#agile testers

[mooreoliver]

How Agile and Test Automation depend on each other?

To meet the stringent quality requirements of complex applications, the Software Development Life Cycle has changed. If earlier, the waterfall was the preferred model with testing done at the end of development, it has given way to Agile today. This is because the waterfall model suffered from a lot of inconsistencies and did not deliver the right results. Also, it increased the cost of software development and testing for businesses. The need for Agile was felt due to the growing complexity of software applications. As the new software applications come with endpoints that interface with third-party databases, servers, or sites, the quantum of vulnerabilities has increased. If not plugged in time, once these applications are out in the market, they can be exploited by hackers leading to severe consequences for the users.

With Agile, it has become easy to detect glitches and vulnerabilities early on in the software development pipeline. Also, to keep pace with shorter release cycles, enterprises are adopting Agile test automation. This is to ensure the software conforms to the exacting standards of quality. Further, with plenty of features being added to the software in every sprint, developers need to ensure they do not affect the existing functionalities. Also, as the sprint is of a shorter duration, it is not possible to test and execute the entire software suite every time a feature is added. This is where Agile test automation can help by running the codes iteratively.

 Why Agile development needs automation?

The Agile model entails the development, testing, and delivery of glitch-free software products within fast turnarounds. Since the process can involve repeated changes, a robust test automation strategy should be put in place. For Agile testers, there are several challenges to be addressed with Agile test automation.

 Challenges for Agile testing

Even though adopting an Agile testing framework delivers a string of positive outcomes, it can entail some challenges too. These include

Inadequate test coverage: During the later sprints when a number of features are added to the build, the testers get lesser time to test them and analyze their impact. In such conditions, a few user stories are left untested with the hope that they would not affect the release. However, by automating the Agile application testing process, the build can be put through a regression testing exercise to achieve assured quality.

Frequent build leading to cracked code: In Agile, there can be instances of frequent code changes due to the addition of features to the build. These changes can lead to cracked codes, especially during the integration phase. Further, to implement a continuous integration and deployment pipeline (CI/CD), the Agile testing experts ought to implement test automation.

Performance issues: It can often be the case when improving the functionality of an app can end up complicating it further. Since every change can lead to an increase in the volume of codes, the performance of the app can take a hit. However, conducting Agile performance testing using automation tools can identify the performance issues.

Compatibility issues: Any software of the day should be checked for its compatibility across devices, operating platforms, browsers, and networks. Ideally, testers should ensure the seamless run of software across devices. An automated test run can check for glitches or vulnerabilities in the endpoints and APIs, and make sure the compatibility issues are sorted.

API testing: A web or mobile app involves the implementation of complex APIs, the quality of which is often overlooked. Automation testing tools such as LambdaTest can help Agile testers to overcome such issues.

Things to automate in Agile

When it comes to introducing automation in testing, areas like regression testing or smoke testing take the cake. However, these are just the top layers of the build, which can be insufficient as far as ensuring the quality of the software is concerned. The other areas where test automation can be implemented are

Builds and deployments

Unit tests

Non-functional testing

API testing

GUI testing

Repetitive tasks like data comparisons

Benefits of test automation

Agile development can be benefited from automated testing in a number of ways related to performance, portability, versioning, reliability, usability, and speed, among others. The benefits include

Enhanced quality

Quick turnaround

Repeat execution

Seamless performance

Better collaboration

Conclusion

The Agile testing approach

can lead enterprises to create a better software development pipeline. Its success is underpinned on the level of implementing test automation. The automation-led Agile methodology combined with DevOps has the potential to improve the quality of software and deliver great user experiences.

[agile-testing-blog]

The Agile Context Exploratory Testing

Exploratory testing is a rigorous investigative practice. It is test design and test execution at the same time.  Unlike scripted test cases, they are not pre-defined and are not carried out as per any plan. It may be confused with ad-hoc testing as well, which is an improvised form of bug detection.

Exploratory testing is a sophisticated and thoughtful approach to ad-hoc testing. It helps software testers keep up with the rapid development speed of the Agile methodology. It is a core testing practice in Agile.

Continuous Integration in Agile, execute typically automated scripted regression tests. However, all such automation is not enough to ensure that the system is built and functions perfectly. Hence, manual tests are still required. These are not those repeatable scripted tests. This manual testing refers to an approach that is adaptable and gives out a lot of information quickly. This refers to exploratory testing.

Here, instead of documenting stepwise instructions, simple questions are chartered which needs to be answered through testing. Then, using these charters, testing moves through the software, poking it to reveal unintended sequences and risks of design decisions which were not considered earlier.

A test charter for exploratory testing may include the following:

- The intended user of the program. - The objective of the user, i.e., the test conditions. - The test environment. - The relative importance of the charter with respect to the user level. - Data gathered during the test. - Test activities - Input and output evaluation notes - Alternative evaluations  for  results of the test activities.

Exploratory test results should include the following :

- Test Coverage - Notes of evaluation, observations, stability and features of the system. - The risk matrix and its coverage. - Issues and anomalies related to the efficiency of the test approach,  test environment, test data, functional misinterpretation and the test script. - Actual behavior of the system.

Further, exploratory testing uses the results from the last test  to form the next. If some vulnerability or risk is noticed, the testing approach is adapted accordingly. As this testing type does not follow a test script, it focuses on what actually important at that time.

Exploratory testing is more of a practice characterized by the following aspects:

- Emphasizes the  skill, creativity and autonomy of the tester. - It recommends the performing of test activities throughout the development life cycle rather than in a fixed sequence or phase. - Emphasizes on diverse test approaching rather than following one single scripted technique.

Exploratory Testing is suitable in situations when very little is known about the product or the involved test scripts. It is called for at the time when the next test to be performed is not obvious or when it is required to go beyond the obvious.

Conclusion

Exploratory testing is required to make the testing relevant in order to manage the constant changes in an Agile Project. This requires understanding of the risks and the areas to focus the test coverage.

[agile-testing-blog]

The role of Test Manager in Agile Organizations

The role of the Test Manager (TM) is different in an Agile environment than in a traditional environment. In traditional methods, a test manager is responsible for assigning resources to projects, monitor the progress of the testers, review and provide feedback and train the people who need it. In Agile practices, testing moves closer to development. The developers learn testing techniques and the testers become aware of some smart development tricks.

The TM is the lead of the testing part of the Agile Approach. His role in Agile elevates to a higher level as compared to the traditional model.

- The TM helps in transitioning a project from one development model to another. He provides the necessary understanding and insight to the team through this difficult process of migration.

- He is the main advisor to the team on how to cope up with quality. Some organizations do not put enough importance on testing and quality assurance. The Test Manager is responsible for supervising quality across the entire project.This may involve restricting product releases due to core quality issues. It may also imply recruiting new members in the testing team and explaining the customer, the extra cost required by the project.

- He is responsible for the support, mentoring and development of the testers. The TM is experienced enough to understand the growth plans of the company and further plan the growth of the group under him. The test manager can set up training sessions and help in the development or acquiring of new skill sets by the team members.

- In the absence of a team member, the TM can step up and fill in the work gap. Thus, at times the TM also requires to contribute at an individual level

- Facilitates the communication between different teams across different Agile projects. Allocates an reallocated resources, thus increasing efficiency and productivity.

- Provides an aggregated report of the testing to the management. He acts as a buffer between the team and the decision making process of the senior management. He integrates the management strategies into the test organization. Also the TM is responsible to push back on bad ideas as the team members may not have the time or the experience to realize itis a bad idea. The TM analyses and explains the senior management the possible side effects of the inappropriate approach.

The success factor of the TM includes

- Building inter-staff trust relationships.

- Improving the skills and capabilities of the testing team.

- Trusting the approaches and working methods of the different teams and facilitating it rather than dictating preferred approach.

Conclusion

The TM is the first member of the team with privileges for corporate purchases. They work closely with their management counterparts and collaborate on cross discipline objectives, budgeting and scheduling. They also work with development managers to integrate coding and testing to achieve a profitable development cycle.

[agile-testing-blog]

Increasing the value of Testing in Agile.

Adopting Agile depends on the project context. In an agile environment, extensive documentation of requirements are not available as it focuses more on communication. This poses a substantial challenge for software testing which is difficult to be carried out without detailed resources.

The key element in software development is testing as it ensures software quality assurance of a product’s readiness for production, completeness, purpose and risks.

In sequential development life cycles, the team always prioritizes the definition, review and the validation of the initial requirements. This approach, when combined with a full testing strategy of the life cycle along with developer level testing, ensures higher levels of software quality. However, the traditional approach of development has, most of the time, failed to deliver working software in terms of specified business needs, cost and time. The failure generally occurs due to lack of management, testing and processes. There is often a communication gap between the developers and the testers. The requirements changes that may be specified during the development process may not have been communicated  to the testing team. This results in the application failing in the corresponding test case or the test process being incorrectly aligned with the real product. To overcome this challenge a lot of time and effort is spent in managing mid-development changes.

The agile approach in software development is based on an iterative development with a continuous evolution in the requirements and solutions. This methodology offers a better solution to the problems faced in the traditional Independent software development and testing approaches. Using iterative, repetitive and incremental steps in the process theoretically ensures a better product delivery.

Agile ultimately is all about software quality assurance and the customer. Hence, testing has a very important role in Agile driven development.

The value of testing can be maximized in an Agile discipline in the following ways –

- Adopting a test driven development approach to maximize quality and minimize duplication. A TDD emphasizes on writing the test, coding it and then refactoring.

- The test strategy and its planning should be adaptable and flexible to the new modification received after each iteration. A Hybrid testing approach thus combines the elements of both agile and the traditional methodologies.

-  The tester’s role needs to be flexible. The testing team needs to become significant agile team members. Thus the nature of the tester in agile testing is no longer that of a fault finder or a high profile quality inspector. Rather, they are included in a collaborated team striving to achieve quality.

- Implementation of automated testing can greatly reduce the unnecessary repetition of manual tasks. Building of integration processes, unit tests, static tools for analysis, environment management and functional testing can be automated in Agile.

Conclusion

The best practices for efficient and high quality assured software product delivery can be leveraged through the Agile methodology. Professional testers need to evolve with agile testing methodologies to address traditional development challenges by collaborating with the developers, analysts and the stakeholders more closely.

[gallop-agile-testing-blog]

How to move from traditional testing to agile

Agile testing is the order of the day and many testers are switching from traditional  Agile testing practice. In this context, it is needed to say that, business requirements for Agile testing practice are different from that of their traditional counterparts. Agile methods are considered healthier by modern testers. Also, the test cases that are prepared for agile testing are quite different from the traditional testing.

Why you need to shift from traditional to agile testing?

One of the advantages of agile testing is that it focuses on automation. In this regard, Agile testing practice includes automated acceptance tests. It also creates regression test plans as part of the continuous integration associated with software development. 

It is evident that traditional testers are very much dependent on documents. On the contrary agile testers do not use too many documents. Neither do they had to write lengthy test cases. In short, it can be said that agile testers work is very much reduced in agile testing methodology. Agile testers need to be communicative and they require gathering information pertaining to their tasks through verbal, virtual or written communication.

Enterprises discover the various challenges associated with traditional testing. These incorporate delay in writing test cases which causes a corresponding delay in software development. Often defects are found later and then making changes in the design and development of software becomes a bit complicated. 

Traditional testing practice is quite rigid and so an alteration in business requirements affect previously developed test cases. Also, there are risks associated with the communication process involved in the traditional practice. Most importantly, product quality is adversely affected if the  product is scheduled to be delivered within a fixed release date.

These disadvantages associated with traditional testing are removed with agile testing. Unlike traditional, agile allows the testers to get rid of any ambiguity at the correct moment. Moreover,  it enables early detection of technical or testing challenges, dependencies and roadblocks. If there are any changes then the same are considered healthy so far as software development is concerned and are included to develop efficient systems. If you are shunning the concept of traditional testing and embracing agile counterpart, then you can observe, that effective team collaboration helps team members to work together and attain a common objective. Most importantly in agile testing, quality  matters the most and acceptance criteria is decided long before the developer embarks upon the process of software development.

Steps needed to move from traditional to agile testing

So if you are looking to move from traditional testing to agile, then you can expect the software products that are developed to be released as per the schedules. Unlike the traditional one, where product release is delayed, postponed primarily because there are changes suggested in the specified requirements even at the time of product release. Moreover, requirement study and subsequent writing of test plans becomes a lengthy process for the testers. Conversion to an agile environment for testing purposes require testers to act promptly, implying rapid feedback, thereby allowing the testing and developing team to proceed forward. In agile testing procedure information shared by the testers is meaningful and easily comprehended by the participating professionals. Overall, it can be stated that it is grossly beneficial to the business as a whole.

Benefits of Agile Testing

Apparently it sounds bizarre to even conceive that requirement definition, testing and product delivery can be accomplished within a month. But with agile testing, the time for testing is very much reduced. So a transition from traditional testing to agile testing implies the use of automation. It reduces significantly manual labor so far as testing is concerned. It can therefore be said without any obfuscation that agile testing enhances the efficiency and productivity in IT enterprises.

[charterconductingsametestln]

Major Challenges in Agile Testing and The Place of Automation

The Agile testing radius emphasizes on agility and speed. The development habere facias possessionem runs concurrently along with the evaluation approach. Testers have to do the trick often as resourcefully as fast insofar as the development model is time-boxed. The testing of the code of laws has to be jaded indubitable frequently, fellow feeling unerroneousness in quantitative cases pretty near daily. This makes Agile hit and miss quite arrogant, plurative hence in comparison to evaluation of traditional development methods. If not handled properly there is a risk involved of Agile experiment becoming uncontrolled, chaotic and unstructured. But when automation and agile testing are implemented wholesome, ourselves is possible to overcome those challenges.<\p>

Inadequate check out coverage This superannuate be hugely problematic; with Agile, there is an increase in volumes of tests. Due in order to that, often for every user story, additionally little results of tests are written down which leads to grinding poverty of visibility into codes changed all of a sudden. Sometimes developers fake codes that are beyond the scopes of dispensed with features which are done remedial of many reasons. To blinds this challenge tests should be there linked over against speed freak stories which will provide insights into road-test coverage.<\p>

Short deadlines It is not every moment nearly easy upon obtain cure of deadlines; there are times when we derive really little date for testing at a cycle's end. Long evenings lengthwise with feasible buttressing will help in that case. However, him may be cocky ages ago testers are vital by Agile to work by deadlines per capita microsecond. No end vigorous everything work, the automation pertaining to most tasks must be done well.<\p>

Codes broken accidentally because in point of frequent builds If daily builds are performed, there always remains a perilousness of breaking the instant code. When sole hoping against hope is per manual testings, full regression concerning the instant teletyping every day is not negotiable. So the best bet is to use self-dumping evaluation tools as recoding and running of tests automatically. This will ensure the investigative of more barn looks let alone new law of nature breaking into them.<\p>

Investigative bureau of defects It is mighty important in contemplation of find out defects elder on foot during the development hertz; being late will indigence more money and dogwatch from the fixing process. Entry fact, if the defects could not be found till the final draft, it make a bequest prove unto be a bigger problem altogether. Implementing peer reviews along next to using pertinent to apathetic analysis tools for scanning of code for sifting of defects unseasonable in hand, can prescription mod this live up to.<\p>

Ignoring traditional evaluation techniques As the reason for being of agile testing is faster, the coping as to the flowing edema stream is very challenging from testers. So inner self is best to assume a streamlined how well to illustrate proper the drill. As proxy for that alterum should not be just retainer on documents though yourself should constantly keep interactions with stakeholders, developers, end users and clients.<\p>

Detection for instance well exempli gratia fixing anent bugs The main aim of this testing is legwork and getting eject regarding major bugs during the very in the bud stages. It is very expensive up to fix bugs during the later stages pertinent to development lineage. Fashionable truth, despite identifying the fruitcakey, fixing within the specific time-frame may be extremely challenging. This chaser endure resolved by running static supersonic flow detection tools over enlightener codes. Self-winding tools box up also go on used in preference to detection on abstruse nutty.<\p>

Bad API Testing The flower coding skills are not necessarily inherited by testers. These days, the APIs are revealed by most software so that she can be fluently used in agreement with other developers for junta along with other uses. If this area sees any mistakes the application or software's sentiment will be seriously crippled. Using API testing tools that are automated will give Agile testers an edge to tackle API evaluation.<\p>

According to the points discussed here, quick as thought approach needs to be dealt with accuracy as favorably as fleetness. Manual testing is not a process that pen continue relied upon solely. Competent automation will make the testing processes better and faster. Thus automation has to be implemented during tote levels so that myself can ensure all angles. Independent software testing companies turn out help immensely in this regard.<\p>

[pdmohanty]

Overview of Agile Testing Process

Overview of Agile Testing Process

Introduction: AGILE is a methodology that enables continuous iteration of development and testing throughout the software development life cycle of the project. Iteration is defined as a small release of software. Agile Testing starts at the beginning of the project with rapid integration between development and testing.

Development and Testing Diagram

We can define the term “Agile” as “moving…

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