Best Practices for Software Testing

Personally I don’t think there any best & worst practices exists in this globe to complete a task no matter in which field you belong to, in my view it’s your strong basic knowledge that encourage you to complete a task in a different way and that different way of completing any task using your strong basic knowledge will turn in to ‘Best Practices’.

That’s why I used to call forget about ‘Best’, Follow the ‘Basic Practices of Testing’ & create your own path.

In this regards first of all you need to understand “What is the need of a Tester in any organization?” no matter whether it’s a Product/Services.

Two lines mentioned below may give you an answer or idea –   

• Any Organization will compete in market only when they have or deliver quality products.
• So why they need Testers? –  Because nobody will criticise their own (Developer) work, hence they need a neutral Umpire (i.e. Tester).

Basic practices of Testing –

• Follow the Formula – Expected = Actual = Testing.
• Clear headed & Focused approach – Your clear headed and focused approach will define you & your work. Test any Software/Product with 100 % Focus. Take your valid time to test a specific module & keep your focus in next point i.e. Measure the IMPACT.
• Measure the Impact – As a Quality Analyst you need to understand the impact of your product/feature to Client & Market.

For Instance –

If you are responsible for Payment Gateway Testing, you need to understand the impact of user’s money.

• Understand your product well – Again a basic but mandatory skill for every Quality Analyst. Proper understanding of Product/Feature will automatically help you to make your product better. So clear your all doubts about the requirements well before getting into static testing phase.
• Writing Test Cases – Very basic but must have skill for every Quality Assurance Engineer, it’s a document which describes your product/feature knowledge & approach. This useful document will be useful for everyone (Eg: Client, Manager, Development Team, Your Colleague etc). Try to write your test cases in simple English language in a standard format, so that even a lay man can read & understand your product in one go.
• SWA Vs HWA – Always try to use SWA (Smart Work Approach) instead of HWA (Hard Work Approach).

For Instances –

Try to use available tools for cross browser testing instead of doing it manually, it will save your time & energy for the next task.

Try to avoid documentation to explain any feature, You can use screencast  (video recording) to explain features. Trust me no one will open your PPT document when they stuck. Ultimately watching a movie is always better than reading a book (for learning).

• Team Coordination – Better coordination with your Team (Developers/Testers) will always helps you to make your product/services better.

Happy Learning!!