What Is Holding A Software Tester From Finding Bugs?

Every major product on the internet is trying to expand their reach to full potential by accomplishing the goal of Web Interoperability. According to which various Web technologies on the World Wide Web should be compatible with one another. Also, the technologies should be accessible through any hardware and software. Facilitating Web Interoperability has been a major impediment for Software testers as they play a key role in ensuring the quality of a web-app. Although, recently automation and machine learning are dawning upon the IT world and are over shadowing the role of testers. Especially, if we refer to manual testing. We often underestimate the scope of manual testing assuming that automation is going to take over everything. This is a big misconception, the point of automation is to save testers the time to write better and efficient test scripts. Manual testing is going to prevail in the industry.

Automation Testing and machine learning are bringing along a lot of promising opportunity to a tester who is open-minded and attentive towards it. However, the implementation of AI has also imposed one to think about how efficient have human been so far in testing a software?
What exactly were we doing wrong as human while testing? Why were we not able to deliver a better quality assurance in spite of being more experienced and knowledgeable than a machine?

Deep down we all know the answer to these questions but i am still going to be a little blunt about them.

Unable to come up with enough User Stories Scenario

User Stories – A term that is made popular with the adoption of agile scrum. User Story is basically putting yourself in the shoes of the customer and think why he would use your product and to what purpose?
An example would be, I am a software developer and I want a tool for cross browser testing. To ensure that my device stays compatible when summoned through different browsers, devices with different screen sizes.
Back to the point, Agile software development demands for pace and somewhere while coping up with that pace we fail to consider important User Stories as we rush in deploying our software in the market asap.

Distinguish between Checking and Testing

Testers focus on checking the app’s basic functionality but often neglect real time appearance of the application to an end user might.

This is where the relevancy of different types of modern testing steps into play.

• Accessibility Testing – To make sure your software is accessible to all, including people with special disabilities.
• Usability Testing – Testing of a website for its usability concerning user satisfaction.
• Exploratory Testing – Testing approach that includes simultaneous learning, test designing and test execution.
• Regression Testing – Testing the whole application after any new change has been made. The idea here is to check that the new change is not disrupting any of the pre-existing functionality.
  With digital discovery being more mobile centric it is crucial that you be ready for mobile web pages with regression testing.
• Cross Browser Testing – Testing to ensure that your webapp is operable through different browsers, across various devices with different screen sizes.

It is vital that you stick to different contemporary testing strategies.

Assuming Test Cases are all you need!

Software testing is being dependent upon on test cases. With successful test cases we assume that our product is maintaining a good quality but that’s not always true. Just because test cases provide a count doesn’t mean that they guarantee quality. Don’t go by numbers.
Ever heard a parent using parenting cases or a pilot whose opting from pilot cases?

Test cases are there to maintain a tally but you can’t blindly rely on them. Testing is a process that involves continuous learning and adaptation. So you need to explore the product outside your test cases too.

Orthodox thinking

Probably the biggest flaw that has been in testing conducted by human is presuming a path according to what others tell them to. Walking on the same method in the same way as our ancestors have been doing. We fail to consider the pace at which the technology has been evolving, within a decade we have seen a trending transformation from a floppy disk storage being the only method to everyone moving to cloud. Advises regarding application of archaic methodologies won’t always going to work out. Rather, obsolete wisdom is only going to make you turn a blind eye towards a galvanizing and much more effective approach of conducting. Think out of the box on how you can engage into testing more efficiently.
Worried about commiting mistakes? Don’t be!

There is nothing wrong in commiting a mistake, it comes as a package of being human. However, to commit mistakes and fail to learn from them, makes it all futile. Success favours the bold so perform testing according to how you feel is correct and not how others tell you to. Learning from your failures is only going to make you more wiser.

In the end, i would like to comment on AI involvement in the testing industry. If you are worried that Automation testing is going to eliminate the need of manual testing then don’t be! Innovativeness is a quality that is gifted to humans and probably isn’t something that machines are going to capable of on their own. Nobody is certain as to how much automation can be brought into testing domain. AI may boost your testing efficiency. However, the thought of a machine testing everything as well as a human could doesn’t quite comfort the thought process. How effective is it going to be? Card to that question will be revealed only by the hands of time.

For now, we need to note the following for bringing out human potential to its full extent.

• Be empathetic towards the end user, organize your testing around it.
• Simply checking if the application is working a functionality isn’t enough.
• Don’t just count on Test cases.
• Think exceptional and let archaic thinking be in archives.
• Perform contemporary ways of testing thoroughly.

Testing is not as easy as it looks to other people. We realize how humongous and faulty it can be as a process. However, the right amount of perseverance and extensiveness will definitely help in delivering it with brilliance.

Harshit Paul

Harshit works as a product growth specialist at LambdaTest. He is also an experienced IT professional, who loves to share his thoughts about the latest tech trends as an enthusiast tech blogger.

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