Agile testing

Agile testing is a type of testing that adheres to agile software development’s rules and concepts. Unlike the Waterfall technique, Agile Testing may begin right at the start of a project, with development and testing working in tandem. Agile testing is a continuous process rather than a sequential one.

Before you proceed with agile testing, you should have a well-defined test plan. The test data requirements, infrastructure, test environments, and test results are all included in the agile test strategy for that iteration. Unlike the waterfall paradigm, an agile model involves writing and updating a test strategy for each release. During agile testing, you will focus on numerous testing methods, including user acceptance testing, collaborative testing, pair testing, exploratory testing, and usability testing.

As you do agile testing, you will also need to be aware about the risks associated with it. For example, the automated user interface will provide confidence that you need to proceed with testing. However, it would be slow during execution. On the other hand, it would cost a lot to build and be quite fragile for maintenance as well. Automation would not improve the overall productivity of testing significantly. The tester has to play a major role in here. In other words, the tester should be aware of how to test in the right way.

In software testing, the agile methodology emphasizes testing as early as feasible in the software development lifecycle. It necessitates a high level of client participation and the testing of code as soon as it is made public. The code should be reliable enough to be tested in a production environment. To ensure that the issues are addressed and tested, extensive regression testing may be performed. The effectiveness of agile model testing is primarily down to team communication.

— Slimane Zouggari

Test Automation

Automation Testing, often known as Test Automation, is a software testing approach that involves the execution of a test case suite using particular automated testing software tools. Manual testing, on the other hand, is carried out by a person sitting in front of a computer, meticulously carrying out the test procedures.

In addition to entering test data into the System Under Test, the automated testing software may compare predicted and actual outcomes and create thorough test reports. Software Test Automation necessitates significant financial and human resources.

Repeated execution of the same test suite will be required in subsequent development cycles. This test suite may be recorded and replayed as needed using a test automation tool. There is no need for human involvement after the test suite has been automated. Test Automation’s return on investment has improved as a result of this. The aim of automation is to minimize the number of test cases that must be performed manually, not to completely remove manual testing.

If you are looking for a way to enhance test coverage, test effectiveness, and execution speed in agile testing, you may think about going ahead with test automation.

There are five main steps to follow as you do test automation. The very first step is to select the best test tools that you will be using for automation. Then you should define the overall scope of automation. The third step would be to plan, design, and develop the test automation scripts. After that, you can proceed with test execution. The final step of test automation would be maintenance.

Before you proceed with test automation, it is important to determine the scope of the project. On top of that, you should also determine the right tools to ensure success at the end of the day.

— Slimane Zouggari

ISTQB certification

The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) Certification is an internationally recognized software testing certification that is administered online by its Member Boards via a testing Exam Provider. A Member Board(s) licenses an Exam Provider to offer exams locally and globally, including online testing certification. The ISTQB Certified Tester certificate is awarded to candidates who pass the test. This website contains all of the necessary QA Training materials for passing the ISTQB Foundation level test.

Certification from the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) is accessible in 70 countries where ISTQB has a Member Board. The names of the member boards vary per nation. For example, in the United States, the member board is known as the American Software Testing Qualifications Board (ASTQB), whereas in India, it is known as the Indian Testing Board (ITB). However, the test’s curriculum, questions, exam format, and all other elements remain the same. The International Society for Testing and Quality Assurance (ISTQB) is a non-profit organization managed by volunteers and industry specialists.

There are numerous reasons available to call ISTQB certification as the best certification available for testers. This is an online testing certification that anyone in the IT or non-IT industry can pursue. The certification is divided into three levels, with the Foundation Level requiring no prior job experience. This software testing certification is the world’s most well-known and fastest-growing software testing certification.

ISTQB certification allows you to work as a tester anywhere in the globe, unlike other qualifications that are only accepted in certain countries. Unlike the CSTP certification, which is only valid for three years and requires testers to requalify to retain their certification, the ISTQB certification will not expire. If you are a software tester in an agile team, this is a certification that you must think about getting.

— Slimane Zouggari

How to write test cases?

In an agile software development sprint, the software testers will need to write test cases before executing. However, it is important to have a clear understanding on what these test cases are. Test cases take the tester through a series of actions to determine whether a software program is bug-free and performing as the end user expects. Basic writing abilities, attention to detail, and a thorough grasp of the program under test are all required to learn how to construct test cases.

A test suite is a collection of test cases for a certain module or component of an application. A test session will almost always comprise several test cases because there will be more than one unique situation to be tested.

When developing test cases, it’s critical to put yourself in the shoes of the user and provide all relevant information. Spending the extra time and effort up front to develop effective test cases can save you time and work afterwards. The difference between a well-tested application and a badly tested application may be determined by well-written test cases.

The very first step of writing test cases for testing is to use a strong title. Then you should write a strong description for the test case. You will need to include both preconditions and assumptions for the testcase as well. It is important to keep the test steps concise and clear at all times. Then you should also include the expected results in the test case. It is better if you can make the test cases reusable as much as possible. Then you will be able to minimize the time that you spend on writing test cases in the future. Read the test case samples that you can find on the internet and start writing test cases.

— Slimane Zouggari

Unit Testing

During agile software development, you make simultaneous changes to different components or units of software. You should test these units before implementation. That’s where unit testing would come into play. Unit testing is a form of software testing that examines individual software units or components. The goal is to ensure that each unit of software code works as intended. Unit testing is carried out by developers throughout the development phase of an application. Unit tests are used to isolate a portion of code and ensure that it is accurate.

When it comes to unit testing, a unit can be an object, module, procedure, method, or function. Because software developers often want to save time by conducting little unit testing, this is a fallacy because insufficient unit testing leads to significant costs in defect repair during System Testing, Integration Testing, and even Beta Testing after the program has been developed. It saves time and money in the long run if thorough unit testing is done early in the development process. No matter what software you develop, you should do unit testing.

Multiple techniques are available for you to do unit testing. They include testing branch coverage, decision coverage, statement coverage, finite state machine coverage, and condition coverage.

You can do unit testing under manual method or automated method. When it comes to automated unit testing, a developer creates a portion of code in the program just for the purpose of testing the function. When the program is deployed, they will comment out and eventually remove the test code.

A developer might potentially isolate the function in order to thoroughly test it. This is a more extensive unit testing method that entails copying and pasting code into its own testing environment rather than the natural one. Isolating the code aids in the discovery of unneeded dependencies between the code under test and other units or data spaces in the product. These dependencies can then be removed.

— Slimane Zouggari

Spike testing

Spike testing is a form of software testing in which a software program is put through its paces with significant traffic load increases and decreases. Spike testing is used to assess how a software program responds to a rapid increase or decrease in user load, as well as to identify how long it takes to recover following a spike in user demand.

Spike testing is a technique for determining the flaws in software programs in agile software development. Spike testing is used to assess how the system reacts to sudden increases and decreases in user load. Spike testing is used in software engineering to assess whether a system’s performance will degrade when it is suddenly subjected to a high load.

Another objective of spike testing is to figure out how long it takes to recover. The system requires some time to settle between two consecutive surges in user traffic. The time it takes to recuperate should be as short as feasible. If you are developing an ecommerce store, and plans to launch special deals on Black Friday, you should subject the system to spike testing. Then you can ensure that the system will not crash because of the high volume of traffic that it receives.

There is a standardized approach to follow as you do spike testing in an agile environment. Before you do the spike test, you should determine load capacity. Then you need to prepare the test environment. After that, you can define the expected load. You can continue to increase the load along with time as you do the test. Then you can set back the load to normal and finish your testing. Once you are done with spike testing, you can analyze the results.

— Slimane Zouggari

Soak Testing

Soak testing is a non-functional testing approach that you follow during agile software development. It is used to evaluate the performance of a software program when it is subjected to a large amount of load over a long period of time. Soak testing is used to see if a software program can withstand a large volume of use and to see what happens if it is used outside of its intended parameters.

When a system is utilized for two hours, it may operate normally; but, if the system is used constantly for ten hours or longer, it may fail or behave abnormally/randomly/crash. Soak Testing is used to forecast such failures.

Because an application must be in a functioning state for as long as a day or night, soak testing is best done on weekends. It is entirely dependent on the testing situation’s constraints. Soak tests are one of the most essential compliance criteria that any firm must follow to the letter. Most Soak Tests are governed by the amount of time provided. If an application requires a long length of time, it must execute without interruption. It should include all of the possibilities that the stakeholders have agreed upon.

The time between such window periods is a major driver for defining the scope of a Soak Test. Almost every system comes with a maintenance period, and the time between such window periods is a critical driver for determining the scope of a Soak Test.

For example, banks that develop systems to work with merchants should do soak testing. This is where the tester would system under a load for up to 150 hours continuously to monitor how it would behave. During soak testing, you will try to locate some common issues. They include memory allocation problems, database resource utilization problems, performance degradation related issues, connection issues, and gradual degradation of the systems along with time.

— Slimane Zouggari

Stress testing

Software you develop in an agile environment should be robust and stable. You can measure that through stress testing. Stress testing is a form of software testing that evaluates a software application’s stability and dependability. Stress testing is used to evaluate software’s resilience and error handling skills under extremely high load circumstances, as well as to ensure that software does not crash in critical scenarios. It also goes beyond standard operational settings to see how software performs in severe situations.

The purpose of stress testing is to examine how the system reacts following a failure. A system should provide an acceptable error message when under high conditions for stress testing to be effective. Massive data sets may be utilized to conduct Stress Testing, which may become lost throughout the process. While stress testing, testers should not lose this security-related information.

Your software would be subjected to lot of stress during certain instances. For example, the level of stress will increase during festive seasons. Stress testing can help you to ensure that the system will not crash during such situations.

Multiple approaches are available for you to do stress testing. They include application stress testing, transactional stress testing, systematic stress testing, and exploratory stress testing.

Before stress testing, you should plan it carefully. You should analyze the system and gather system data. Then you should create the automation scripts. Along with that, you can proceed with executing the scripts. You can then do a result analysis. This will help you to discover bottlenecks that exist. You can then tweak and optimize the system, so that you can end up with receiving benchmark results. Some popular tools that you can use for stress testing include Jmeter, LoadRunner, Neo Load, and Stress Tester.

— Slimane Zouggari

Load Testing

Agile software development consists of both functional testing as well as non-functional testing. When it comes to non-functional testing, load testing is one of the most prominent tests that you need to do. Load testing is a type of non-functional software testing in which a software application’s performance is evaluated under a specified load. It controls how the software program acts when several people access it at the same time. Load testing is used to identify performance bottlenecks and assure the stability and smooth operation of software applications prior to deployment.

You do load testing to determine maximum operating capacity of a software and to determine whether existing infrastructure is sufficient enough to launch the application. You will also determine the overall sustainability of the application with related to peak user load via load testing. On top of everything, load testing can help you to understand the total number of concurrent users, which the application can support at a time.

If your software gets more users than it is supposed to, it will crash. Hence, you should ensure that desired number of users can access the system without encountering any problems. That’s where you should do load testing. You will ensure performance and reliability of the system with load testing.

You can do load testing through multiple approaches. They include manual load testing, using open source load testing tools, or using enterprise level load testing tools. Before you do load testing, you should create a test environment. Then you need to create load test scenarios. After that, you can prepare data for each and every transaction, and execute the test cases. Upon analyzing the results, you can fine-tune the system to accept desired load, and retest.

— Slimane Zouggari

Performance testing

At the time of developing software in an agile environment, you should pay special attention to performance testing. Performance testing is a software testing method for evaluating a software application’s speed, reaction time, stability, dependability, scalability, and resource use under a certain workload. The basic goal of performance testing is to find and remove performance bottlenecks in software applications. It is also known as “Perf Testing” and is a subset of performance engineering.

During performance testing, you will be paying attention to three important features of software. They include stability, scalability, and speed. Performance testing is carried out to offer information to stakeholders about their application’s performance, stability, and scalability. Performance Testing, moreover, reveals what has to be addressed before a product is released to the market. Without performance testing, software is more likely to have issues like slowness when several people are using it at the same time, inconsistencies across various operating systems, and poor usability.

You can do multiple types of performance testing on a software. They include load testing, stress testing, volume testing, spike testing, endurance testing, and scalability testing. These tests can help you to overcome common performance related problems, including poor scalability, poor response time, long load time, and bottlenecking.

To begin performance testing, you should prepare the testing environment and discover performance acceptance criteria. Then you can plan the performance test and configure the test environment accordingly. The next step would be to implement performance testing design and run the rest. You can analyze the results, tune, and continue to retest. You should continue this until you end up with getting desired results.

— Slimane Zouggari