Software Testing Best Practices Checklist To Follow In 2023
When we browse through an application, we seldom think about the amount of work that goes into building a fully functional system. No matter the type or scale of the development project, it is important to have an elaborate plan in place. This plan acts as a roadmap for developers to follow in order to ensure a smooth launch of any app or product. One of the final and key aspects of a development cycle is the software testing best practices checklist.
In this blog, we will explore some of the must-consider software testing best practices in 2023. Before that, let’s take a quick look at what software testing means. It is the process that takes place after the entire software development cycle. It is designed to verify whether the application that is built matches the requirements or not. When done with precision, software testing helps identify the most minor of errors and bugs. This is done by executing certain system components using manual or automated tools.
To help you master the art of software testing, here are some of the best practices for testing that you must consider before launching the final product in the market.
Top 7 Software Testing Best Practices
1. Start With The Ideal Security Test Environment:
The very first thing that developers must be incredibly careful about is security when relying on the cloud. Yes, leveraging the cloud comes with a treasure trove of benefits. However, in some instances, it is not the best environment when working on complex projects where important data is involved. In this case, it is best to build your own secure testing infrastructure rather than banking on the cloud to maintain a high level of security. Local testing environments can enable QA teams to simulate regional test scenarios, and then make modifications based on the results based on the insights gained.
2. Assemble A Dedicated Software Security Testing Team:
Having experts on board is crucial as it is human intelligence that is the ultimate driving force behind any and every project. The technology and tools are products of this intelligence. A dedicated software testing team can help bring in enhanced efficiency and expertise that today’s complex projects demand.
The tester on the team should have the necessary skills to perform a wide range of tests at several phases in the cycle. It is the most effective way of building full-proof software that is not prone to any vulnerabilities. They are also expected to be familiar with the relevant OWASP critical security risk profiles and ISO security standards.
3. Plan Software Test Cycles With Precision:
Creating a roadmap before the actual execution begins is the ideal way to kick-start the software testing phase. Expert developers ideally choose to follow a 6-step testing cycle:
1. Requirement Analysis:
The requirements have to be understood by all teams involved. If there are doubts regarding the requirement, this is the phase where they can be clarified.
2. Planning Phase:
This is where resource allocation, determining roles and responsibilities, tool selection, and training strategies are devised based on the requirements.
3. Test Case Development:
This stage involves the development of test cases, test scripts, and test data. As soon as the test cases are ready, they are thoroughly reviewed by the team lead.
4. Test Environment Setup:
The test environment setup involves determining the conditions on which software is tested. This phase can begin alongside the test case development phase.
5. Execution Phase:
In this stage, the defects are detected and updated in the test cases. The test cases are delivered to the Development Team through a bug-tracking tool.
6. Conclusion Phase:
Here, the entire cycle is evaluated based on test coverage, quality, time, cost, software, and business objectives.
4. Use Development Practices That Are Test-Oriented:
The conventional way of testing is to start at the end of the product development lifecycle. To make the most of the advantage of software testing tools, it is recommended to stay using them at the beginning of the development process itself; testers do not have to wait until the quality assurance stage to start testing the software.
For this purpose, test-oriented development practices like Test-driven Development (TDD), pair-programming and unit testing can come in handy. This way, the errors can be detected early in the process, and testers are left with enough time to identify holistic solutions to fix them.
5. Enact User Acceptance Testing (UAT):
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is primarily a process to verify if the application built is aligned with the specified user requirements or not. In this process, the product is tested by a set of actual users, after it is entirely developed and each of its components is thoroughly tested.
When it comes to the product testing lifestyle, UAT comes after unit, integration, system, and acceptance testing. There are multiple types of UAT – Alpha testing, Beta testing, Black Box testing, Operational Readiness Testing or Production Acceptance Testing, Regulations Acceptance (Compliance) testing, and finally, Contract Acceptance Testing.
6. All Tests Must Be Integrated Into The CI/CD Pipeline:
Following the DevOps approach and adopting an automated CI/CD pipeline can work wonders for software testing. Continuous integration is a software development process where the code changes are consistently merged into a central repository by developers. This is done by deploying all code changes to a testing environment.
The goal here is to find and address bugs quicker, improve software quality, and release new updates. Consistent delivery is where code changes are automatically built, tested, and readied for a release. If this gets implemented well, developers have a deployment-ready system build that has cleared a standardized test process.
7. Run Regular QA Technical Reviews:
Conducting formal technical reviews (FTR) can help as they facilitate the analysis of the final project from different perspectives, thus solidifying the product in every way possible. This step is where group meetings are organized in a professional setting to discuss the progress and the potential of the product in question.
These technical QA reviews can be conducted throughout the development lifecycle. This can help developers make consistent changes to the project. It can also help testers find and fix logical as well as functional errors systematically early in the process. At the end of the meeting, a report is generated to document the key findings.
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