Building The Perfect Test Flow For Remote QA Teams

With the growing requirement for quality and speedy software releases, the need for independent QA teams rises. Remote working is the norm in the modern digital era. Even if QA remote organizations are qualified, the distance always matters. Including them in the software development process becomes challenging particularly collaborating with people who are not operating in the same geographical location. It is critical to address issues like building workflows and making each team member a member of the process to achieve business goals. A test management tool helps in connecting the gap between QA teams and brings all stakeholders on the same page. 

Collaboration and Communication is the Key to Managing Remote Teams 

All roles required in the software development project including developers, testers, project managers, business analysts, and other stakeholders should be on the same side. A test management tool helps in raising the transparency of all remote QA team members on a single platform with the requirement for external communication and enables them to share critical information related to their sprints and releases.

Regular communication does not come easily for remote teams. If it did, office spaces would not be needed. Lack of adequate communication is particularly common when new employees are being onboarded.

There requires to be a codified set of rules or guidelines to build clear communication in remote QA teams. These incorporate specifics on when meetings should be held, what tools to exercise, the primary forms of communication – email, video chat, text chat, etc. While most teams do have thoughts about these within themselves, it is still best to have documentation ready to help with onboarding and decrease conflict in remote work settings.

From Test Design to Regression Cycles – Defect Management has it Covered

Test management tools are important in various stages of the software testing life cycle, which involves requirements for the final release. Initially, QA helps in planning and executing tests during the development process to check any roadblocks during a project. After requirement analysis, testers plan several test cases against those requirements. Test planning includes the actions QA engineers require to perform to assure the application functions as planned. A test management tool can be used for generating and modifying test cases. Once the development stage is finished, QA teams run the test cases to check whether the application satisfies all technical requirements. Project managers assign regression cycles to identify bugs in the code. These cycles are typically utilized when new features or updates are appended to an app. 

Assigning Defects and E-mailing Status Updates

Since testers are placed in different geographical areas, test managers assign cycles to several testers for test case execution. Here, each tester becomes an account manager with respect to the errors assigned and he connects with the respective developer to eliminate these bugs. Once the developer makes the needed changes, the updated status of the defects is emailed to all stakeholders. Test management tools also allow task management and allow teams to keep a record of the defects and promote defect management. 

Focused tracking of progress

In a remote QA setup, tracking a team’s development– what went wrong, what worked, and the learnings – helps assure that bugs are not missed, and product quality does not hurt. Managers need to verify that the team has clear targets for each day, week, and month. These targets can differ from the number of tests run, the number of characteristics tested, the number of defects detected, and so forth.

Consider performing a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) system of some kind that designates a number, label, or color to the performance. 

For instance:

1-3: Exceptional

4-6: Excellent

7-9: Decent

10: Needs Improvement

These numbers can define team performance as frequently as necessary. Managers can maintain track of how their team fares each day and get a grip on any roadblocks or disruptions before they seriously affect product quality.

Using the right tools

All remote work requires the right tools to be accomplished fast and without hassle. Outside of tools for communication,  report generation, project management, and the like, a QA engineer on Work from Home requires tools dedicated to managing test cases on real devices, browsers, and operating systems. Obviously, this test infrastructure requires to be on the cloud.

Established bug documentation guidelines

QA from home or office is all about discovering those bugs quickly, effortlessly, and in substantial numbers. In remote QA operations, greater focus requires to be on establishing bug documentation guidelines. Since each tester is operating in relative isolation, they are more apt to miss out on team norms in this regard.

Bear in mind that even a single bug could employ a strenuous amount of resources to fix. To ensure such incidents are reduced, testers must have measures to follow when identifying and recording bugs. Consistent defect reporting (ideally including screenshots) is essential. Thankfully, various tools such as Jira and GitHub facilitate these functions, thus decreasing the time needed to analyze and troubleshoot bugs.

Also Read: Key Performance Indicators For QA Testers To Unlock Their Full Potential

Conclusion 

With the help of the right test management tools test managers can build the perfect test flow for remote QA teams or outsourced QA testers. These tools can implement automated tests, defects, and project management tasks. Several tools also incorporate advanced dashboards and detailed tracking of key metrics, and easy bug management. Whether test managers require to assign tests to testers, track records of the defects or require to check updates on the development of a software testing project, test management tools have all abilities. 

When it comes to QA, nothing is better than having the correct people in charge. That’s why we make sure that everyone in our team is qualified and accredited on some of the industry’s best practices. 

At TestUnity we have an expert team of QA Engineers. This enables us to give our clients the support they require to make sure that their software hits the market in the right circumstances. Contact us for a free consultation and see for yourself why TestUnity’s QA approach is the best choice for your software.

TestUnity

Testunity is a SaaS-based technology platform driven by a vast community of testers & QAs spread around the world, powered by technology & testing experts to create the dedicated testing hub. Which is capable of providing almost all kind of testing services for almost all the platforms exists in software word.