Last week we published 5 Software Testing tips provided by our trainers. Continuing the theme – here are 5 more software testing tips that we hope you will find practical and useful for you when planning application tests.

If you’re interested in gaining an industry recognised Software Testing Qualification, check out our range of Software Testing Training courses, including the Advanced Certifications such as Advanced Software Testing Training for Test Analysts and Advanced Software Testing Training for Technical Test Analysts.

5 More Software Testing Tips

1) Be positive about finding errors!:
Begin the software testing process with the intention of finding bugs! This way you will be sure to find all of the errors (major and minor). If you start expecting there to be NO bugs there’s a danger you’ll miss the smaller errors.

2) Group your test cases together for regression testing:
This will help speed up the process of your manual regression testing phase.

3) Ensure test cases are provided for developers BEFORE coding
Let the developers do some of your work for you by providing details of the test cases to them before they start work. This way they will be more likely to develop a quality application with fewer bugs for you to find in testing. This will mean less time debugging later.

4) If response time is important in your application – performance testing is VERY important!
Carry our thorough performance testing on any software where a fast response to the user is paramount. This is too often ignored in manual testing as large volumes of data are required to carry out proper performance tests If you can’t  create test data manually, write scripts to generate random test data (or get one of the developers to do it!)

5) Do NOT get programmers to test their own code
You CAN save time by providing test cases to developers before they start (tip 3!) – however programmers should NEVER be asked to thoroughly test their own code. Software Testers can’t ask developers to release products for testing (that’s your job!) Programmers should be allowed to take their own time. Everyone can contribute to estimating the time required for testing. This is a standard Agile approach

More tips to come soon – watch this space!!

For those who doubted our generosity in providing tips for Software Testers (shame on you!) – here are 5 MORE top tips from our Software Testing trainers.

These are the sort of tips that are not necessarily part of the syllabus in accredited Software Testing courses, but are the sort of ‘war stories’ our trainer have to pass on from experience, that can be useful to help testers refine the way they work:

5 More Software Testing Tips

1) Don’t stop at requirement testing:
Test all software applications for what they are NOT supposed to do – as well as testing the requirements.

2) Make a Note of Observations:
Keep a file somewhere (text file, word doc, even a piece of paper!!!) and make a note of all new concepts and terms that you discover while testing (we all keep learning, even long after we’ve been qualified!) When you’re preparing your final test release report these observations will all be useful/

3) Use previous bug graphs:
A bug graph plots the number of bugs found against time for each module of your application. Keeping a bug graph will help you to predict where the most buggy parts of your applications are likely to be.

4) Don’t let developers near your test environment:
Developers have a habit of making application and configuration changes and not mentioning them in the deployment steps. If they can’t get at your test environment on your server they won’t be able to make any changes that will go unrecorded in your release candidate or deployment document.

5) Make a note of all code changes made for testing purposes:
Sometimes you will make changes to base code for applications that are under test – this prevents like transactions from being carried out (e.g. in a banking project!). If you make a note of all such changes you can make sure you’re able to remove them all from the final project files that are released to the client

Watch this space for MORE software testing tips in future!