You cannot overstate the importance of speed to market in your business these days. With the pace at which digital technology is advancing, you have to do what it takes to stay ahead in the game. Never has the first mover advantage been so critical.
Automation testing is the go-to strategy for product stakeholders and QA managers to speed up the release cycles, reduce repetitive and tedious tasks and enhance product quality.
However, automation testing is not a one-size-fits all approach and not all test automation projects yield the desired ROI.
When you're managing a continuous product release environment, a common scenario is where a team of QA engineers is working in collaboration with a Dev team.
That's an overwhelming order to manage for many companies due to constrained budgets, resources or too many product initiatives in queue.
Here are some valuable tips from our team of experienced QA engineers who have successfully completed this process hundreds of times alongside some of the world’s leading software companies, including IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle.
You Don't Have to Test Everything, Every Time
It's not possible to test your entire enterprise product with each release.
Fortunately, you don't have to.
Prioritize the code areas where your Dev team made the most significant changes. You can analyze which parts of the code will be tweaked, well before the new release cycle. Use these insights to prioritize the testing efforts.
Once you've pinned down the focus areas, you can then introduce modern automation testing methodologies into your release plan. We recommend adopting these approaches to drive success both as a team and in the marketplace.
Simply put, if a feature worked in the last release and you're not touching it this time, then your team does not need to invest too much time and resources testing it again.
Prioritize Bug Fixes Based on Usage
Every release has two major tiers - adding new features and fixing existing bugs.
But which errors and bugs should you prioritize and focus your efforts?
We recommend fixing the ones based on your product usage. The last thing you’d want is your end-users reporting a product crash or bugs before you do. However, in that case, those bugs should be prioritized in the next release.
Once you are sure of what tests to automate, you can start prioritizing and dividing tests. Make a clear expectation of what you wish to achieve through test automation.
Choose the Right Test Data Management Tools
Investing in the right tools and resources displays your organization’s commitment to quality standards. Given the right tools, your team can complete comprehensive and effective testing faster. The right test data will enable you to speed up the QA automation process.
Using the right test data management tools, have an abundant list of potential benefits and also go beyond than just increasing your product release speed. You'll enjoy additional benefits such as cost reduction, risk and liability mitigation, and increased adherence to compliance and regulatory requirements not to mention delivering an exceptional user experience.
You can use Functionize, an AI-based web and mobile testing suite that generates scriptless automation regression tests. Speed is the key benefit while working with Functionize as you can write tests in plain English which get converted by the software.
As a result, you save yourself time creating and maintaining test cases.
Effective Communication is Key
Clear lines of communication are the driving force to sailing through your product releases. Empower your product managers, scrum masters, Dev team, and QA engineers to exchange ideas and workflows frequently via various modes of communication.
There are many effective modes of communication available, many with real-time collaboration advantages, from email to video conferencing.
The whole idea is to keep all of the team members on the same page, practically face-to-face. This ensures your key stakeholders are up-to-date and able to quickly realign project goals as and when needed.
We now live in a world, where 'face-to-face' no longer requires people to be in the same room. In fact, they don’t even need to be on the same continent. Here’s how you can keep the effective communication flowing:
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Conduct Frequent Status Meetings
This is a common Agile practice. Such meetings align your team members on project progress and enable them to work together on any bottlenecks that may delay the release. -
Introduce QA Early in Release Planning
Involve QA as early as the beginning of your release planning. The more clarity your QA team has into the release requirements, the earlier will they flag the issues that may cause a snag in delivery. -
Take Advantage of Time Differences
Let’s say you’re based in the U.S. and your QA team is located in India or somewhere else in another timezone. There is an approximate 12-hour difference. Your Dev team in the U.S can build during the day, then send it to the QA team in India for overnight testing. You will have just enough overlap for stand-up meetings and check-ins.
QASource has the experience and expertise your team needs in order to release better products, faster. We have 1,000+ years of collective experience working to integrate unmatched QA process that can help you achieve high quality on time, every time. Get in touch with a QASource expert today or call +1.925.271.5555 to get started.
