foundation of your automation process, and so there is a lot to think about.
Your choice of framework and tools should always be guided by strong elements of test automation monitoring and maintenance. The first ensures that you and your team receive continuous feedback on the progress and results of your automated tests. Not every automation tool includes an easy-to-understand reporting component, so be aware which stakeholders should receive such reports before making a commitment.
Similarly, there are differences in the ease with which maintenance can be performed in the different tools. You want something that can be easily modified and reused and one that contains detailed failure logs so that script errors can be fixed with a minimum of fuss. With a grip on maintenance and monitoring, your test automation strategy is sustainable. Fortunately, offshore Agile teams are trained and prepared to communicate and report effectively, ensuring smooth workflows and a robust QA process in general.
If you build your test plan around these 8 elements, you will go a long way toward implementing a reliable, reusable and effective QA process.
Your test automation strategy is the most important first step to producing a quality product. As you follow these tips, pay attention to the important questions that arise; you cannot build a solid and lasting foundation if you do not first consider all the relevant variables. You will come across questions that you can ask your own team and also your QA expert for more clarity. As always, the perfect testing solution is one that meets your own specific deadlines, resource constraints and product potential.
M2Q has the experience and expertise to guide your testing phase from planning to launch. Request a free quote through the contact page today and start your comprehensive QA process the right way.
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