The Ultimate QA Testing Handbook Highlights

POV: You’re spending too much time chasing bugs that have crept through to production. Your calendar is already stretched as is, so that high impact project you want to focus on continues to be pushed back. Your team is stressed, and you’ve got a headache that just won’t give up. 

We hear this scenario all the time, and it’s more often than not due to a lack of specialised QA resources - or none at all. 

You want to get the most out of your QA Testing, as with any activity you put money behind in your organisation. But unless you know exactly how, when, why and for whom each type of testing should be conducted, measuring real business impact and seeing ROI will likely be a struggle. And on top of that, last quarter's objective may have been increasing customer adoption, while next quarter’s is reducing churn. 

This begs the question: How do all the puzzle pieces fit together, so your testing strategy translates to undeniable value that your whole company can see?

The answer is called our Ultimate QA Testing Handbook. Sure, a blog post here on Localization Testing and an article there on Regression Testing offer insights on the value of each and how to perform them; however, we’ve taken it one step further by consolidating it all, so you have everything you need, all in one place. 

As a disclaimer, it is robust and therefore a long read. But with all the different elements within a type of testing compounded by the broad spectrum of testing types, it kind of had to be. So with that considered, we’ve highlighted some key moments from the handbook that you certainly do not want to miss and will likely form the pillars of your QA Testing strategy. 

Here’s our top eight:

1. An effective QA Testing methodology provides the relevant information needed by your design and development teams to produce a quality app. Remember: Software quality does not depend on testing but rather on the outcome of your tests and how you use that data.
   
   
2. To release quality products faster and more frequently, review your QA Testing process regularly as you move through the different cycles of your project. Working with a clear set of quality objectives will help developers, testers and designers better understand what’s expected of them and foster an environment where everyone owns quality.
   
   
3. There’s a misconception that hiring internally solves all of your scaling problems, providing a larger in-house team and more testing capacity as a result. But internal hiring requires a considerable budget and significant time dedicated to recruiting and training new employees. By leveraging a solution such as Crowdtesting, you gain access to testers that can test on hundreds of device/OS and network combinations at the drop of a hat, eliminating the time commitment of hiring in-house.
   
   
4. Test automation can save time and money, especially if your team repeatedly tests a specific function; it’s illogical to allocate valuable resources from your DevOps or QA teams to continue physical testing. Not all types of Functional Testing can be automated, though. Exploratory Testing, for example, requires the creativity of testers to explore the app initially and decide which parts of it to test. System Testing and User Acceptance Testing also require manual efforts. To create a high-quality product, implement a blend of manual and automated testing.
   
   
5. A key benefit of Localization Testing is its scalability. This means your business has more scope for further expansion whenever the time is right for you. By focusing on localization at the development stage, you can build that scalability potential into the process - and ensure that localized versions of your product reach the market as quickly as possible. It’s helpful to make sure your source content and user interface are flexible enough to be adapted for a different locale. For example, you can standardize expressions and phrasing in your original language, make embedded text editable within source graphics and check that subtitles on video tutorials are overlaid rather than burned.
   
   
6. Although automation is a time-saver, Manual Testing remains a vital part of software development. Human testers embody the mindset of the end-user and imagine multiple test scenarios for an application or function. It’s worth remembering that while software testing attempts to find as many bugs as possible, identifying all possible defects is quite literally impossible. Manual testers often spot issues that a machine could overlook, but they’re also susceptible to human error. Using a combination of Manual and Automated Testing is the most effective way to catch the highest number of bugs and defects. 
   
   
7. Agile Testing enables testers to detect more defects earlier in the development process. One of the Agile principles is “continuous feedback.” The doctrine of starting testing concurrently with development means bugs can be eliminated soon after they appear. Each iteration of the product is tested thoroughly and debugged as it’s created, rather than waiting until it’s finished. Testing also involves every member of the development team, so the skills of developers and testers are leveraged to produce a quality product. 
   
   
8. Leveraging a crowd of testers in almost any country can give you an edge over your competitors, providing experiences that are fully localized and tailored to the individual user. And with churn rates at 71% after three months, this isn’t something you want (or can afford) to pass up. 

But wait, there’s more! While we’ve highlighted these eight notable moments from the handbook, there is still much to be covered. To unlock everything you need to know, to test how you want, download your free copy of the handbook here.