Why do we need to test applications if we hired good developers?
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It’s misleading to think “We don’t need testers since the engineers we hired are highly experienced”. Human proneness to error is hardly the only reason why to hire quality assurance engineers for a team. QA engineers’ task is not only to track bugs software engineers could have made and missed to fix. They take responsibility for making sure the product works according to the client’s expectations and namely, according to Acceptance Criteria.
Imagine, a software engineer develops feature #4, which somehow impacts feature #2. The task of quality assurance engineers is to track all current changes that can influence the rest of the already developed product features and help developers be aware of what goes wrong. Quality assurance engineers can set challenging questions while testing documentation to find defects in it.
Because developers see their code as a well-done job, they can miss the bugs that the QA engineer, specifically skilled and knowledgeable in the field, catches and reports on them. Besides, software developers will need more time to test which might occur pretty tough: testing methods are numerous.
Of course, developers can write unit tests, which is quite a standard practice in software development companies. However, the QA engineers are the ones to test the solution inside-out and verify it works under all the requirements.
At What Stage of Project Development Should You Hire a Quality Control Engineer?
This question has been bothering a lot of clients. Mainly, because the software testing stage goes at the end of the software development life cycle. It precedes only maintenance and support. But, is it wise to initiate quality control of the application when it is complete? Wouldn’t it be functional to start testing as early as possible? Let’s find out the answer to that question.
Early-stage (MVP)
An MVP is a minimum viable product. It is a fully-functional app, but with a limited set of features. You can develop these features later as long as you have the core ones that perform 100% and user feedback.
So, the question is, should you hire a quality QA engineer at this stage? Well, as an additional expert besides the business analyst. But his/her engagement would be only 30% out of 100% possible. And, the benefit of such an engagement will be low as well. Mainly, testing isn’t of high priority when the client needs an MVP. The main consideration here is to figure out:
- Whether the audience needs this product?
- How to make the product stand out?
- What core features should you focus on?
Seed Stage
At this stage the MVP is ready. But now, there are real users, who provide feedback. The next thing you need is to attract investors. So, to minimize risks and costs, it is vital to hire QA engineers. The stage requires to:
- hire a QA testing developer
- start testing specifications and documentation
- establish effective communication between developers and QAs
With the right attitude, you can have the best investments into the app and a high ROI. But, this requires a smooth and flawless presentation of the product. Testing is just what might help a lot to achieve this.
Growth and Establishment
Here, clients should focus on product growth and automatization. These factors will enhance your product and make your users stay with you longer. To achieve this, your MVP will need features to be integrated. This can be done by merging new features with the app’s logic and architecture. Sounds hard. But all of the new and the old features should work together like a clock. Hiring a QA engineer will allow you to make things work. For instance, you will have the product tested. All the potential risks and bugs will be found. Performance testing can and will make the app flawless. So, you need testing at this stage badly.
Maturity
This stage requires the app to be maintained, supported, and updated regularly. This has to be done to ensure the leading position in the market. And, the best fellow to carry out this task is a tester. Hire an IT software QA engineer to track the app crashes and get a programmer to fix them. And, to test the new features that will come from time to time.
Acquisition
To acquire new users, you have to be sure your app will sand the user flow. So, you need to initiate performance testing, load testing, etc. Nobody else can do that expert a skilled tester. So, hire a quality assurance engineer! With the right attitude, you will get new users and grow your business. Maybe, you will need to hire a QA team in the process. Who knows how you will expand.
Why should we add a QA engineer from the start of the project?
Involving QA engineers too late in the project can become the pitfall nobody was expecting. Imagine a project almost complete, but requirements are still clear only in somebody’s head or scattered across documents and chats. The day the team decided to review the acceptance criteria, it turns out that the developed functionality differs from what was initially planned.
Imagine a field that has to be filled with a certain category of symbols. Instead, a software engineer builds the field that will allow the input of all possible kinds of symbols. This is QA engineers’ work to know what exact symbols should be filled in there and whether there are any restrictions. This is the smallest detail that can turn into a defect before release, but how many critical bugs connected with integrations, UI, data, and security can slip into the production if there is no QA engineer from the very beginning of the project.
The goals of manual testing are to leverage the possibility that the product:
- works well in any conditions
- meets all the requirements
Testing aims at providing the actual information on the state and quality of the application at the moment.
Stages of quality assurance testing:
- Analysis of the product
- Work with requirements
- Testing strategy development
- Planning of quality control procedures
- Compiling QA documentation
- Prototype testing
- Main testing
- Stabilization
- Exploitation
Levels of testing
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Unit testing
Unit testing checks functionality and looks for defects in the parts of the product that are available and can be tested separately (models, objects, classes, functions). Imagine a new button is created, while doing unit testing, the QA engineer checks only the scope of this button, so to make sure it works or not. Unit testing can be described as a lower level of testing.
Integration testing
Testing of communication between system components after conducting unit testing. It is targeted at detecting defects in interactions between integrated components, or between the whole systems and packages.
Regression testing
Regression testing is connected with changes. It is designed to monitor changes made in an application or development environment: defects fixing, integration, migrations to other databases, application servers, or web servers. This kind of testing approves that previously developed functionality works as it should. Both functional and non-functional tests can be part of regression testing.
System testing
System testing aims to check both functional and non-functional requirements in the system in general. This kind of testing reveals such defects as improper use of system resources, the unpredictable combination of data at a user level, incompatibility with the environment, missed user scenarios, missed or wrong functionality, inconvenient UX, etc.
Release testing
Even if the system meets all the requirements, it’s important to check if the system meets users’ requirements as it was initially defined in the business model. To note, business models can also contain mistakes. That’s why it’s critical to conduct release testing as the final step of validation. Besides, testing in the operating environment allows you to identify non-functional problems, such as conflict with other systems related to business or software and electronic environments; insufficient system performance in the operating environment, etc. Finding such things at the implementation stage is a critical and costly problem. Therefore, it is so important to carry out not only verification but also validation, from the earliest stages of software development.
Acceptance testing
The standard process of testing aims at verifying if the system meets requirements, and acceptance criteria. It allows for obtaining the client’s feedback on whether or not the application can be accepted.
White and black-box testing
White-box, black-box, and grey testing are methods of testing based on the access of engineers to the source code. The black-box method is functional testing of software while the white-box is structural testing of software. In white-box testing, QA engineers have all the knowledge about the internal structure and code of the system. In black-box testing information about the structure and code is hidden and remains unknown to QA engineers.
Functional types:
- Functional testing
- GUI testing (User Interface testing)
- Security and Access Control testing
- Interoperability testing
Non-functional types:
- Performance and Load testing
- Stress testing
- Stability/ Reliability testing
- Volume testing
- Installation testing
- Usability testing
- Failover and Recovery Testing
- Configuration testing
When the project starts, a great number of test cases are written because of a lot of documentation. Part of test cases can be automated, but more often they are done manually. At the very beginning of the project, the automation practice is rare. Usually, after a manual check-up, tests go to the regression stage for which they can be automated. Regression tests check previously developed functionality and ensure if a developed solution is not broken. Some of the most popular and known tools used by QA engineers are JIRA, Postman, Fidler, New Relic, and Jenkins.
Going deeper into the process of testing, there would be such stages as:
Reading project documentation
Profound project documentation and a structured abundance of it help streamline QA engineering work. Newcomers explore documentation at the beginning of the project, or on condition of new feature development, bug detection, etc.
Create test cases
The lead of the QA team and QA engineers conduct the process of writing test cases according to acceptance criteria at the beginning of the sprint and during the whole project. Some test cases go into regressions testing during the next sprints. The game testing team often compiles checklists to accelerate the process of testing.
Review test cases with product owner/client
The team defines test cases that will be conducted in the current sprint. On condition there are new features to be tested, the team defines what exactly has to be covered and whether they need integration testing.
Testing Execution
After deployment to the environment, QA engineers conduct testing within the sprint. The part of simpler test cases can be automated and, thus, performed by QA automation engineers. While, manual engineers perform more complicated test cases, e.g. the ones involving testing UI, translation, etc. No project can be fully tested by automation. Manual testing is an indispensable part of quality software development.
Report bugs. Verify bugs
If bugs are revealed during testing, QA engineers create bug reports consisting of a summary, steps to reproduce, description, assign to, fix versions, and severity priority. After fixing the bug, the QA engineer checks it once again.
Create a report
One stage of the quality assurance testing services requires creating a report. There are different types of qa engineers. But the job to create reports belongs to the Lead of the QA team.
The QA team Lead creates a report after which the traceability matrix should be compiled. The matrix displays concrete functional features and the number of test cases to cover them. Also, the report includes the percentage of passed, failed, and blocked test cases. The QA team meets up to decide whether the sprint can be shifted to the production stage.
This is a short overview of the QA testing process. Hiring a QA team or at least one QA engineer is 100% worth your investment. Investing in the quality of the product from the very beginning means you contribute to its success when the release is coming. If you are looking for expertise in Quality Assurance Services, feel free to contact us. Upgrade the quality of your code today.
Consider Inoxoft as a Quality Provider in Quality Assurance Services
Looking for Dedicated Team?
This is a short overview of the QA testing process. Hiring a QA team or at least one QA engineer is 100% worth your investment. Investing in the quality of the product from the very beginning means you contribute to its success when the release is coming.
Inoxoft provides the best quality assurance services on the market. We understand the importance of automation testing. If you are looking for expertise in Quality Assurance Services, feel free to contact us. Hire qa testers! Upgrade the quality of your code today. Grow your business starting from tomorrow and prosper every day.
