Software tester has only one dream and that is to find lots and lots of bugs but what should be kept in mind is to find bugs which can help in making any software more usable and of higher quality. Application testing is not a rocket science if tester keeps in mind some of the important points before starts testing. In this article we going to see the Software testing tips and tricks you should know before start actual testing of any application. All these tips have come from years of experience so they are very effective if practiced.
Tips And Tricks For Testing Software Application under test:
1) Effective test cases: First and foremost tip is to have effective test cases rather than more number of test cases. Effective test cases are the ones which have the highest possibility of finding the defects. While writing test cases or self-reviewing them, tester must pay attention to the effectiveness by referring to the requirement documents and know what could go wrong in what functionality.
2) Understanding of the complete application: When tester has complete knowledge about the application, what is implemented, what is expected out of it and how to use the application efficiently then it becomes easy to find out the weaker and stronger areas of the application under test.
3) Familiar with application’s functionality: Tester should be familiar with all the functionality of application under test. Also what functions are supposed to be the most important? By doing this, tester will have an idea what could be the priority of testing when time is limited.
4) Regression testing: When an application is introduced to a new change, it is highly recommended that regression testing should be done to check whether the new change has affected any other functionality or not. Tester should have a bunch of regression test cases to run every time a new change or feature is introduced to make sure that all the major functions are working properly. It also makes basic testing quick and efficient.
5) Dividing application in small modules: When application under test is divided into smaller unit modules, coverage becomes more and testing gets deeper which in turn helps tester to find the most difficult bugs and also helps him in understanding the application better.
6) Give test cases to developer: It is considered a good practice if tester gives his test cases to the developer to verify that all the important functionalities are developed properly before he releases the application for further testing. It ensures that re-work would be minimum since most important part of the application is taken care by the developer himself.
7) Paying attention to performance testing: Performance testing is an important part of application testing, especially when an application requires a faster response time such as banking applications or applications which have a timeout feature. Performance testing requires test data which can be made by the tester or developer to test the performance of the application under test according to the requirements given to them.
8) Practice Stress and load testing: Tester should know how many users at a time the application under test can handle. It is important to do stress testing to know the breaking point otherwise the quality of the application will be questioned. Quality of the application can be determined by how many users it can serve at a time without getting break or giving unexpected results. It is important to know the limit so that a threshold can be applied to handle such exceptions.
9) Think from different perspectives: An application can be used by different types of users; tester can find quality bugs by thinking from different user’s perspective. He can help in avoiding the bugs which would annoy some users or create some kind of discomfort to them and also would make application versatile, more usable and suitable for different users. Think how a user who has no knowledge about the application would use it without having much difficulty to make the application easy to use and understand.
10) Creation of test data: As discussed above, while doing performance testing, tester needs some Test Data to determine the performance of the application under test. It is a good practice to have the data available beforehand as this is the time consuming step and often avoided by the testers in order to complete testing in a limited time. Tester can also take the help from developer in making the test data.
11) Refer previous bugs list: If you are testing an old application or the modifications or new features introduced in the app then it is possible that those functionality which were broken before might break again due to the new change. It is better to have a look at the old bugs once and check on them.
12) Never underestimate Exploratory Testing: It is the well-known fact that exploratory testing finds the highest number of bugs in an application testing. Tester should give some time to explore the application and try and do random scenarios. He can also make note of the scenarios and if a bug is found then that scenario can be made into a test case for future use.
13) Note down your new observations: While testing if tester notes down his observations then this will help in finding different defects and also in understanding the actual behavior of the application under test. Tester has to think out of the box in order to find new defects which are beyond the requirements but are important to users.
14) Maximize test coverage: This can be achieved by breaking the application into small modules and then breaking them further into smaller unit ones. It ensures that each area is covered and each module has its own set of test cases. More coverage implies more depth in testing and hence less probability of missed defects.
Over to You:
Keeping above tips in mind, you not only can find quality bugs but also help in making application better and error free. Follow them and gain appreciation for your hard work.
Please leave your questions/tips/suggestions in the comment section below and it will definitely make this article more interesting and helpful to our testing friends!!
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