Key Drivers of Manual Testing

Improving the quality of your software products will have a significant impact on the overall performance and financial health of your business. When managing your workflow, don’t compromise on testing, because errors can be very costly.

Therefore, your quality strategy should address all important factors, including effective planning, a test-focused quality management strategy, and a dedicated quality assurance staff.

Automated testing can save time and money, but when it comes to actual end-user usability testing, don’t underestimate the power of the human element in identifying problems. In addition to highlighting some manual testing practices, this article will explain why manual testing is so important.

What is Manual testing?

Manual testing of a new program involves human testers verifying its quality without using automated software or scripts. The purpose is to detect errors or malfunctions, to confirm that the product is error-free, and to ensure that it meets the required functional specifications. Comparison of the behavior of a software application (or one of its components or functions) with the expected behavior specified at the beginning of the software development life cycle (SDLC).

Manual testers create test cases or scenarios with 100% test coverage, run each individually, and verify the results.

They ensure that all bugs are reported and sent to the development team to be fixed before testing again. One of the main aspects of software testing is that no test can be fully automated. Therefore, manual testing is an important step in any quality control program.

Now let’s look at an example of manual testing:

Manual testing has many practical uses and is particularly useful for evaluating usability and accessibility. For example, if you’re launching an online store or e-commerce website, you’ll need to ensure:

• Cross-browser and device compatibility
• Easy checkout
• High-resolution images that load quickly
• Links to platforms and social media

How to Optimize the Manual testing Process?

When you want to optimize a particular process, you need to refer to an action plan which, if used correctly, will yield positive results. Remember that although testing methodology takes a lot of time and effort, it is essential for evaluating newly developed software. It verifies that the basic functionality of all software works as expected and establishes a framework for automated testing. Let’s explore the top manual testing drivers/best practices for building a strong software testing foundation.

1. Use tests with the broadest coverage

Quality assurance teams use a variety of test methods for different situations. The main goal should be to ensure that written tests cover as many areas as possible, even if 100% coverage is not practical. Manual testing service providers use a variety of techniques to achieve 100% coverage. However, automated software testing can use the same types of software testing.

• Black Box Testing: QA testers should use a manual testing method known as “black box testing” because they cannot see the internal code structure. The purpose of black box testing is to determine if the software meets the user’s specifications and needs. Therefore, the tester does not consider the underlying structure of the application and focuses only on inputs and outputs.
• Exploratory testing: In this type of testing, QA testers do not pre-create test cases. Instead, they conceptualize all possible test situations before test execution and then create the test cases. This approach facilitates the rapid execution of software tests and the development of ready-to-use test cases.
• White-box testing: Instead of testing the functional requirements of the application, white-box testing is performed to verify process inputs and outputs. It is designed to increase application security while improving its look and feel.

2. Make a test plan

Making a test plan is really useful. It tracks all system tests that can be run.

The test plan is a living document that changes as the project evolves. The test plan ensures that all functional and design criteria are implemented exactly as described in the documentation. The benefit of a test plan is that it serves as a roadmap for testing throughout the development process. The full test plan can be used and reused if further regression testing of the application is performed. To avoid missing important areas, your testing strategy should cover the error-prone parts of your application.

3. Use test-oriented development techniques

Software in development should be tested as soon as possible, waiting until QA is counterproductive and woefully inadequate.

Instead, testing should be included early in the development process, using techniques such as Test Driven Development (TDD), pair programming, and unit testing. This allows for earlier detection and elimination of problems during manual testing.

4. Assessing the code level 

The quality of a software product is linked to the quality of its source code. However, if it does not produce the expected results, it cannot be effectively evaluated.

The best way to improve the quality of QA is to ensure that QA objectives can be measured. This quantifiability thus allows the monitoring, evaluation, and documentation of the quality control procedures of the tested product. However, there is no accepted way to assess the quality of your code; instead, best practices and common sense advice should be followed.

5. Creative Thinking

How do skilled manual testers who regularly perform routine testing develop their creativity? A few tips are useful to any tester: Find out what the program under test is not intended to do. The “what if” questions should be the main focus of software research. For example, what if the iPhone the Apple Watch is connected to dies while you’re testing it?

Do not hesitate to list all the possibilities that may arise. If possible, take the tested system (or device) out of the office environment and test it there.

6. Tracking 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.

Entry, exit, and execution sequence are the three components that make up a well-designed test case. Test cases can be used to assess the usability, reliability, and performance of the software. By maintaining test cases, higher-quality applications are delivered.

Also Read: The Role Of Manual Testing In DevOps

Conclusion

Although technology can save time, manual testing is still an important part of software development. Human testers are able to create multiple test cases for an application or feature and think like an end user.

It’s important to remember that no matter how hard software testing goes, it’s nearly impossible to catch every bug imaginable. Manual testers often find problems that computers might miss, but they’re also prone to human error. The best way to identify the most defects and errors is to combine manual and automated testing.

When it comes to QA, nothing is better than having the correct people in charge. That’s why we make sure that everyone on 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 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.