Your company’s overall performance and financial health will be impacted significantly by raising the quality of your software products. Never compromise on testing while managing your work processes since the cost of errors might be too expensive. As a result, your quality strategy should address each vital factor, including efficient planning, a test-oriented quality management strategy, and a committed QA staff.
As a dedicated automated and manual testing company, you must develop really high-quality products if you want your business to be competitive and secure a leading position in the IT sector market. Your company’s overall performance and financial health will be most significantly impacted by raising the quality of software products.
Automated testing may save time and money, but when it comes to usability testing for actual end users, you shouldn’t undervalue the power of the human touch in identifying issues. In addition to highlighting some manual testing best practices, this post will demonstrate why manual testing is so important.
What Actually Is Manual Testing?
Whenever a new programme is put through manual testing, human testers examine it for quality without the use of automated software or scripting. The goal is to find errors or bugs, confirm that the product is error-free, and ensure that it complies with the required functional specifications. A software application’s behaviour (or one of its components or features) is compared with the intended behaviour that was specified during the early stages of the software development life cycle (SDLC).
Manual testers create test cases or scenarios with 100% test coverage, run each one individually, and then check the results. They make sure that any bugs are reported and sent to the development team to resolve before being tested once again. One of the main aspects of software testing is that no test can be fully automated. Hence manual testing is a crucial step in any quality control procedure.
Let us now look at an example of manual testing:
There are numerous practical uses for manual testing, and it is particularly useful for evaluating usability and accessibility. For instance, if you were starting an online store or an e-commerce website, you would need to make sure that:
- A variety of browsers and devices are compatible
- Effortless checkout
- High-resolution images that are fast loading
- Social media platform links
Manual testing service involves checking the codes that power each of these functions to ensure they operate as the customer intended. The website’s appearance and feel may be evaluated by manual testers who can provide their opinions.
How Can You Optimize The Process of Manual Testing?
When you want to optimize a particular process, you must refer to a plan of action that, when used wisely, produces positive results. Remember that even if the testing method takes a lot of time and effort, it is essential for evaluating newly developed software. It checks that all of the software’s fundamental features are operating as intended and establishes the framework for automated testing. Let’s examine the top eight key manual testing enablers/ best practices for a solid software testing foundation.
1. Use tests with the broadest possible coverage
QA teams use a variety of testing methods for diverse circumstances. The main objective should be to make sure that the tests are written to cover as much aspects as possible, even if 100% coverage is not practical. Test cases should be developed to contain the product’s criteria to guarantee that they can be tested. Manual testing service providers use various techniques to get 100% coverage. However, automated software testing may make use of the same types of software testing.
- Black box testing: QA testers must use the manual testing method known as “black box testing” since they are unable to see the internal code structure. Black box testing is focused on assessing whether or not software satisfies the user’s specifications and needs. As a consequence, the testers won’t consider the application’s underlying structure and will just pay attention to the inputs and outputs.
- Exploratory testing: During this kind of testing, the QA testers do not create test cases in advance. Instead, they conceptualize every possible test situation before the test run and then build test cases. This method facilitates the speedy execution of software testing as well as the development of out-of-the-box test cases.
- White Box Testing: Instead of testing the functional requirements of the application, white box testing is performed to verify the input and output of the flow. It aims to increase the app’s security while also enhancing its look and usefulness.
2. Developing Test Plans
Making test plans is really advantageous. It maintains track of any system tests that could be conducted. This test plan is an evolving document that changes as the project does. A test plan makes sure that all functional and design criteria are implemented exactly as they are described in the documentation. A test plan’s advantage is that it acts as a roadmap for testing throughout development. If further application regression testing is performed, the full test plan may be used and reused. In order to avoid missing a crucial area, a test strategy must cover sections of application that are prone to errors.
Also Read: How To Plan A Foolproof Performance Testing Plan?
3. Employ test-oriented development techniques
Software in development should be tested as soon as possible; waiting until QA is both counterproductive and terribly insufficient.
Instead, testing should be included from the very beginning of the development process, using techniques like TDD (Test-Driven Development), pair programming, and unit testing. This enables issues to be found and eliminated considerably sooner during the manual testing process.
4. Evaluate the level of the code
A software product’s quality and the quality of its source code are related. However, it cannot be assessed effectively if it is not delivering desired results.
The finest way to improve the QA quality is to make sure that QA goals can be measured. In consequence, this quantifiability enables the monitoring, evaluation, and documenting of quality control procedures for the tested product. However, there is no accepted way of evaluating the quality of code; instead, best practices and common sense advice must be followed.
5. Think creatively
How can a skilled manual tester who regularly does routine tests develop their creativity? Several tips might be helpful to any tester: Find out what the programme being tested is not intended to do. The “what if” problem has to be the main objective of software research. What happens, for instance, if the iPhone to which the Apple Watch is connected runs out of battery while you are testing it? Without hesitation, list every possibility that may occur. If possible, take the system (or device) under test out of your office setting and test it there.
6. Keeping track of and recording Test cases
Creating test cases is the key to successful testing. Entry and exit criteria should be included in test cases to further simplify the procedure. Input, output, and execution sequence are the three components that make up well-designed test cases. Test cases may be used to assess software’s usability, reliability, and performance. Applications of greater quality are delivered as a consequence of maintaining test cases.
Also Read: Difference Between Manual Testing and Automation Testing
7. Simplify Security
In order to analyse their application, manual security testers often utilise a hand-selected mix of security testing tools and software. Examples include technology for automated scanning and customised scripts.
Specific test cases, such as checking user controls, examining encryption capabilities, and doing in-depth research to find nested holes inside an application, are included in advanced manual security testing methodologies. The following are some of the best and most efficient ways:
- Examine the server access controls
- Execute static analysis (Static Code Analysis)
- Dynamic Evaluation (Penetration Testing)
- Keep an eye on Access Control Management.
8. Create a bug report that is precise, detailed, and unambiguous
Don’t only list the bug, errors and vulnerabilities; but as a responsible tester, you must also include its impact and any potential remedies. The other teams in an organisation should benefit from the testing teams’ best practises and expertise.
In essence, manual testing calls for human involvement, while automation testing automates the execution of test cases. Any form of application may be manually tested, although ad hoc or exploratory testing, as well as UI and UX experience, are particularly well suited to manual testing. Automation testing is often used for regression testing and performance testing, and is only advised for stable systems that are expected to have fewer flaws. Selenium and JMeter are popular testing tools.
Also Read: Reasons Why Manual Software Testing is Still Relevant for Businesses
Although technology saves time, manual testing is still an essential component of software development. Human testers are able to create several test scenarios for an application or function and think like an end user. It is imperative to retain in mind that, despite software testing’s best efforts, it is almost impossible to detect every conceivable flaw. Manual testers often catch problems that a computer would miss, but they are also prone to human mistake. The best method for identifying the most flaws and faults is to combine both manual and automated testing.
