A manual tester prepares a test plan document which is used as a guideline document in testing process to complete the test coverage. If testing methods are implemented from the initial phase of the project, it surely reduces the cost and time to develop and create a bug-free software product. It can be started right from the Software Development i.e. Requirements Gathering phase and till the end of deployment of software.
Below are some of the techniques which are used in manual software testing:

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

Myths in software testing

Myth 1: Anyone can Test a Software Application

Reality: Most people think pointing a bug and getting the issue fixed is all about testing but thinking unique and flip side scenarios, crashing a software with the intent to explore hidden bugs is not possible for a developer who developed it or any other non QA person.

Myth 2: Completely Developed Products are Tested

Reality: Undoubtedly, testing methods depends on the source code but reviewing requirement specification, developing test scenarios and test cases is independent from the developed code. However, iterative or incremental approach as a development life cycle model may reduce the dependency of testing on the completely developed software.

Myth 3: A Tested Software is Bug-Free

Reality: Most of the people believes in a common myth: “A Tested Software is always Bug Free” however given hundreds of permutation combinations of scenarios may violate the testing scope and any un-documented scenario may occur issues in the application. So this depends on the testing scope and project requirement.

Myth 4: Testers are Responsible for Quality of Product

Reality: It is a very common misapprehension that only testing team should be responsible for product quality assurance. Quality actually comes from Development and QA only validates it. Basically, a tester’s responsibilities includes the recognition of bugs and share with stakeholders. Then it is business decision whether they wish to defer it or prioritize to resolve

Myth 5: Testing is Too Expensive

Reality: If testing is introduced in the early phase of a project, it reduces the cost of the project otherwise you have to pay more for maintenance or correction / updation. Early testing plan saves both time and cost in many situations. Reducing the cost of a project by excluding test plans may result in various bugs in the application and may cause the uselessness.

Conclusion

So performing process oriented testing with a pre-plan will increase the application quality and performance. Unlike the myths among the people regarding testing methodologies and usefulness, it certainly helps in improving the software quality and performance. Testing should be done under good guidance and pre-requisite plan hence it solves the software testing purpose.

Writer of this blog is a Senior Test Engineer at PulpQA.com.

So you have caught yourself in a situation where you find manual testing boring as well as your business demands automation???

Or you are working in an organization that is dedicated to testing and your colleagues have the guts to dive into automation testing!!!

Here is how you can induce every manual tester into automation.

Why do so?

Manual testing is as good as automation testing, just used differently and with different purposes. One surely cannot replace another but some projects do  differ from others and you sometime face situations in which a software literally demands automated testing.

What is Automation Testing?

Automation means using an automation tool to execute your created test cases. The automation tool can also feed your particular test data into your system. Under test, the automation tool compares the actual results against the expected results and also generates test results. Using a test automation tool, it’s possible to record test suites and re-play it as and when required. Once the test suite is automated, human intervention is not required.
Goal of Automation Testing is to reduce the number of test cases which are happen to run manually and not eliminate Manual testing altogether.

Automation Process:-

1. Test Tool Selection
2. Define scope of automation
3. Planning, design and development.
4. Test Execution.
5. Maintenance.

Benefits of automation testing:-

1. Human intervention is not required while execution.
2. Reusable test scripts.
3. Improved accuracy.
4. Reliable in results.
5. Saves time and cost.

Why automation testing?

1. Manual testing of all workflows, fields and negative scenarios is time and cost consuming.
2. It is difficult to test multi lingual sites manually.
3. Automation does not require human intervention. You can run automated tests unattended (overnight).
4. Automation increases speed of test execution and test coverage.
5. Manual testing might become boring and hence error prone.

Automation testing has changed the world of testing in a number of ways. It provides an approach that goes right across the application lifecycle model to promote business success. It helps in increasing productivity, lowering cost and speeding up testing time.

To get into automation testing, over the next few months/years you need to start working on it. At a brisk but comfortable pace, that’s 1-2 hours a day.

Need QA Assistance, do visit Professional QA Services.

The writer of this blog is a Automation Tester at PulpQA.com.