Training Summary

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In this course, you will learn basic skills and Software Testing concepts. Lessons are taught using REAL-LIFE Examples for improved learning. Refer the tutorials sequentially one after the other.

What should I know?

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This online video tutorial is specially designed for beginners with little or no manual testing experience. But before you begin, refer this comprehensive guide on choosing QA as your career

 

 

Software Testing Syllabus

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Testing Fundamentals

👉 Tutorial	What is Software Testing? Definition, Basics & Types
👉 Tutorial	Software Testing as a Career Path (Skills, Salary, Growth)
👉 Tutorial	7 Software Testing Principles: Learn with Examples
👉 Tutorial	V-Model in Software Testing
👉 Tutorial	STLC – Software Testing Life Cycle Phases & Entry, Exit Criteria

Types of Testing

👉 Tutorial	Manual Testing Tutorial for Beginners: Concepts, Types, Tool
👉 Tutorial	AUTOMATION TESTING Tutorial: What is, Process, Benefits & Tools
👉 Tutorial	Automation Testing Vs. Manual Testing: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	Unit Testing Tutorial: What is, Types, Tools, EXAMPLE
👉 Tutorial	Integration Testing: What is, Types, Top Down & Bottom Up Example
👉 Tutorial	What is System Testing? Types & Definition with Example
👉 Tutorial	Sanity Testing Vs Smoke Testing: Introduction & Differences
👉 Tutorial	What is Regression Testing? Definition, Test Cases (Example)
👉 Tutorial	What is Non Functional Testing? Types with Example

TestCase Development

👉 Tutorial	Test Documentation in Software Testing
👉 Tutorial	What is Test Scenario? Template with Examples
👉 Tutorial	How to Write Test Cases: Sample Template with Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Test Analysis (Test Basis) in Software Testing?
👉 Tutorial	What is Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM)? Example Template
👉 Tutorial	Test Data Generation: What is, How to, Example, Tools
👉 Tutorial	Download Sample Test Case Template: Example Excel, Word Formats

Testing Techniques

👉 Tutorial	Software Testing Techniques with Test Case Design Examples
👉 Tutorial	Boundary Value Analysis & Equivalence Partitioning with Examples
👉 Tutorial	Decision Table Testing: Learn with Example
👉 Tutorial	What is State Transition Testing? Diagram, Technique, Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Use Case Testing? Technique, Examples

Test Management & Control

👉 Tutorial	Software Test Estimation Techniques: Step By Step Guide
👉 Tutorial	How to Create a Test Plan (with Example)
👉 Tutorial	Test Plan Template: Sample Document with Web Application Example

Defects

👉 Tutorial	Test Environment for Software Testing
👉 Tutorial	Defect Management Process in Software Testing (Bug Report Template)
👉 Tutorial	Defect/Bug Life Cycle in Software Testing
👉 Tutorial	Top 50 Software Testing Tools

Agile

👉 Tutorial	Agile Methodology & Model: Guide for Software Development & Testing
👉 Tutorial	What is Agile Testing? Process, Strategy, Test Plan, Life Cycle Example
👉 Tutorial	Scrum Testing Methodology Tutorial: What is, Process, Artifacts, Sprint
👉 Tutorial	Automation Testing Framework for Agile/Scrum Methodology
👉 Tutorial	SAFe Methodology Tutorial: What is Scaled Agile Framework

Testing Different Domains

👉 Tutorial	Web Application Testing: 8 Step Guide to Website Testing
👉 Tutorial	Web Application Testing Checklist: Example Test Cases for Website
👉 Tutorial	Banking Domain Application Testing: Sample Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	eCommerce Testing: How to Test an E-Commerce Website
👉 Tutorial	Payment Gateway Testing Tutorial with Example Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	Mainframe Testing – Complete Tutorial
👉 Tutorial	Testing Retail Point Of Sale(POS) Systems: Example Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	HealthCare Domain Testing with Sample Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	Testing Insurance Domain Applications with Sample Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	Testing Telecom Domain with Sample OSS/BSS Test cases
👉 Tutorial	Business Intelligence (BI) Testing: Sample Test Cases

WhiteBox Testing

👉 Tutorial	What is WHITE Box Testing? Techniques, Example, Types & Tools
👉 Tutorial	What is Static Testing? What is a Testing Review?
👉 Tutorial	Mccabe’s Cyclomatic Complexity: Calculate with Flow Graph (Example)
👉 Tutorial	Code Coverage Tutorial: Branch, Statement, Decision, FSM
👉 Tutorial	Path Testing & Basis Path Testing with EXAMPLES

Performance Testing

👉 Tutorial	Performance Testing Tutorial: What is, Types, Metrics & Example
👉 Tutorial	Load Testing Tutorial: What is? How to? (with Examples)
👉 Tutorial	What is STRESS Testing in Software Testing? Tools, Types, Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Volume Testing? Learn with Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Scalability Testing? Learn with Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Soak Testing? Definition, Meaning, Examples
👉 Tutorial	Stability Testing in Software Testing
👉 Tutorial	What is Spike Testing? Learn With Example
👉 Tutorial	Load Testing vs Stress Testing vs Performance Testing: Difference Discussed
👉 Tutorial	What is Response Time Testing?
👉 Tutorial	What is Benchmark Testing? Test Plan, Tools, Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Endurance Testing in Software Testing? (with Example)
👉 Tutorial	Reliability Testing Tutorial: What is, Methods, Tools, Example
👉 Tutorial	13 BEST Performance Testing Tools | Load Testing Tool

Advance Testing Topics

👉 Tutorial	Software Testing Metrics: What is, Types & Example
👉 Tutorial	How to create Test Strategy Document (Sample Template)
👉 Tutorial	What is Testing as a Service? TaaS Model Explained
👉 Tutorial	What is Test Maturity Model (TMM) in Software Testing?

FAQ

👉 Tutorial	Severity & Priority in Testing: Differences & Example
👉 Tutorial	What is a Test Script? How to write with Example
👉 Tutorial	Test Strategy vs Test Plan: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	Static Testing vs Dynamic Testing: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	Difference Between Retesting and Regression Testing
👉 Tutorial	Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	Difference Between Verification and Validation with Example
👉 Tutorial	Positive Testing and Negative Testing with Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is TEST HARNESS? Tools & Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Defect Density? Formula to calculate with Example
👉 Tutorial	Difference Between Globalization Testing and Localization Testing
👉 Tutorial	Test Condition vs Test Scenario: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	Unit Test vs Integration Test: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	Functional Testing Vs Non-Functional Testing: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	Black Box Testing Vs. White Box Testing: Key Differences
👉 Tutorial	Frontend Testing Vs. Backend Testing: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	SDLC vs STLC: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	What is SDET? Full Form, Meaning, Role and Responsibilities
👉 Tutorial	Do Testers have to Write Code?
👉 Tutorial	Test Case vs Test Scenario: What’s the Difference?

Testing Types – Mega List

👉 Tutorial	Types of Software Testing: 100 Examples of Different Testing Types
👉 Tutorial	API Testing Tutorial: Learn in 10 minutes!
👉 Tutorial	What is BLACK Box Testing? Techniques, Example & Types
👉 Tutorial	Alpha Testing Vs Beta Testing: What’s the Difference?
👉 Tutorial	What is Functional Testing? Types & Examples (Complete Tutorial)
👉 Tutorial	What is User Acceptance Testing (UAT)? with Examples
👉 Tutorial	REST API Testing Tutorial: Sample Manual Test Case
👉 Tutorial	REST Client Testing using Restito Tool
👉 Tutorial	REST Assured Tutorial: How to test API with Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Security Testing? Types with Example
👉 Tutorial	GUI Testing Tutorial: User Interface (UI) TestCases with Examples
👉 Tutorial	Software Testing Methodologies: Learn QA Models
👉 Tutorial	END-To-END Testing Tutorial: What is E2E Testing with Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Exploratory Testing? Techniques with Examples
👉 Tutorial	Mutation Testing in Software Testing: Mutant Score & Analysis Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Adhoc Testing? Types with Example
👉 Tutorial	Keyword Driven Testing Framework with Example
👉 Tutorial	Risk Based Testing: Approach, Matrix, Process & Examples
👉 Tutorial	Backend Testing Tutorial: What is, Tools & Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Smoke Testing? How to do with EXAMPLES
👉 Tutorial	Accessibility Testing Tutorial: What is, Tools & Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Quality Assurance(QA)? Process, Methods, Examples
👉 Tutorial	Quality Management Plan Template: Download with Sample Example
👉 Tutorial	What is SOA Testing? Tutorial with Example
👉 Tutorial	Penetration Testing Tutorial: What is PenTest?
👉 Tutorial	What is Compatibility Testing? Forward & Backward Testing (Example)
👉 Tutorial	What is System Integration Testing (SIT) with Example
👉 Tutorial	Test Coverage in Software Testing
👉 Tutorial	What is Usability Testing? UX(User Experience) Testing Example
👉 Tutorial	Protocol Testing Tutorial: L2 & L3
👉 Tutorial	What is Cloud Testing? SaaS Testing Tutorial
👉 Tutorial	Cookie Testing: Example Test Cases for Website
👉 Tutorial	What is Grey Box Testing? Techniques, Example
👉 Tutorial	Model Based Testing Tutorial: What is, Tools & Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Pilot Testing? Definition, Meaning, Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Orthogonal Array Testing (OATS)? Tools, Techniques & Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Alpha Testing? Process, Example
👉 Tutorial	Fuzz Testing(Fuzzing) Tutorial: What is, Types, Tools & Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Localization Testing? Example Test Cases & Checklist
👉 Tutorial	What is Interface Testing? Types & Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Vulnerability Assessment? Testing Process, VAPT Scan Tool
👉 Tutorial	What is Configuration Testing? Example Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	Application Testing Tutorial: What is, How to, Tools
👉 Tutorial	What is Negative Testing? Test cases With Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Interoperability Testing in Software Testing? (with Examples)
👉 Tutorial	Conformance Testing (Compliance Testing) – Complete Guide
👉 Tutorial	What is Loop Testing? Methodology, Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Component Testing? Techniques, Example Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	What is Dynamic Testing? Types, Techniques & Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Parallel Testing? Definition, Approach, Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Operational Acceptance Testing(OAT)? Example Test Cases
👉 Tutorial	What is Module Testing? Definition, Examples
👉 Tutorial	What is Workflow Testing in Software Testing? with Examples
👉 Tutorial	Storage Testing Tutorial: What is, Type, Concepts
👉 Tutorial	What is Recovery Testing? with Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Concurrency Testing in Software Testing?
👉 Tutorial	What is Thread Testing in Software Testing?
👉 Tutorial	What is Destructive Testing? Techniques, Methods, Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Continuous Testing in DevOps? Definition, Benefits, Tools
👉 Tutorial	Levels of Testing in Software Testing
👉 Tutorial	IoT Testing Tutorial: What is, Process, Challenges & Tools
👉 Tutorial	What is Test Driven Development (TDD)? Tutorial with Example
👉 Tutorial	What is Data Driven Testing? Learn to create Framework
👉 Tutorial	What is Monkey & Gorilla Testing? Examples, Difference
👉 Tutorial	What is Front End Testing? Tools & Frameworks
👉 Tutorial	What is Embedded Testing in Software Testing?
👉 Tutorial	What is Domain Testing in Software Testing? (with Example)
👉 Tutorial	Salesforce Testing Tutorial: What, Process, Tools, Best Practices
👉 Tutorial	Design Verification & Validation Process
👉 Tutorial	Non Destructive Testing (NDT)

Tools

👉 Tutorial	10 Best Cross Browser Compatibility Testing Tools
👉 Tutorial	20 Best Bug/Defect Tracking Tools
👉 Tutorial	20 Best Web Application Testing Tools
👉 Tutorial	20 BEST Automation Testing Tools
👉 Tutorial	15 BEST Test Data Generation Tools
👉 Tutorial	13 Best Crowd Testing (Crowdsource) Companies
👉 Tutorial	10 BEST Exploratory Testing Tools
👉 Tutorial	15+ BEST Open Source Testing Tools
👉 Tutorial	20 BEST Software Testing Services
👉 Tutorial	20+ TOP Performance Testing Service Companies

Check!

👉 Tutorial	Top 150 Software Testing Interview Questions & Answers
👉 Tutorial	Top 15 Automation Testing Interview Questions & Answers
👉 Tutorial	Top 25 Database Testing Interview Questions & Answers
👉 Tutorial	Top 40 QA (Quality Assurance) Interview Questions & Answers
👉 Tutorial	QA Software Tester Resume Example: How to Write Job Seeking Resume
👉 Tutorial	Software Testing Tutorial for Beginners PDF
👉 Tutorial	6 Testing eBook Bundle
👉 Tutorial	Testing Quiz

Certification

👉 Tutorial	ISTQB Certification: Complete Exam Study Material with Mock Test
👉 Tutorial	CSTE Certification Guide with Study Material
👉 Tutorial	Certified Software Quality Analyst(CSQA) Certification Guide
👉 Tutorial	ISTQB CTAL (Advanced Level) Exam with Study Material

FAQ

✅ Why learn software testing?

💥 What are the Benefits of Software Testing?

❓ Who can learn Software Testing?

✅ Why choose software testing as a career?

🔒 How do I get real-time exposure to Testing?

What is Software Testing? Definition, Basics & Types in Software Engineering

This guide will take you through the In’s and outs of software testing. If you plan to make a career in software testing, this is a MUST READ!

What is Software Testing?

Software Testing is a process of verifying a computer system/program to decide whether it meets the specified requirements and produces the desired results. As a result, you identify bugs in software product/project.

Software Testing is indispensable to provide a quality product without any bug or issue.

In this tutorial, you will learn-

• What is Software Testing?
• Skills required to become a Software Tester
• Non-Technical Skills
• Technical Skills
• Academic Background
• Remuneration
• What Does a Software Tester do?
• Software Tester Career Path
• Alternate Career Tracks as a Software Tester
• Common Myths
• How to Become Software Tester
• Certification Exams:

Skills required to become a Software Tester

We will discuss the Technical and Non-Technical required to become a Software Tester

Non-Technical Skills

Following skills are essential to become a good Software quality tester. Compare your skill set against the following checklist to determine whether Software Testing is a reality for you-

• Analytical skills: A good software tester should have sharp analytical skills. Analytical skills will help break up a complex software system into smaller units to gain a better understanding and create test cases. Not sure that you have good analytical skills – Refer this link – if you can solve at least ONE problem you have excellent analytical skills.
• Communication skill: A good software tester must have good verbal and written communication skill. Testing artifacts (like test cases/plans, test strategies, bug reports, etc.) created by the software tester should be easy to read and comprehend. Dealing with developers (in the event of bugs or any other issue) will require a shade of discreetness and diplomacy.
• Time Management & Organization Skills: Testing at times could be a demanding job especially during the release of code. A software tester must efficiently manage workload, have high productivity, exhibit optimal time management, and organization skills
• GREAT Attitude: To be a good software tester you must have a GREAT attitude. An attitude to ‘test to break’, detail orientation, willingness to learn and suggest process improvements. In the software industry, technologies evolve with an overwhelming speed, and a good software tester should upgrade his/her technical Software testing skills with the changing technologies. Your attitude must reflect a certain degree of independence where you take ownership of the task allocated and complete it without much direct supervision.
• Passion: To Excel in any profession or job, one must have a significant degree of the passion for it. A software tester must have a passion for his / her field. BUT how do you determine whether you have a passion for software testing if you have never tested before? Simple TRY it out and if software testing does not excite you switch to something else that holds your interest.

   

   

   

   

   

  

   

   

  Non-Technical skills of a Software Tester

   

   

   

   

   

Technical Skills

This list is long, so please bear with us

• • Basic knowledge of Database/ SQL: Software Systems have a large amount of data in the background. This data is stored in different types of databases like Oracle, MySQL, etc. in the backend. So, there will be situations when this data needs to be validated. In that case, simple/complex SQL queries can be used to check whether proper data is stored in the backend databases.
  • Basic knowledge of Linux commands: Most of the software applications like Web-Services, Databases, Application Servers are deployed on Linux machines.So it is crucial for testers to have knowledge about Linux commands.
  • Knowledge and hands-on experience of a Test Management Tool:Test Management is an important aspect of Software testing. Without proper test management techniques, software testing process will fail. Test management is nothing but managing your testing related artifacts.

    For example – A tool like Testlink can be used for tracking all the test cases written by your team.

    There are other tools available that can be utilized for Test Management. So, it is important to have knowledge and working experience of such tools because they are used in most of the companies.

  • Knowledge and hands-on experience of any Defect Tracking tool- Defect Tracking and Defect life cycle are key aspects of software testing. It is extremely critical to managing defects properly and track them in a systematic manner. Defect tracking becomes necessary because the entire team should know about the defect including managers, developers, and testers. Several tools are used to log defects including QC, Bugzilla, Jira, etc.
  • Knowledge and hands-on experience of Automation tool: If you see yourself as an “Automation tester” after a couple of years working on manual testing, then you must master a tool and get in-depth, hands-on knowledge of automation tools.

    Note – Only knowledge of any Automation tool is not sufficient to crack the interview, you must have good hands-on experience, so practice the tool of your choice to achieve mastery.

    Knowledge of any scripting language like VBScript, JavaScript, C# is always helpful as a tester if you are looking for a job into automation. Few companies also use Shell/Perl scripting, and there is a lot of demand for testers having knowledge of the same. Again, it will depend on the company and which tools are used by that company.

There is also a lot of scope for performance testing tools because applications need to be tested for their performance which is a part of non-functional testing.

That’s it to technical knowledge. Please note you do not need ALL the technical skills listed above. The technical skill sets required vary with the Job Role and company processes.

Academic Background

Academic background of a software tester should be in Computer Science.

A BTech/ B.E., MCA, BCA (Bachelor of Computer Applications), BSc- Computers, will land you a job quickly.

If you do not hold any of these degrees, then you must complete a software testing certification like ISTQB and CSTE which help you learn Software Development/ Test Life Cycle and other testing methodologies.

Remuneration

Compensation of a software tester varies from company to company. Average salary range of a software tester in the US is $45,993 – $74,935. Average Software testing career package in India is Rs 247,315 – Rs 449,111.

Also, a software tester is also given health insurance, bonuses, gratuity and other perks.

What Does a Software Tester do?

On any typical work day, you will be busy understanding requirement documents, creating test cases, executing test cases, reporting and re-testing bugs, attending review meetings and other team building activities.

Software Tester Career Path

Your Software Testing career growth as a software tester (QA Analyst) in typical CMMI level 5 company will look like following but will vary from company to company

1. QA Analyst (Fresher)
2. Sr. QA Analyst (2-3 years’ experience)
3. QA Team Coordinator (5-6 years’ experience)
4. Test Manager (8-11 years’ experience)
5. Senior Test Manager (14+ experience)

Alternate Career Tracks as a Software Tester

Once you have got your hand dirty in manual testing, you can pursue following specializations

• Automation Testing: As an Automation Test Engineer, you will be responsible for automating manual test case execution which otherwise could be time-consuming. Tools used IBM Rational Robot, Silk performer, and QTP
• Performance Testing: As a performance test engineer, you will be responsible for checking application responsiveness (time is taken to load, maximum load application can handle), etc. Tools used WEBLoad, Loadrunner.
• Business Analyst: A major advantages Testers have over Developers is that they have an end to end business knowledge. An obvious Testing career progression for testers is to become a Business Analyst. As a Business Analyst, you will be responsible for analyzing and assessing your company’s business model and workflows. As a BA, you will integrate these models and workflows with technology.

Common Myths

Software Testing as a Career pays Less Developers are more respected as compared to Testers

Contrary to popular belief, Software Testers (better known as QA professionals) are paid and treated at par with Software Developers in all “aspiring” companies. A career in Software Testing should never be considered as “second rated.”

Software Testing is Boring

Software Testing could actually “test” your nerves since you need to make sense of Business Requirements and draft test cases based on your understanding. Software testing is not boring. What is boring is doing the same set of tasks repeatedly. The key is to try new things. For that matter, have you ever spoken to a software developer with more than 3 years’ experience? He will tell you how boring his job has become off-lately.

How to Become Software Tester

For a complete newbie, here is our suggested approach to learning Software Testing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Process to become a Software Tester

 

 

 

 

 

You start with learning Basic principles of Software Testing. Once done you apply for freelancing jobs. This will help you gain practical knowledge and will fortify the testing concepts you have learned.

Next, you proceed to Selenium – Automation tool, then JMeter – Performance Testing tool and finally TestLink – Test Management Tool. All the while you are learning, we suggest you apply for freelancing jobs (apart from other benefits you will make some moolah too!).

Once you are through with all the tools, you may consider taking a certification. We recommend ISTQB. However, this is optional.

Certification Exams:

ISTQB Foundation level is the basic certification in Testing field.

It is not mandatory, but it will help increase your chances of getting the job. Most of the companies have this criterion.

A software tester with ISTQB cleared will be given more priority as compared to others.

After this, when you apply for permanent jobs in big corporations you will have many Software tester skills to offer as well some practical freelancing experience which may be of value and will increase your chances of being selected.

You can also pursue certification in a Testing tool of your choice.

Learning Guides: –

• Software Testing Tutorials – link
• Selenium – link As an alternative you can also learn QTP
• Jmeter – link As an alternative you can also learn Loadrunner
• Testlink – link As an alternative you can also learn Quality Center
• Freelancing Jobs – UpWork or Freelancer
• Permanent Jobs – Any major job portal like monster.com or naukri.com

Hope to see you at a QA conference some Day!

Here is a tool to help you make a career choice

 

This tutorial introduces the seven basic Software Testing Principles that every Software tester and QA professional should know.

 

Let’s learn the testing principles with the following video example-

 

Click here if the video is not accessible

Background

It is important that you achieve optimum test results while conducting software testing without deviating from the goal. But how you determine that you are following the right strategy for testing? For that, you need to stick to some basic testing principles. Here are the common seven testing principles that are widely practiced in the software industry.

To understand this, consider a scenario where you are moving a file from folder A to Folder B.

Think of all the possible ways you can test this.

Apart from the usual scenarios, you can also test the following conditions

• Trying to move the file when it is Open
• You do not have the security rights to paste the file in Folder B
• Folder B is on a shared drive and storage capacity is full.
• Folder B already has a file with the same name, in fact, the list is endless
• Or suppose you have 15 input fields to test, each having 5 possible values, the number of combinations to be tested would be 5^15

If you were to test the entire possible combinations project EXECUTION TIME & COSTS would rise exponentially. We need certain principles and strategies to optimize the testing effort

 

Here are the 7 Principles:

1) Exhaustive testing is not possible

Yes! Exhaustive testing is not possible. Instead, we need the optimal amount of testing based on the risk assessment of the application.

And the million dollar question is, how do you determine this risk?

To answer this let’s do an exercise

In your opinion, Which operation is most likely to cause your Operating system to fail?

I am sure most of you would have guessed, Opening 10 different application all at the same time.

So if you were testing this Operating system, you would realize that defects are likely to be found in multi-tasking activity and need to be tested thoroughly which brings us to our next principle Defect Clustering

2) Defect Clustering

Defect Clustering which states that a small number of modules contain most of the defects detected. This is the application of the Pareto Principle to software testing: approximately 80% of the problems are found in 20% of the modules.

By experience, you can identify such risky modules. But this approach has its own problems

If the same tests are repeated over and over again, eventually the same test cases will no longer find new bugs.

3) Pesticide Paradox

Repetitive use of the same pesticide mix to eradicate insects during farming will over time lead to the insects developing resistance to the pesticide Thereby ineffective of pesticides on insects. The same applies to software testing. If the same set of repetitive tests are conducted, the method will be useless for discovering new defects.

To overcome this, the test cases need to be regularly reviewed & revised, adding new & different test cases to help find more defects.

Testers cannot simply depend on existing test techniques. He must look out continually to improve the existing methods to make testing more effective. But even after all this sweat & hard work in testing, you can never claim your product is bug-free. To drive home this point, let’s see this video of the public launch of Windows 98

You think a company like MICROSOFT would not have tested their OS thoroughly & would risk their reputation just to see their OS crashing during its public launch!

 

4) Testing shows a presence of defects

Hence, testing principle states that – Testing talks about the presence of defects and don’t talk about the absence of defects. i.e. Software Testing reduces the probability of undiscovered defects remaining in the software but even if no defects are found, it is not a proof of correctness.

But what if, you work extra hard, taking all precautions & make your software product 99% bug-free. And the software does not meet the needs & requirements of the clients.

This leads us to our next principle, which states that- Absence of Error

5) Absence of Error – fallacy

It is possible that software which is 99% bug-free is still unusable. This can be the case if the system is tested thoroughly for the wrong requirement. Software testing is not mere finding defects, but also to check that software addresses the business needs. The absence of Error is a Fallacy i.e. Finding and fixing defects does not help if the system build is unusable and does not fulfill the user’s needs & requirements.

To solve this problem, the next principle of testing states that Early Testing

6) Early Testing

Early Testing – Testing should start as early as possible in the Software Development Life Cycle. So that any defects in the requirements or design phase are captured in early stages. It is much cheaper to fix a Defect in the early stages of testing. But how early one should start testing? It is recommended that you start finding the bug the moment the requirements are defined. More on this principle in a later training tutorial.

 

7) Testing is context dependent

Testing is context dependent which basically means that the way you test an e-commerce site will be different from the way you test a commercial off the shelf application. All the developed software’s are not identical. You might use a different approach, methodologies, techniques, and types of testing depending upon the application type. For instance testing, any POS system at a retail store will be different than testing an ATM machine.

Myth: “Principles are just for reference. I will not use them in practice .”

This is so very untrue. Test Principles will help you create an effective Test Strategy and draft error catching test cases.

But learning testing principles is just like learning to drive for the first time.

Initially, while you learn to drive, you pay attention to each and everything like gear shifts, speed, clutch handling, etc. But with experience, you just focus on driving the rest comes naturally. Such that you even hold conversations with other passengers in the car.

Same is true for testing principles. Experienced testers have internalized these principles to a level that they apply them even without thinking. Hence the myth that the principles are not used in practice is simply not true.

Key Software Engineering Terms:

SDLC: SDLC is Software Development Life Cycle. It is the sequence of activities carried out by Developers to design and develop high-quality software.

STLC: STLC is Software Testing Life Cycle. It consists of a series of activities carried out by Testers methodologically to test your software product.

Waterfall Model: Waterfall model is a sequential model divided into different phases of software development activity. Each stage is designed for performing the specific activity. Testing phase in waterfall model starts only after implementation of the system is done.

 

Click here if the video is not accessible

 

EXAMPLE To Understand the V Model

Suppose, you are assigned a task, to develop a custom software for a client. Now, irrespective of your technical background, try and make an educated guess about the sequence of steps you will follow, to achieve the task.

The correct sequence would be.

 

All these levels constitute the waterfall method of the software development lifecycle.

 

Problem with the Waterfall Model

As you may observe, that testing in the model starts only after implementation is done.

But if you are working in the large project, where the systems are complex, it’s easy to miss out the key details in the requirements phase itself. In such cases, an entirely wrong product will be delivered to the client and you might have to start afresh with the project OR if you manage to note the requirements correctly but make serious mistakes in design and architecture of your software you will have to redesign the entire software to correct the error.

Assessments of thousands of projects have shown that defects introduced during requirements & design make up close to half of the total number of defects.

 

Also, the costs of fixing a defect increase across the development lifecycle. The earlier in life cycle a defect is detected, the cheaper it is to fix it. As they say, “A stitch in time saves nine.”

 

Solution: The V Model

To address this concern, the V model of testing was developed where for every phase, in the Development life cycle there is a corresponding Testing phase

• The left side of the model is Software Development Life Cycle – SDLC
• The right side of the model is Software Test Life Cycle – STLC
• The entire figure looks like a V, hence the name V – model

Apart from the V model, there are iterative development models, where development is carried in phases, with each phase adding a functionality to the software. Each phase comprises its independent set of development and testing activities.

Good examples of Development lifecycles following iterative method are Rapid Application Development, Agile Development

Conclusion

There are numerous development life cycle models. Development model selected for a project depends on the aims and goals of that project.

• Testing is not a stand-alone activity, and it has to adapt the development model chosen for the project.
• In any model, testing should be performed at all levels i.e. right from requirements until maintenance.

In this tutorial, you will learn-

• STLC Phases
• Requirement Analysis
• Test Planning
• Test Case Development
• Test Environment Setup
• Test Execution
• Test Cycle Closure
• STLC Phases along with Entry and Exit Criteria

What is Entry and Exit Criteria in STLC?

• Entry Criteria: Entry Criteria gives the prerequisite items that must be completed before testing can begin.
• Exit Criteria: Exit Criteria defines the items that must be completed before testing can be concluded

You have Entry and Exit Criteria for all levels in the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC)

In an Ideal world, you will not enter the next stage until the exit criteria for the previous stage is met. But practically this is not always possible. So for this tutorial, we will focus on activities and deliverables for the different stages in STLC life cycle. Let’s look into them in detail.

 

STLC Phases along with Entry and Exit Criteria

STLC Stage	Entry Criteria	Activity	Exit Criteria	Deliverables
Requirement Analysis	Requirements Document available (both functional and non functional) Acceptance criteria defined. Application architectural document available.	Analyse business functionality to know the business modules and module specific functionalities. Identify all transactions in the modules. Identify all the user profiles. Gather user interface/ authentication, geographic spread requirements. Identify types of tests to be performed. Gather details about testing priorities and focus. Prepare Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM). Identify test environment details where testing is supposed to be carried out. Automation feasibility analysis (if required).	Signed off RTM Test automation feasibility report signed off by the client	RTM Automation feasibility report (if applicable)
Test Planning	Requirements Documents Requirement Traceability matrix. Test automation feasibility document.	Analyze various testing approaches available Finalize on the best-suited approach Preparation of test plan/strategy document for various types of testing Test tool selection Test effort estimation Resource planning and determining roles and responsibilities.	Approved test plan/strategy document. Effort estimation document signed off.	Test plan/strategy document. Effort estimation document.
Test case development	Requirements Documents RTM and test plan Automation analysis report	Create test cases, test design, automation scripts (where applicable) Review and baseline test cases and scripts Create test data	Reviewed and signed test Cases/scripts Reviewed and signed test data	Test cases/scripts Test data
Test Environment setup	System Design and architecture documents are available Environment set-up plan is available	Understand the required architecture, environment set-up Prepare hardware and software development requirement list Finalize connectivity requirements Prepare environment setup checklist Setup test Environment and test data Perform smoke test on the build Accept/reject the build depending on smoke test result	Environment setup is working as per the plan and checklist Test data setup is complete Smoke test is successful	Environment ready with test data set up Smoke Test Results.
Test Execution	Baselined RTM, Test Plan , Test case/scripts are available Test environment is ready Test data set up is done Unit/Integration test report for the build to be tested is available	Execute tests as per plan Document test results, and log defects for failed cases Update test plans/test cases, if necessary Map defects to test cases in RTM Retest the defect fixes Regression Testing of application Track the defects to closure	All tests planned are executed Defects logged and tracked to closure	Completed RTM with execution status Test cases updated with results Defect reports
Test Cycle closure	Testing has been completed Test results are available Defect logs are available	Evaluate cycle completion criteria based on – Time, Test coverage, Cost, Software Quality, Critical Business Objectives Prepare test metrics based on the above parameters. Document the learning out of the project Prepare Test closure report Qualitative and quantitative reporting of quality of the work product to the customer. Test result analysis to find out the defect distribution by type and severity

Any new application must be manually tested before its testing can be automated. Manual Software Testing requires more effort but is necessary to check automation feasibility. Manual Testing concepts does not require knowledge of any testing tool. One of the Software Testing Fundamental is “100% Automation is not possible“. This makes Manual Testing imperative.

In this Manual Testing tutorial for beginners, we cover all manual testing concepts and topics in detail.

 

Click here if the video is not accessible

Goal of Manual Testing

The key concept of manual testing is to ensure that the application is error free and it is working in conformance to the specified functional requirements.

Test Suites or cases, are designed during the testing phase and should have 100% test coverage.

 

It also makes sure that reported defects are fixed by developers and re-testing has been performed by testers on the fixed defects.

Basically, this testing checks the quality of the system and delivers bug-free product to the customer.

Types of Manual Testing:

 

 

Manual Testing Concepts

 

 

Below given diagram depicts Manual Testing Types. In fact, any type of software testing type can be executed both manually as well using an automation tool.

• Black Box Testing
• White Box Testing
• Unit Testing
• System Testing
• Integration Testing
• Acceptance Testing

How to perform Manual Testing

1. Read and understand the software project documentation/guides. Also, study the Application Under Test (AUT) if available.
2. Draft Test cases that cover all the requirements mentioned in the documentation.
3. Review and baseline the test cases with Team Lead, Client (as applicable)
4. Execute the test cases on the AUT
5. Report bugs.
6. Once bugs are fixed, again execute the failing test cases to verify they pass.

Myths of Manual Testing

Following are few common myths and facts related to testing:

Myth: Anyone can do manual testing

Fact: Testing requires many skill sets

Myth: Testing ensures 100% Defect free product

Fact: Testing attempts to find as many defects as possible. Identifying all possible defects is impossible.

Myth: Automated testing is more powerful than manual testing

Fact: 100% test automation cannot be done. Manual Software Testing is also essential.

Myth: Testing is easy

Fact: Testing can be extremely challenging. Testing an application for possible use cases with minimum test cases requires high analytical skills. 

 

Manual Testing vs Automation Testing

Manual Testing	Automated Testing
Manual testing requires human intervention for test execution.	Automation Testing is use of tools to execute test cases
Manual testing will require skilled labour, long time & will imply high costs.	Automation Testing saves time, cost and manpower. Once recorded, it’s easier to run an automated test suite
Any type of application can be tested manually, certain testing types like ad-hoc and monkey testing are more suited for manual execution.	Automated testing is recommended only for stable systems and is mostly used for Regression Testing
Manual testing can become repetitive and boring.	The boring part of executing same test cases time and again is handled by automation software in Automation Testing.

Tools to Automate Manual Testing

• Selenium
• QTP
• Jmeter
• Loadrunner
• TestLink
• Quality Center(ALM)

Conclusion

Manual testing is an activity where the tester needs to be very patient, creative & open minded.

Manual testing is a vital part of user-friendly software development because humans are involved in testing software applications and end-users are also humans. They need to think and act with an End User perspective.

The automation testing software can also enter test data into the System Under Test, compare expected and actual results and generate detailed test reports. Software Test Automation demands considerable investments of money and resources.

Successive development cycles will require execution of same test suite repeatedly. Using a test automation tool, it’s possible to record this test suite and re-play it as required. Once the test suite is automated, no human intervention is required. This improved ROI of Test Automation. The goal of Automation is to reduce the number of test cases to be run manually and not to eliminate Manual Testing altogether.

 

Click here if the video is not accessible

In this automated software testing tutorial, you will learn Test Automation basics like-

• What is Automation Testing?
• Why Automated Testing?
• Which Test Cases to Automate?
• Automated Testing Process
• Test tool selection
• Define the scope of Automation
• Planning, Design, and Development
• Test Execution
• Framework for Automation
• Automation Tool Best Practices
• Benefits of Automation Testing
• Types of Automated Testing
• How to Choose an Automation Tool?
• Automation Testing Tools

Which Test Cases to Automate?

Test cases to be automated can be selected using the following criterion to increase the automation ROI

• High Risk – Business Critical test cases
• Test cases that are repeatedly executed
• Test Cases that are very tedious or difficult to perform manually
• Test Cases which are time-consuming

The following category of test cases are not suitable for automation:

• Test Cases that are newly designed and not executed manually at least once
• Test Cases for which the requirements are frequently changing
• Test cases which are executed on an ad-hoc basis.

 

 

Test Automation Process

 

 

Test tool selection

Test Tool selection largely depends on the technology the Application Under Test is built on. For instance, QTP does not support Informatica. So QTP cannot be used for testing Informatica applications. It’s a good idea to conduct a Proof of Concept of Tool on AUT.

Define the scope of Automation

The scope of automation is the area of your Application Under Test which will be automated. Following points help determine scope:

• The features that are important for the business
• Scenarios which have a large amount of data
• Common functionalities across applications
• Technical feasibility
• The extent to which business components are reused
• The complexity of test cases
• Ability to use the same test cases for cross-browser testing

Planning, Design, and Development

During this phase, you create an Automation strategy & plan, which contains the following details-

• Automation tools selected
• Framework design and its features
• In-Scope and Out-of-scope items of automation
• Automation testbed preparation
• Schedule and Timeline of scripting and execution
• Deliverables of Automation Testing

Test Execution

Automation Scripts are executed during this phase. The scripts need input test data before there are set to run. Once executed they provide detailed test reports.

Execution can be performed using the automation tool directly or through the Test Management tool which will invoke the automation tool.

Example: Quality center is the Test Management tool which in turn it will invoke QTP for execution of automation scripts. Scripts can be executed in a single machine or a group of machines. The execution can be done during the night, to save time.

Framework for Automation

A framework is set of automation guidelines which help in

• Maintaining consistency of Testing
• Improves test structuring
• Minimum usage of code
• Less Maintenance of code
• Improve re-usability
• Non Technical testers can be involved in code
• The training period of using the tool can be reduced
• Involves Data wherever appropriate

There are four types of frameworks used in automation software testing:

1. Data Driven Automation Framework
2. Keyword Driven Automation Framework
3. Modular Automation Framework
4. Hybrid Automation Framework

Automation Tool Best Practices

To get maximum ROI of automation, observe the following

• The scope of Automation needs to be determined in detail before the start of the project. This sets expectations from Automation right.
• Select the right automation tool: A tool must not be selected based on its popularity, but it’s fit to the automation requirements.
• Choose an appropriate framework
• Scripting Standards- Standards have to be followed while writing the scripts for Automation. Some of them are-
  • Create uniform scripts, comments, and indentation of the code
  • Adequate Exception handling – How error is handled on system failure or unexpected behavior of the application.
  • User-defined messages should be coded or standardized for Error Logging for testers to understand.
• Measure metrics- Success of automation cannot be determined by comparing the manual effort with the automation effort but by also capturing the following metrics.
  • Percent of defects found
  • The time required for automation testing for each and every release cycle
  • Minimal Time is taken for release
  • Customer Satisfaction Index
  • Productivity improvement

The above guidelines if observed can greatly help in making your automation successful.

How to Choose an Automation Tool?

Selecting the right tool can be a tricky task. Following criterion will help you select the best tool for your requirement-

• Environment Support
• Ease of use
• Testing of Database
• Object identification
• Image Testing
• Error Recovery Testing
• Object Mapping
• Scripting Language Used
• Support for various types of test – including functional, test management, mobile, etc…
• Support for multiple testing frameworks
• Easy to debug the automation software scripts
• Ability to recognize objects in any environment
• Extensive test reports and results
• Minimize training cost of selected tools

Tool selection is one of biggest challenges to be tackled before going for automation. First, Identify the requirements, explore various tools and its capabilities, set the expectation from the tool and go for a Proof Of Concept.

Automation Testing Tools

There are tons of Functional and Regression Testing Tools available in the market. Here are best test automation tools certified by our experts

1) Ranorex Studio

Over 14,000 users worldwide accelerate testing with Ranorex Studio, an all-in-one tool for test automation. Ranorex has easy click-and-go codeless tools for beginners, plus a full IDE and open APIs for automation experts.

Features:

• Functional UI and end-to-end testing on desktop, web, and mobile
• Cross-browser testing
• SAP, ERP, Delphi and legacy applications.
• iOS and Android
• Run tests locally or remotely, in parallel, on physical or virtual machines
• Video playback of test execution
• Built-in reporting
• Ranorex integrates with leading solutions like Jira, Git, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, Bamboo, Bugzilla, SpecFlow, NeoLoad, TestRail and more for a complete testing toolchain

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2) Kobiton

Kobiton’s mobile device testing platform offers script-based and scriptless test automation capabilities. Users can create manual tests that can be re-run automatically across a variety of real devices. Kobiton fully supports test automation frameworks such as Appium, Espresso and XCTest, while offering its own scriptless test automation through their NOVA AI.

Features:

• Kobiton’s device lab management will let you connect with devices in the cloud, your local on-premises devices as well as on-desk devices.
• Users can automatically create test scripts by converting manual test sessions into scripts that can be executed on multiple devices.
• Easily integrate your defect management system to automatically log tickets with debug sessions attached when a test crashes.
• Kobiton’s Appium Anywhere technology ensures less flaky test scripts by making sure your test runs the same on every device
• Kobiton scriptless test automation generates 100% open standard Appium code for flexible use.

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3) ZAPTEST

ZAPTEST is a Software Automation solution for any organization that uses software for operations or development, who is looking to automate it’s back-office operations or software testing processes and to develop a seamless and revolving automation framework.

Features:

• Functional and Performance Test Automation
• RPA (Robotic Process Automation)
• Seamless Test+RPA Software Automation
• Cross-Platform (Parallel) Execution
• DevOps (Mock-ups) Automation
• API Testing
• Auto-Documentation

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4) LambdaTest

LambdaTest is one of the most preferred tool to perform automated cross browser testing. They offer an ultra-fast, scalable and secure selenium grid, which users can utilize and run their tests on 2000+ browsers and OS. It supports all latest and legacy browsers.

Features

• Built on latest tech stack, test execution is fast and seamless
• Parallel test execution to shorten test cycles
• Easy integration with various CI/CD execution, project management, team communication tools.
• Users can perform geo location testing and testing of their locally hosted website.
• Users can utilize various APIs to extract all data they need
• Support for all major languages and framework

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5) Parasoft Continuous Quality Suite

Parasoft’s suite of automated software testing tools integrates quality into the software delivery process for early prevention, detection, and remediation of defects. Parasoft continuous quality suite covers static code analysis, unit testing and code coverage, API testing and service virtualization, and UI testing, enabling delivery at speed and compliance with industry and security standards.

 

 

Features:

• AI-powered test creation and execution
• Low-code application testing
• Extensive dashboards for quality reporting and analysis
• Support for 120+ message formats and protocols
• Integration with CI/CD pipeline and Agile DevOps workflows

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6) Avo Assure

Avo Assure is a no-code, intelligent, and heterogeneous automation testing solution. With Avo Assure, you can execute test cases without writing a single line of code and achieve more than 90% test automation coverage.

Features:

• 100% no-code
• Heterogeneous – Test across web, windows, non-UI (web services, batch jobs), mobile platforms (Android and IOS), ERPs, Mainframes, and associated emulators
• Accessibility testing
• Smart scheduling to execute test cases in a single VM independently or in parallel. Schedule execution during non-business hours
• Easy-to-understand and intuitive reporting
• 1500+ pre-built keywords and SAP accelerator pack
• Integration with Jira, Jenkins, ALM, QTest, Salesforce, Sauce Labs, TFS, etc

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7) Keysight Eggplant

Keysight Eggplant allows you to test smarter with AI-powered end-to-end test automation that delivers DevOps and optimizes your user experience.

Features:

• A model-based approach that incorporates linear, directed test automation with automated exploratory testing.
• Combine testing technologies for both image and object-based test execution.
• Test any technology on any platform from APIs, UI, database, cloud, IoT, and robotics.
• Provision test environments in the cloud to scale testing capabilities.
• Intelligent test creation and prioritization based on real user journeys.
• Intuitive low-code/no-code platform can be utilized by domain experts, business analysts, and full stack developers.
• Monitor, predict, and measure the impact of new releases.

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8) testRigor

testRigor helps you to directly express tests as executable specifications in plain English. Users of all technical abilities are able to build end-to-end tests of any complexity covering mobile, web, and API steps in one test. Test steps are expressed on the end-user level instead of relying on details of implementation like XPaths or CSS Selectors.

Features:

• Free forever public version
• Test cases are in English
• Unlimited users & Unlimited tests
• The easiest way to learn automation
• Recorder for web steps
• Integrations with CI/CD and Test case management
• Email & SMS testing
• Web + Mobile + API steps in one test

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9) Selenium

It is a software testing tool used for Regression Testing. It is an open source testing tool that provides playback and recording facility for Regression Testing. The Selenium IDE only supports Mozilla Firefox web browser.

• It provides the provision to export recorded script in other languages like Java, Ruby, RSpec, Python, C#, etc
• It can be used with frameworks like JUnit and TestNG
• It can execute multiple tests at a time
• Autocomplete for Selenium commands that are common
• Walkthrough tests
• Identifies the element using id, name, X-path, etc.
• Store tests as Ruby Script, HTML, and any other format
• It provides an option to assert the title for every page
• It supports selenium user-extensions.js file
• It allows to insert comments in the middle of the script for better understanding and debugging

Download Selenium

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10) QTP (MicroFocus UFT)

QTP is widely used for functional and regression testing, it addresses every major software application and environment. To simplify test creation and maintenance, it uses the concept of keyword driven testing. It allows the tester to build test cases directly from the application.

• It is easier to use for a non-technical person to adapt to and create working test cases
• It fix defects faster by thoroughly documenting and replicating defects for developer
• Collapse test creation and test documentation at a single site
• Parameterization is easy than WinRunner
• QTP supports .NET development environment
• It has better object identification mechanism
• It can enhance existing QTP scripts without “Application Under Test” is available, by using the active screen

Download QTP

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11) Rational Functional Tester

It is an Object-Oriented automated Functional Testing tool that is capable of performing automated functional, regression, data-driven testing and GUI testing. The main features of this tool are

• It supports a wide range of protocols and applications like Java, HTML, NET, Windows, SAP, Visual Basic, etc.
• It can record and replay the actions on demand
• It integrates well with source control management tools such as Rational Clear Case and Rational Team Concert integration
• It allows developers to create keyword associated script so that it can be re-used
• Eclipse Java Developer Toolkit editor facilitates the team to code test scripts in Java with Eclipse
• It supports custom controls through proxy SDK (Java/.Net)
• It supports version control to enable parallel development of test scripts and concurrent usage by geographically distributed team

Download Rational Functional Tester

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12) Watir

It is an open source testing software for regression testing. It enables you to write tests that are easy to read and maintain. Watir supports only internet explorer on windows while Watir webdriver supports Chrome, Firefox, IE, Opera, etc.

• It supports multiple browsers on different platforms
• Rather than using proprietary vendor script, it uses a fully-featured modern scripting language Ruby
• It supports your web app regardless of what it is developed in

Download Watir

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13) SilkTest

Silk Test is designed for doing functional and regression testing. For e-business application, silk test is the leading functional testing product. It is a product of Segue Software takeover by Borland in 2006. It is an object-oriented language just like C++. It uses the concept of an object, classes, and inheritance. Its main feature includes

• It consists of all the source script files
• It converts the script commands into GUI commands. On the same machine, commands can be run on a remote or host machine
• To identify the movement of the mouse along with keystrokes, Silktest can be executed. It can avail both playback and record method or descriptive programming methods to get the dialogs
• It identifies all controls and windows of the application under test as objects and determines all of the attributes and properties of each window

Download SilkTest

Summary

Test Automation is a software testing technique that performs using special automated testing software tools to execute a test case suite.

Test Automation is the best way to increase the effectiveness, test coverage, and execution speed in software testing.

Test Tool selection largely depends on the technology the Application Under Test is built on.

Test Automation Maintenance Approach is an automation testing phase carried out to test whether the new functionalities added to the software are working fine or not.

The right selection of automation tool, testing process, and team, are important players for automation to be successful. Manual and automation methods go hand-in-hand for successful testing.

What is Manual Testing?

Manual testing is testing of the software where tests are executed manually by a QA Analyst. It is performed to discover bugs in software under development.

In Manual testing, the tester checks all the essential features of the given application or software. In this process, the software testers execute the test cases and generate the test reports without the help of any automation software testing tools.

It is a classical method of all testing types and helps find bugs in software systems. It is generally conducted by an experienced tester to accomplish the software testing process.

What is Automation Testing?

In Automated Software Testing, testers write code/test scripts to automate test execution. Testers use appropriate automation tools to develop the test scripts and validate the software. The goal is to complete test execution in a less amount of time.

Automated testing entirely relies on the pre-scripted test which runs automatically to compare actual result with the expected results. This helps the tester to determine whether or not an application performs as expected.

Automated testing allows you to execute repetitive task and regression test without the intervention of manual tester. Even though all processes are performed automatically, automation requires some manual effort to create initial testing scripts.

 

Difference Between Manual Testing and Automation Testing

Parameter	Automation Testing	Manual Testing
Definition	Automation Testing uses automation tools to execute test cases.	In manual testing, test cases are executed by a human tester and software.
Processing time	Automated testing is significantly faster than a manual approach.	Manual testing is time-consuming and takes up human resources.
Exploratory Testing	Automation does not allow random testing	Exploratory testing is possible in Manual Testing
Initial investment	The initial investment in the automated testing is higher. Though the ROI is better in the long run.	The initial investment in the Manual testing is comparatively lower. ROI is lower compared to Automation testing in the long run.
Reliability	Automated testing is a reliable method, as it is performed by tools and scripts. There is no testing Fatigue.	Manual testing is not as accurate because of the possibility of the human errors.
UI Change	For even a trivial change in the UI of the AUT, Automated Test Scripts need to be modified to work as expected	Small changes like change in id, class, etc. of a button wouldn’t thwart execution of a manual tester.
Investment	Investment is required for testing tools as well as automation engineers	Investment is needed for human resources.
Cost-effective	Not cost effective for low volume regression	Not cost effective for high volume regression.
Test Report Visibility	With automation testing, all stakeholders can login into the automation system and check test execution results	Manual Tests are usually recorded in an Excel or Word, and test results are not readily/ readily available.
Human observation	Automated testing does not involve human consideration. So it can never give assurance of user-friendliness and positive customer experience.	The manual testing method allows human observation, which may be useful to offer user-friendly system.
Performance Testing	Performance Tests like Load Testing, Stress Testing, Spike Testing, etc. have to be tested by an automation tool compulsorily.	Performance Testing is not feasible manually
Parallel Execution	This testing can be executed on different operating platforms in parallel and reduce test execution time.	Manual tests can be executed in parallel but would need to increase your human resource which is expensive
Batch testing	You can Batch multiple Test Scripts for nightly execution.	Manual tests cannot be batched.
Programming knowledge	Programming knowledge is a must in automation testing.	No need for programming in Manual Testing.
Set up	Automation test requires less complex test execution set up.	Manual testing needs have a more straightforward test execution setup
Engagement	Done by tools. Its accurate and never gets bored!	Repetitive Manual Test Execution can get boring and error-prone.
Ideal approach	Automation testing is useful when frequently executing the same set of test cases	Manual testing proves useful when the test case only needs to run once or twice.
Build Verification Testing	Automation testing is useful for Build Verification Testing (BVT).	Executing the Build Verification Testing (BVT) is very difficult and time-consuming in manual testing.
Deadlines	Automated Tests have zero risks of missing out a pre-decided test.	Manual Testing has a higher risk of missing out the pre-decided test deadline.
Framework	Automation testing uses frameworks like Data Drive, Keyword, Hybrid to accelerate the automation process.	Manual Testing does not use frameworks but may use guidelines, checklists, stringent processes to draft certain test cases.
Documentation	Automated Tests acts as a document provides training value especially for automated unit test cases. A new developer can look into a unit test cases and understand the code base quickly.	Manual Test cases provide no training value
Test Design	Automated Unit Tests enforce/drive Test Driven Development Design.	Manual Unit Tests do not drive design into the coding process
Devops	Automated Tests help in Build Verification Testing and are an integral part of DevOps Cycle	Manual Testing defeats the automated build principle of DevOps
When to Use?	Automated Testing is suited for Regression Testing, Performance Testing, Load Testing or highly repeatable functional test cases.	Manual Testing is suitable for Exploratory, Usability and Adhoc Testing. It should also be used where the AUT changes frequently.

Manual Testing Pros and Cons

Pros of Manual Testing:

• Get fast and accurate visual feedback
• It is less expensive as you don’t need to spend your budget for the automation tools and process
• Human judgment and intuition always benefit the manual element
• While testing a small change, an automation test would require coding which could be time-consuming. While you could test manually on the fly.

Cons of Manual Testing:

• Less reliable testing method because it’s conducted by a human. Therefore, it is always prone to mistakes & errors.
• The manual testing process can’t be recorded, so it is not possible to reuse the manual test.
• In this testing method, certain tasks are difficult to perform manually which may require an additional time of the software testing phase.

Automated Testing Pros and Cons

Pros of automated testing:

• Automated testing helps you to find more bugs compare to a human tester
• As most of the part of the testing process is automated, you can have a speedy and efficient process
• Automation process can be recorded. This allows you to reuse and execute the same kind of testing operations
• Automated testing is conducted using software tools, so it works without tiring and fatigue unlike humans in manual testing
• It can easily increase productivity because it provides fast & accurate testing result
• Automated testing support various applications
• Testing coverage can be increased because of automation testing tool never forget to check even the smallest unit

Cons of Automated Testing:

• Without human element, it’s difficult to get insight into visual aspects of your UI like colors, font, sizes, contrast or button sizes.
• The tools to run automation testing can be expensive, which may increase the cost of the testing project.
• Automation testing tool is not yet foolproof. Every automation tool has their limitations which reduces the scope of automation.
• Debugging the test script is another major issue in the automated testing. Test maintenance is costly.

In SDLC, STLC, V Model, Unit testing is first level of testing done before integration testing. Unit testing is a WhiteBox testing technique that is usually performed by the developer. Though, in a practical world due to time crunch or reluctance of developers to tests, QA engineers also do unit testing.

In this tutorial, you will learn-

• Why Unit Testing?
• How to do Unit Testing
• Unit Testing Techniques
• Unit Testing Tools
• Test Driven Development (TDD) & Unit Testing
• Unit Testing Myth
• Unit Testing Advantage
• Unit Testing Disadvantages
• Unit Testing Best Practices

Here, are the key reasons to perform unit testing in software engineering:

 

 

 

Unit Testing Levels

 

 

1. Unit tests help to fix bugs early in the development cycle and save costs.
2. It helps the developers to understand the testing code base and enables them to make changes quickly
3. Good unit tests serve as project documentation
4. Unit tests help with code re-use. Migrate both your code and your tests to your new project. Tweak the code until the tests run again.

 

Unit Testing is of two types

• Manual
• Automated

Unit testing is commonly automated but may still be performed manually. Software Engineering does not favor one over the other but automation is preferred. A manual approach to unit testing may employ a step-by-step instructional document.

Under the automated approach-

• A developer writes a section of code in the application just to test the function. They would later comment out and finally remove the test code when the application is deployed.
• A developer could also isolate the function to test it more rigorously. This is a more thorough unit testing practice that involves copy and paste of code to its own testing environment than its natural environment. Isolating the code helps in revealing unnecessary dependencies between the code being tested and other units or data spaces in the product. These dependencies can then be eliminated.
• A coder generally uses a UnitTest Framework to develop automated test cases. Using an automation framework, the developer codes criteria into the test to verify the correctness of the code. During execution of the test cases, the framework logs failing test cases. Many frameworks will also automatically flag and report, in summary, these failed test cases. Depending on the severity of a failure, the framework may halt subsequent testing.
• The workflow of Unit Testing is 1) Create Test Cases 2) Review/Rework 3) Baseline 4) Execute Test Cases.

Code coverage techniques used in Unit Testing are listed below:

• Statement Coverage
• Decision Coverage
• Branch Coverage
• Condition Coverage
• Finite State Machine Coverage

For more in refer https://www.guru99.com/code-coverage.html

Unit Test Example: Mock Objects

Unit testing relies on mock objects being created to test sections of code that are not yet part of a complete application. Mock objects fill in for the missing parts of the program.

For example, you might have a function that needs variables or objects that are not created yet. In unit testing, those will be accounted for in the form of mock objects created solely for the purpose of the unit testing done on that section of code.

Unit Testing Tools

There are several automated unit test software available to assist with unit testing. We will provide a few examples below:

1. Junit: Junit is a free to use testing tool used for Java programming language.  It provides assertions to identify test method. This tool test data first and then inserted in the piece of code.
2. NUnit:  NUnit is widely used unit-testing framework use for all .net languages.  It is an open source tool which allows writing scripts manually. It supports data-driven tests which can run in parallel.
3. JMockit:  JMockit is open source Unit testing tool.  It is a code coverage tool with line and path metrics. It allows mocking API with recording and verification syntax. This tool offers Line coverage, Path Coverage, and Data Coverage.
4. EMMA:  EMMA is an open-source toolkit for analyzing and reporting code written in Java language. Emma support coverage types like method, line, basic block. It is Java-based so it is without external library dependencies and can access the source code.
5. PHPUnit: PHPUnit is a unit testing tool for PHP programmer. It takes small portions of code which is called units and test each of them separately.  The tool also allows developers to use pre-define assertion methods to assert that a system behave in a certain manner. 

Those are just a few of the available unit testing tools. There are lots more, especially for C languages and Java, but you are sure to find a unit testing tool for your programming needs regardless of the language you use.

 

Test Driven Development (TDD) & Unit Testing

Unit testing in TDD involves an extensive use of testing frameworks. A unit test framework is used in order to create automated unit tests. Unit testing frameworks are not unique to TDD, but they are essential to it. Below we look at some of what TDD brings to the world of unit testing:

• Tests are written before the code
• Rely heavily on testing frameworks
• All classes in the applications are tested
• Quick and easy integration is made possible

Unit Testing Advantage

• Developers looking to learn what functionality is provided by a unit and how to use it can look at the unit tests to gain a basic understanding of the unit API.
• Unit testing allows the programmer to refactor code at a later date, and make sure the module still works correctly (i.e. Regression testing). The procedure is to write test cases for all functions and methods so that whenever a change causes a fault, it can be quickly identified and fixed.
• Due to the modular nature of the unit testing, we can test parts of the project without waiting for others to be completed.

Unit Testing Disadvantages

• Unit testing can’t be expected to catch every error in a program. It is not possible to evaluate all execution paths even in the most trivial programs
• Unit testing by its very nature focuses on a unit of code. Hence it can’t catch integration errors or broad system level errors.

It’s recommended unit testing be used in conjunction with other testing activities.

Unit Testing Best Practices

• Unit Test cases should be independent. In case of any enhancements or change in requirements, unit test cases should not be affected.
• Test only one code at a time.
• Follow clear and consistent naming conventions for your unit tests
• In case of a change in code in any module, ensure there is a corresponding unit Test Case for the module, and the module passes the tests before changing the implementation
• Bugs identified during unit testing must be fixed before proceeding to the next phase in SDLC
• Adopt a “test as your code” approach. The more code you write without testing, the more paths you have to check for errors.

Summary

• UNIT TESTING is defined as a type of software testing where individual units or components of a software are tested.
• As you can see, there can be a lot involved in unit testing. It can be complex or rather simple depending on the application being tested and the testing strategies, tools and philosophies used. Unit testing is always necessary on some level. That is a certainty.

Integration Testing focuses on checking data communication amongst these modules. Hence it is also termed as ‘I & T’ (Integration and Testing), ‘String Testing’ and sometimes ‘Thread Testing’.

• What is Integration Testing?
• Why do Integration Testing?
• Example of Integration Test Case
• Approaches, Strategies, Methodologies of Integration Testing
• Big Bang Approach:
• Incremental Approach
• What is Stub and Driver?
• Bottom-up Integration
• Top-down Integration:
• Hybrid/ Sandwich Integration
• How to do Integration Testing?
• Brief Description of Integration Test Plans:
• Entry and Exit Criteria of Integration Testing
• Best Practices/ Guidelines for Integration Testing

Why do Integration Testing?

 

Although each software module is unit tested, defects still exist for various reasons like

 

• A Module, in general, is designed by an individual software developer whose understanding and programming logic may differ from other programmers. Integration Testing becomes necessary to verify the software modules work in unity
• At the time of module development, there are wide chances of change in requirements by the clients. These new requirements may not be unit tested and hence system integration Testing becomes necessary.
• Interfaces of the software modules with the database could be erroneous
• External Hardware interfaces, if any, could be erroneous
• Inadequate exception handling could cause issues.

 

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Example of Integration Test Case

Integration Test Case differs from other test cases in the sense it focuses mainly on the interfaces & flow of data/information between the modules. Here priority is to be given for the integrating links rather than the unit functions which are already tested.

Sample Integration Test Cases for the following scenario: Application has 3 modules say ‘Login Page’, ‘Mailbox’ and ‘Delete emails’ and each of them is integrated logically.

Here do not concentrate much on the Login Page testing as it’s already been done in Unit Testing. But check how it’s linked to the Mail Box Page.

Similarly Mail Box: Check its integration to the Delete Mails Module.

Test Case ID	Test Case Objective	Test Case Description	Expected Result
1	Check the interface link between the Login and Mailbox module	Enter login credentials and click on the Login button	To be directed to the Mail Box
2	Check the interface link between the Mailbox and Delete Mails Module	From Mailbox select the email and click a delete button	Selected email should appear in the Deleted/Trash folder

Approaches, Strategies, Methodologies of Integration Testing

Software Engineering defines variety of strategies to execute Integration testing, viz.

•  Big Bang Approach :
•  Incremental Approach: which is further divided into the following
  •  Top Down Approach
  •  Bottom Up Approach
  •  Sandwich Approach – Combination of Top Down and Bottom Up

Below are the different strategies, the way they are executed and their limitations as well advantages.

 

Advantages:

• Convenient for small systems.

Disadvantages:

• Fault Localization is difficult.
• Given the sheer number of interfaces that need to be tested in this approach, some interfaces link to be tested could be missed easily.
• Since the Integration testing can commence only after “all” the modules are designed, the testing team will have less time for execution in the testing phase.
• Since all modules are tested at once, high-risk critical modules are not isolated and tested on priority. Peripheral modules which deal with user interfaces are also not isolated and tested on priority.

Incremental Approach, in turn, is carried out by two different Methods:

• Bottom Up
• Top Down

Stub: Is called by the Module under Test.

Driver: Calls the Module to be tested.

Diagrammatic Representation:

Advantages:

• Fault localization is easier.
• No time  is wasted waiting for all modules to be developed unlike Big-bang approach

Disadvantages:

• Critical modules (at the top level of software architecture) which control the flow of application are tested last and may be prone to defects.
• An early prototype is not possible

Diagrammatic Representation:

Advantages:

• Fault Localization is easier.
• Possibility to obtain an early prototype.
• Critical Modules are tested on priority; major design flaws could be found and fixed first.

Disadvantages:

• Needs many Stubs.
• Modules at a lower level are tested inadequately.

How to do Integration Testing?

The Integration test procedure irrespective of the Software testing strategies (discussed above):

1. Prepare the Integration Tests Plan
2. Design the Test Scenarios, Cases, and Scripts.
3. Executing the test Cases followed by reporting the defects.
4. Tracking & re-testing the defects.
5. Steps 3 and 4 are repeated until the completion of Integration is successful.

Brief Description of Integration Test Plans:

It includes the following attributes:

• Methods/Approaches to testing (as discussed above).
• Scopes and Out of Scopes Items of Integration Testing.
• Roles and Responsibilities.
• Pre-requisites for Integration testing.
• Testing environment.
• Risk and Mitigation Plans.

Entry and Exit Criteria of Integration Testing

Entry and Exit Criteria to Integration testing phase in any software development model

Entry Criteria:

• Unit Tested Components/Modules
• All High prioritized bugs fixed and closed
• All Modules to be code completed and integrated successfully.
• Integration tests Plan, test case, scenarios to be signed off and documented.
• Required Test Environment to be set up for Integration testing

Exit Criteria:

• Successful Testing of Integrated Application.
• Executed Test Cases are documented
• All High prioritized bugs fixed and closed
• Technical documents to be submitted followed by release Notes.

Best Practices/ Guidelines for Integration Testing

• First, determine the Integration Test Strategy that could be adopted and later prepare the test cases and test data accordingly.
• Study the Architecture design of the Application and identify the Critical Modules. These need to be tested on priority.
• Obtain the interface designs from the Architectural team and create test cases to verify all of the interfaces in detail. Interface to database/external hardware/software application must be tested in detail.
• After the test cases, it’s the test data which plays the critical role.
• Always have the mock data prepared, prior to executing. Do not select test data while executing the test cases.

In this tutorial, we will learn

• System Testing is Blackbox
• What do you verify in System Testing?
• Software Testing Hierarchy
• Different Types of System Testing
• System Testing Tools
• What Types of System Testing Should Testers Use?

System Testing is Blackbox

Two Category of Software Testing

• Black Box Testing
• White Box Testing

System test falls under the black box testing category of software testing.

White box testing is the testing of the internal workings or code of a software application. In contrast, black box or System Testing is the opposite. System test involves the external workings of the software from the user’s perspective.

 

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What do you verify in System Testing?

System Testing involves testing the software code for following

 

 

• Testing the fully integrated applications including external peripherals in order to check how components interact with one another and with the system as a whole. This is also called End to End testing scenario.
• Verify thorough testing of every input in the application to check for desired outputs.
• Testing of the user’s experience with the application. 

 

That is a very basic description of what is involved in system testing. You need to build detailed test cases and test suites that test each aspect of the application as seen from the outside without looking at the actual source code. 

 

Software Testing Hierarchy

 

 

 

 

As with almost any software engineering process, software testing has a prescribed order in which things should be done. The following is a list of software testing categories arranged in chronological order. These are the steps taken to fully test new software in preparation for marketing it:

• Unit testing performed on each module or block of code during development. Unit Testing is normally done by the programmer who writes the code.
• Integration testing done before, during and after integration of a new module into the main software package. This involves testing of each individual code module. One piece of software can contain several modules which are often created by several different programmers. It is crucial to test each module’s effect on the entire program model.
• System testing done by a professional testing agent on the completed software product before it is introduced to the market.
• Acceptance testing – beta testing of the product done by the actual end users.

Different Types of System Testing

There are more than 50 types of System Testing. For an exhaustive list of software testing types click here. Below we have listed types of system testing a large software development company would typically use

1. Usability Testing– mainly focuses on the user’s ease to use the application, flexibility in handling controls and ability of the system to meet its objectives
2. Load Testing– is necessary to know that a software solution will perform under real-life loads.
3. Regression Testing– involves testing done to make sure none of the changes made over the course of the development process have caused new bugs. It also makes sure no old bugs appear from the addition of new software modules over time.
4. Recovery testing – is done to demonstrate a software solution is reliable, trustworthy and can successfully recoup from possible crashes.
5. Migration testing- is done to ensure that the software can be moved from older system infrastructures to current system infrastructures without any issues.
6. Functional Testing – Also known as functional completeness testing, Functional Testing involves trying to think of any possible missing functions. Testers might make a list of additional functionalities that a product could have to improve it during functional testing.
7. Hardware/Software Testing – IBM refers to Hardware/Software testing as “HW/SW Testing”. This is when the tester focuses his/her attention on the interactions between the hardware and software during system testing.

System Testing Tools

1) Eggplant

The average enterprise application has 50 external dependencies. Eggplant enables robust end-to-end testing for your entire tech stack.

Features:

• Technology-agnostic: Eggplant can test any software written in any language
• Automate processes that span multiple applications and platforms, from mobile to mainframe, from Citrix to Cloud.
• Test integrations with hardware components including robotics and IoT devices to ensure real-world performance.
• Eggplant seamlessly integrates into your CI/CD pipeline and compresses testing cycles to allow for quicker releases.

What Types of System Testing Should Testers Use?

There are over 50 different types of system testing. The specific types used by a tester depend on several variables. Those variables include:

• Who the tester works for – This is a major factor in determining the types of system testing a tester will use. Methods used by large companies are different than that used by medium and small companies.
• Time available for testing – Ultimately, all 50 testing types could be used. Time is often what limits us to using only the types that are most relevant for the software project.
• Resources available to the tester – Of course some testers will not have the necessary resources to conduct a testing type. For example, if you are a tester working for a large software development firm, you are likely to have expensive automated testing software not available to others.
• Software Tester’s Education- There is a certain learning curve for each type of software testing available. To use some of the software involved, a tester has to learn how to use it.
• Testing Budget – Money becomes a factor not just for smaller companies and individual software developers but large companies as well. 

 

Smoke and Sanity testing difference is the most misunderstood topic in Software Testing. There is an enormous amount of literature on the subject, but most of them are confusing. The following article makes an attempt to address the confusion.

 

The key differences between Smoke Testing and Sanity Testing can be learned with the help of the following diagram –

Smoke Testing vs Sanity Testing

To appreciate the above diagram lets first understand –

What is a Software Build?

If you are developing a simple computer program which consists of only one source code file, you merely need to compile and link this one file, to produce an executable file. This process is very simple.
Usually, this is not the case. A typical Software Project consists of hundreds or even thousands of source code files. Creating an executable program from these source files is a complicated and time-consuming task.
You need to use “build” software to create an executable program and the process is called ” Software Build”

 

In Smoke Testing, the test cases chose to cover the most important functionality or component of the system. The objective is not to perform exhaustive testing, but to verify that the critical functionalities of the system are working fine.
For Example, a typical smoke test would be – Verify that the application launches successfully, Check that the GUI is responsive … etc.

What is Sanity Testing?

Sanity testing is a kind of Software Testing performed after receiving a software build, with minor changes in code, or functionality, to ascertain that the bugs have been fixed and no further issues are introduced due to these changes. The goal is to determine that the proposed functionality works roughly as expected. If sanity test fails, the build is rejected to save the time and costs involved in a more rigorous testing.

The objective is “not” to verify thoroughly the new functionality but to determine that the developer has applied some rationality (sanity) while producing the software. For instance, if your scientific calculator gives the result of 2 + 2 =5! Then, there is no point testing the advanced functionalities like sin 30 + cos 50.

 

Smoke Testing Vs Sanity Testing – Key Differences

Following is the difference between Sanity and Smoke testing:

Smoke Testing	Sanity Testing
Smoke Testing is performed to ascertain that the critical functionalities of the program is working fine	Sanity Testing is done to check the new functionality/bugs have been fixed
The objective of this testing is to verify the “stability” of the system in order to proceed with more rigorous testing	The objective of the testing is to verify the “rationality” of the system in order to proceed with more rigorous testing
This testing is performed by the developers or testers	Sanity testing in software testing is usually performed by testers
Smoke testing is usually documented or scripted	Sanity testing is usually not documented and is unscripted
Smoke testing is a subset of Acceptance testing	Sanity testing is a subset of Regression Testing
Smoke testing exercises the entire system from end to end	Sanity testing exercises only the particular component of the entire system
Smoke testing is like General Health Check Up	Sanity Testing is like specialized health check up

Points to note.

• Both Sanity and Smoke testing are ways to avoid wasting time and effort by quickly determining whether an application is too flawed to merit any rigorous testing. 
• Smoke Testing is also called tester acceptance testing.
• Smoke testing performed on a particular build is also known as a build verification test.
• One of the best industry practice is to conduct a Daily build and smoke test in software projects.
• Both smoke and sanity tests can be executed manually or using an automation tool.  When automated tools are used, the tests are often initiated by the same process that generates the build itself.
• As per the needs of testing, you may have to execute both Sanity and Smoke Tests in the software build. In such cases, you will first execute Smoke tests and then go ahead with Sanity Testing. In industry, test cases for Sanity Testing are commonly combined with that for smoke tests, to speed up test execution. Hence, it’s a common that the terms are often confused and used interchangeably

 

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Read more about Smoke Testing in software engineering

This testing is done to make sure that new code changes should not have side effects on the existing functionalities. It ensures that the old code still works once the latest code changes are done.

In this tutorial, we will learn

• Need of Regression Testing
• How to do Regression Testing
• Selecting test cases for regression testing
• Regression Testing Tools
• Regression Testing and Configuration Management
• Difference between Re-Testing and Regression Testing
• Challenges in Regression Testing
• Practical Application of Regression Testing Example with a Video

Software maintenance is an activity which includes enhancements, error corrections, optimization and deletion of existing features. These modifications may cause the system to work incorrectly. Therefore, Regression Testing becomes necessary. Regression Testing can be carried out using the following techniques:

 

Retest All

• This is one of the methods for Regression Testing in which all the tests in the existing test bucket or suite should be re-executed. This is very expensive as it requires huge time and resources.

• Prioritize the test cases depending on business impact, critical & frequently used functionalities. Selection of test cases based on priority will greatly reduce the regression test suite.

Selecting test cases for regression testing

It was found from industry data that a good number of the defects reported by customers were due to last minute bug fixes creating side effects and hence selecting the Test Case for regression testing is an art and not that easy.  Effective Regression Tests can be done by selecting the following test cases –

• Test cases which have frequent defects
• Functionalities which are more visible to the users
• Test cases which verify core features of the product
• Test cases of Functionalities which has undergone more and recent changes
• All Integration Test Cases
• All Complex Test Cases
• Boundary value test cases
• A sample of Successful test cases
• A sample of Failure test cases

Regression Testing Tools

If your software undergoes frequent changes, regression testing costs will escalate. In such cases, Manual execution of test cases increases test execution time as well as costs. Automation of regression test cases is the smart choice in such cases.  The extent of automation depends on the number of test cases that remain re-usable for successive regression cycles. 

Following are the most important tools used for both functional and regression testing in software engineering:

1) Avo Assure

Avo Assure is a technology agnostic, no-code test automation solution that helps you test end-to-end business processes with a few clicks of the buttons. This makes regression testing more straightforward and faster.

Features

• Autogenerate test cases with a 100% no-code approach
• Test across the web, desktop, mobile, ERP applications, Mainframes, associated emulators, and more with a single solution.
• Enable accessibility testing
• Execute test cases in a single VM independently or in parallel with Smart Scheduling
• Integrate with Jira, Jenkins, ALM, QTest, Salesforce, Sauce Labs, TFS, etc.
• Define test plans and design test cases through the Mindmaps feature

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2) Telerik Test Studio

Telerik Test Studio is an automated testing platform for web, desktop and responsive applications, supporting functional UI, load and RESTful API testing. Test Studio helps teams eliminate regressions and make sure their applications still work the way they did before any changes were introduced. It comes with standalone IDE and Visual Studio integration

Features:

• Visual test recorder for codeless end-to-end tests
• Cross-browser support
• Headed or three times faster headless test execution
• Element location based on element ID and image
• CI/CD Integration and Docker support for Continuous Testing
• Data-driven testing
• Remote test scheduling and execution
• Test results and reports

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3) testRigor

testRigor helps you to directly express tests as executable specifications in plain English. Users of all technical abilities are able to build end-to-end tests of any complexity covering mobile, web, and API steps in one test. Test steps are expressed on the end-user level instead of relying on details of implementation like XPaths or CSS Selectors.

Features:

• Free forever public version
• Test cases are in English
• Unlimited users & Unlimited tests
• The easiest way to learn automation
• Recorder for web steps
• Integrations with CI/CD and Test case management
• Email & SMS testing
• Web + Mobile + API steps in one test

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4) Eggplant

Eggplant’s AI-driven test automation streamlines regression testing through prioritization of test cases and minimization of test maintenance.

Features:

• AI-driven test execution enables Eggplant to test the most important areas of each release.
• Reuse testing models and scripts to test multiple versions with one set of assets.
• Reduce the burden of test maintenance through self-healing functional tests.
• Understand and focus in on problematic areas of your application that put your release at risk.
• Discover bugs that you would otherwise miss through automated exploratory testing.
• Reduce the time required to test key functionality of applications after updates.

Selenium: This is an open source tool used for automating web applications. Selenium can be used for browser-based regression testing.

Quick Test Professional (QTP): HP Quick Test Professional is automated software designed to automate functional and regression test cases. It uses VBScript language for automation. It is a Data-driven, Keyword based tool. 

Rational Functional Tester (RFT): IBM’s rational functional tester is a Java tool used to automate the test cases of software applications. This is primarily used for automating regression test cases and it also integrates with Rational Test Manager. 

Regression Testing and Configuration Management

Configuration Management during Regression Testing becomes imperative in Agile Environments where a code is being continuously modified. To ensure effective regression tests, observe the following :

• Code being regression tested should be under a configuration management tool
• No changes must be allowed to code, during the regression test phase.  Regression test code must be kept immune to developer changes.
• The database used for regression testing must be isolated. No database changes must be allowed

Difference between Re-Testing and Regression Testing:

Retesting means testing the functionality or bug again to ensure the code is fixed. If it is not fixed, Defect needs to be re-opened. If fixed, Defect is closed.

Regression testing means testing your software application when it undergoes a code change to ensure that the new code has not affected other parts of the software.

Also, Check out the complete list of differences over here.

Challenges in Regression Testing:

 Following are the major testing problems for doing regression testing:

• With successive regression runs, test suites become fairly large.  Due to time and budget constraints, the entire regression test suite cannot be executed
• Minimizing the test suite while achieving maximum Test coverage remains a challenge
• Determination of frequency of Regression Tests, i.e., after every modification or every build update or after a bunch of bug fixes, is a challenge.

Practical Application of Regression Testing Example with a Video

 

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Conclusion:

An effective regression strategy, save organizations both time and money. As per one of the case study in banking domain, regression saves up to 60% time in bug fixes(which would have been caught by regression tests) and 40%  in money