Are Businesses Releasing Unfinished Products Too Early?
One of the questions put to Google’s Pierre Far at the Ask the Search Engines panel at BrightonSEO last week was of whether Google test new software products and redesigns before releasing them.
Of course, the answer was ‘yes’ – and the questioner was sternly instructed how to ensure Google pay attention to their feedback – see minute 24 of the full panel video for Pierre’s response.
“Didn’t You Test This?”
Martin Belam recently wrote an article about Beta tests, specifically of a new threaded comments system on the Guardian’s website. He cited reader comments along the lines of “didn’t you test this?” – where the answer being that the software they’re using is, in fact, the test. The user in question hadn’t realised that they were viewing one of just six (from 1.4 million) articles that had been chosen to test the new system.
Another notable example of how early releases lead to criticism include BBC Sport, who had to post a lengthy blog post in February in reaction to a huge amount of negative feedback from users. Facebook is similarly often subject to negativity from users after updates.
Releasing software too early can damage your brand’s reputation. If early users find your product too hard to use, they may walk away – and take a lot of persuading to come back.
Trying to manage user expectation is one way around this…but users don’t always realise they are viewing a beta and may assume any problems are consistent across all products and services.
Our Software Testing training is ISEB/ISTQB Accredited and includes Software Testing Foundation training, Software Testing Intermediate training and Advanced certificates for test managers, test analysts and technical test analysts.
It may pain any managers, designers and developers to hear it but software testing is crucial at every part of a product’s development.
From the initial conception, to the design and development and even the finished product testing should occur to keep the product on task for completion.
ISEB/ ISTQB Foundation Software Testing Training teaches delegates about testing throughout the entire software life cycle.
Testing at the last stage is inadvisable as any necessary changes will mean running the product back through the entire process.
Testing should be done at four stages:
Planning
Design
Development
End product
Testing at each stage ensures that the final product is ready for market and minimises delays.
The below diagram shows how a problem at each stage of the software cycle can affect the final product:
Testing During the Planning Stage
The Design and Development stages may be spot on, but if the wrong requirements are introduced during the planning stage then the wrong product will be produced. Ensuring that all the correct requirements are in place is vital to design and development of the correct product. Read the rest of "Software Testing Throughout the Process"
Even the best Software Testers don’t pick up every problem and sometimes a bug that is deemed unimportant is picked up by users as a critical issue. Releasing a product that seems unfinished into the public domain may seem counter-productive but it is known to work. Often businesses do this with beta testing – only releasing to a small number of users with warnings that the product is unfinished and an expectation of feedback. Google released almost all of their products early and then makes changes as they go. This means that the finished product is always better at the time of full release than one with no user testing. However, testing is still a critical element of releasing new software and so software testers are still in high demand. Without professional testing, product launches are likely to be hampered by issues unnoticed during development. The best testers are trained testers so please enquire about our accredited ISEB/ISTQB Software Testing Training courses by browsing the websites or calling us on 01273 622272 for more information.
If you have taken the time to research some business terminology then you will probably be familiar with the term ‘iteration cycle’. The idea behind this is that you release your product out into the wild, see how it does, and then improve on it based on the feedback you get.
So in other words, you might release a website, notice that no one is staying on it very long or visiting your other pages, and so improve your navigation and layout. That’s one cycle – release, feedback, edit.Read the rest of "Iteration Cycles and Feedback"
Silicon Beach Training provide a host of great mobile development courses, including iPhone App training, Android App Training and Mobile Web Design courses. However, every new app needs to be tested thoroughly before launch. With a wide variety of operating systems, screen resolutions and hardware combinations desktop software testing needs to accommodate for. This, however, is a mere drop in the ocean when compared to the multitude of mobile platforms and smartphones that need to be tested before launching an app.
With apps becoming increasingly popular and complex the need for testing has never been higher, but with so many smartphone platforms, including iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile (and then there’s the tablets!), each of which running different software versions, button layouts, screen sizes and sporting different hardware, covering all of your bases is becoming a time consuming and expensive task.
As well as the software and hardware differences between devices you also have to take into account the number of mobile phone networks that the devices operate on. This makes the number of unique combinations to test vast! So buying one of every type of phone isn’t a practical solution. Especially as there are over 350 types of Android device alone!
Software testers often draw certain stereotypes as this hilarious photo from Richard Walker on Google+ shows:
While comparisons to geeks, airport security and the Justice League are hardly productive and don’t help the image of a software tester, there are a number of characteristics that do make a software tester better in their field. These are essential attributes that software testers must have if they want to be successful:
Judgement
Software testers are rarely given exact requirements on a plate and are unlikely to have time to run all tests within a given timeline. Therefore, good judgement is needed. Think like Judge Dredd and have the conviction to make decisions.
It is the software tester’s job to judge what needs testing, how to long to test for, what areas need the most attention, which issues are defects and whether a bug necessitates deeper pursuit.
These questions can only be answered through a combination of knowledge and experience – but you need good judgement to apply knowledge and experience to real life situations. Read the rest of "Attributes of a Software Tester"
As the old adage goes ‘practice makes perfect’ – it is as true for software testing and IT skills as it is for playing an instrument or a sport. Professional musicians put a huge amount of their time into practice so that they perform well, if they didn’t they wouldn’t improve their skill and nobody would pay to hear them.
Practice To Avoid Frustration
The same goes for software testers – without practice you won’t improve and could even become rusty and start to lose work.
Well, as already said ‘practice makes perfect’. Software Testers don’t always get the chance to practice hands on testing so it is important to find ways to keep your skills up to scratch. The more you practice an action, the quicker you can perform it so practice is key for improving productivity.
At the same time, practising skills away from your daily tasks stops you from falling into patters. Expanding your skills helps you discover new ways of doing things and prevents your testing knowledge from becoming stale.
SQS (Software Quality Systems) have published a study conducted by PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants) looking at market trends in software testing. The survey was conducted on 309 managers and IT decision makers from Europe and North America and shows that outsourcing software testing is a popular solution for businesses.
Software Testing is not the only IT service that is commonly outsourced. Read 5 reasons to Outsource IT Services for more information on external IT services.
Of the 309 managers asked, 91% consider software testing and quality assurance are the most important IT disciplines at their companies. The importance of software testing within a company is backed up by the figures produced by the study that show why managers seek external IT solutions and how they are benefited by them. Further to the proof that software testing is critical to companies is the fact that companies now invest 50 billion euros per year in application testing and quality assurance.
Of the managers asked, 47% already use external test centres while three quarters are considering outsourcing in the future.
The ISEB/ISTQB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing is the industry standard certification for software testers. The qualification allows testers to demonstrate their skills to employers and for businesses to show the proficiency of their software testing team.
The qualification is recognised internationally and so opens up testers and businesses to a wealth of new opportunities world wide. It also allows for multi-national projects as everybody is working with a common understanding of software testing.
Previously, we have written about Problem Steps Recorder in Windows 7, a free program within Windows. This time we’re going to give an insight into iCheckWebsite - a website testing tool. iCheckWebsite is a simple but effective tool for checking websites with different packages available (free for individual users) depending on the amount of testing required.
Website testing tools are useful bits of kit as you can schedule checks to make sure your website is free of any problems and ensure that you are on top of SEO, accessibility and quality related issues. Website testing is essential to maintaining a quality website, especially if you aren’t technologically sound. iCheckWebsite is simple to use and provides some great improvements and checks.
Three of the main checks performed are: Quality, Accessibility and SEO which are all very important aspects of maintaining a website.
There are a a lot of myths about software testing out there, whether you’re getting your information from forums, books or the Internet, and they can be damaging both to testers and to the industry.
Some myths stick around and gain a false credibility, meaning that they seem true enough, but prove to be false under closer scrutiny.
Check out our top 10 myths about software testing below so that you can avoid them!
If you’re new to software testing, you might also benefit from these 5 Software Testing Tips.
Myth 1: Complete Software Testing is Possible
This myth becomes a problem when managers believe it, and so expect their software to be defect free. It is, technically, possible to completely test a piece of software, but the occurrence of complete testing actually happening is rare. Managers need to be discouraged from trying to force software testing teams to search for all the defects in a product under all conditions, since it is far more productive to search for defects when the product is used under the conditions that clients are most likely to create for it. This will not only prevent numerous hours being wasted, but will also prevent all responsibility for defects being placed upon software testers’ heads. This will create a less stressful environment, which is beneficial for all.
Myth 2: If the product’s been tested, it must be defect free
Now you know about Myth no.1, it should be obvious that this myth is also false. However, you should bear in mind that it can be believed by clients. To begin with, the job of a tester is to find the defects in a product. Since you can never be 100% sure that your product has no defects, you cannot reliably say that your product is defect free, no matter how long you spend testing it and in how many different conditions. All you can do is guarantee that the product is defect-free for the tests you carried out. Read the rest of "10 Common Software Testing Myths"
Even the best 
SQS (Software Quality Systems) have published a study conducted by PAC (Pierre Audoin Consultants) looking at market trends in software testing. The survey was conducted on 309 managers and IT decision makers from Europe and North America and shows that outsourcing software testing is a popular solution for businesses.
The ISEB/ISTQB Foundation Certificate in Software Testing is the industry standard certification for software testers. The qualification allows testers to demonstrate their skills to employers and for businesses to show the proficiency of their software testing team.
There are a a lot of myths about software testing out there, whether you’re getting your information from forums, books or the Internet, and they can be damaging both to testers and to the industry.