I don’t think it would be wrong to mark 2016 as the year of the cloud. The way things are moving ahead in technology, this years will pack more news for us in the future.
Recently I have been interacting with a lot of cloud based tools, which I could not even think of just 5 years ago. I am by profession is a software tester, and for me to enrich my testing activities, I need to have tools and technologies to cope up with me with the tech advancement in this year.
In so many words, Software Testing, is not just a management or artistic process, it is a complete science of experience, expertise and processed information. Question is; how to resource and use this information to get the right essence out of it?
Software testing is an art or is it simply a management kind of thing? This has been a hot discussion amongst the masses and communities. Software testing has evolved itself into a full grown high-tech discipline.
The only way we can story and reuse critical information is when we manage our processes via some data bank which is supported by a tool. The tool in Software Testing, are called Test Management and Issue tracking tool.
No matter where you are coming from and what experience backs you up, the most efficient way to control your software test management process is by using the test management and test automation tools. This way no matter how fast or slow your testing process is, you will not lose the track of the data it is generating.
So here are five reasons you need a test management tool:
- Process Refinement:
If your software testing practices uses a test management tool, then they are automatically refined in a stepwise process cycle. For a company seeking a solution to manage software testing as a process can ideally use the tool to manage and streamline their test execution, lab, and test cases as a business process.
The best way is to get the right tool, do a gap analysis of your current practices in contrast to that tool, and then map the tool modules on your own processes.
- Data Reusability
Software testing can generate a large amount of data which may comprise of critical information such as:
- Release status of Bugs
- Reworked issues
- Changes and enhancements
- Test cases and scenarios
- New requirements
- Development load
- Tested items; open and closed
And many such critical information. The test management tool record this information with the passage of time, and thence allow the users and management to reuse this information. This in return helps the management in making informed decisions about the products and projects being tested.
- Informed Decision Making
Test management tool is not just for testers. The management takes full benefits from an efficient tool. With the trends and data being generated with each test cycle the patterns it projects helps management in making decisions, which can not only help in client retention, risk reduction, but also plays a vital role in business growth.
Testers are not quality police. They are not responsible for holding up a release or make a development team halt in their process. Tester role is to reduce risk, and help management identify the loopholes it’s going to step in. The mere existence of a test management tool help the management in making decisions, which they cannot do if the latter is not present.
- Resource Allocation
No such thing is achievement without a team. A good test management tool facilitate team management as its’ key component. While having diverse roles and hierarchy of users, the tool helps the management in assigning tasks, keeping track of workload, and resource sharing within different projects.
With this the performance measurement becomes efficient, and team becomes self-aware of the efficient usage of the tool. A good test manager understand the roles and responsibility matters defined on the test management tool and use this effectively.
- Managing Cost of Quality
Cost of Quality is something which very few of us consider, as most of the components involves in this scenario are not visible under the feasibility context, and testing managers busy with coping up sprints completion and meeting deadlines, they often overlook what we later consider as the death row in quality assurance.
The cost of quality of defects being re-reported, the issues being closed and then reopened by the clients and the emails with unsatisfactory notes from the clients are all the costs that we don’t see and cannot measure at the time of delivery.
A test management tool, which we can properly customize for re-open and recurrence of issues can track these costs with effective reports and management escalated reports.
Conclusive Remarks:
Software application, no matter what domain they are designed for, needs to be tested and verified. But is easier to say it rather actually doing. Whether you are a junior tester assigned to detect GUI anomalies, or a test automation expert who is writing complex scripts and creating APIs for units and complete business processes, the whole process includes a large amount of information. This information is very critical for management and resources to make decisions.
