A How-To Guide For Test Planning

Test planning, it’s that task testers are often asked to perform at short notice and frequently without enough information. It’s something that sounds like it should be easy, but all too often turns into something more challenging. As testers, we also find that we sometimes become accountable based on a test plan that was formed in a hurry without enough information to begin with. Is there anything we can do to avoid this?

Emerging Tech and Quality Assurance: Key Trends for 2019

As another year starts, we can look ahead to what will be trending in 2019. We all know that ankle gracing trousers, wearing brogues without socks, growing a hipster beard (again) and heading to Greggs for a vegan sausage roll will all make the headlines, but with tech trends it’s a little different. A few years ago, we predicted Multi-Cloud (now commonly called Connected Cloud), Big Data (Data Analytics), AR and Cyber Security would be prominent, which to be fair they are still front runners for making the top five, but the way in which they are adopted and implemented has somewhat changed due to other factors that complicate but enhance the IT landscape.

What Are the Core Components of Usability Testing?

It goes without saying that all apps whether they be native, web or hybrid must make a great first impression on the end user when it comes to their functionality and usability. In the real world however, extensive testing and the usability of the app is often overlooked. Not only does this lead to apps that don’t really satisfy the needs of the target audience but sometimes means the app isn’t able to fulfil its purpose.

Introduction to Performance and Load Testing

Whether a system is to be used internally by your work force or externally by your customers, it’s stability and performance directly correlates with your success.

Research shows a clear relationship between website load speed and response times with customer conversions. The faster a page loads the more likely customers will be to do business on your site. Conversely, customers are less likely to buy your products and engage with your brand, the slower your website responds to their actions. Obviously, for internal applications, your workforce will be more productive and effective if the tools they use in their day to day activity are responsive and quick.

Best Practices for Each Testing Phase

Testing can be thought of as the backbone of every software development project. It’s not hard to see why testing has a place in each part of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Employing a poor testing methodology will potentially lead to the production of an unstable system and most likely, one that will cost you more money and time to put right.

Understanding Requirement Specifications

In Scrum, quality is defined as “The ability of the completed product or deliverables to meet the Acceptance Criteria and achieve the business value expected by the customer”. 

So how can we assure quality so that delivered products meet this definition? Sometimes, testing and quality assurance are used interchangeably so just to be clear, for this blog, by quality assurance I don’t just mean testing. Testing can be part of the QA process but for now I’d like to define quality assurance as a consistent (or at least regular) set of checks that are applied throughout the application lifecycle. There are 2 main parts to it:

It all starts with Quality

Testers do not just “do testing” in an Agile team and have many roles to play during the delivery of software. Testers are fully involved in the development lifecycle, meaning quality starts from day one. Although everyone in the team is responsible for quality, the test team tend to drive this and lead by example to promote good working practices, as well as being at the forefront when identifying product risks.

Overview of Performance Testing Objectives and Scope

I hope you find this Performance Test Plan template helpful. Please use it wisely. You see, I have mixed feelings about template test plans – performance or otherwise.

Achieving Victory with an Agile Test Plan

As England battled to victory against the Tunisian rugby team in their first fixture of the 2018 World Cup, many are praising the way in which the England manager Gareth Southgate has prepared his team. Team morale is at an all-time high, a team has been picked based on ability and potential and finally a formation/system that fits the players. Of course, this plan will need to change throughout the tournament – it will need to be Agile and adaptable to change. We can draw many parallels to the software development world and this article focuses on how an Agile Test Plan fits within the life-cycle of a project.

Understanding Web Application Security

If the Pentagon and the Whitehouse can both be hacked, then so can you. Now, please don’t think for a second that I think the members of the Pentagon and Whitehouse are in any way more intelligent or better than you (I’m convinced of quite the opposite – without even meeting you), but I am assuming they have pretty good cyber security.