Software Testing Podcast

The method of software production is evolving gradually. How software products are being produced today are not the same as they were being produced some years back. This is an interesting technology era where we are sandwiched between conventional testing and advanced continuous testing. We are now shifting from the traditional structure of a huge team having centralized QA to an entirely new structure. This new structure involves small, self-contained, and autonomous teams that ship software frequently makes use of Continuous Integration tools for automating and administer their developed environment for minimizing bottlenecks.

Choosing between in-house testing and outsourcing is often a tough decision. Many organizations think outsourcing the software testing requirements is actually an intelligent business strategy and a smart decision. However, other companies feel that outsourcing can be a waste of business capital and in-house testing should be the right approach. Well, the point here is that probably no one is actually wrong. Whether you decide on in-house testing or choose to outsource your QA activities, it depends on your objectives and goals. It also depends on the budget you have and the time frame within which you have to release your software product to the market.

Software testing or QA is very crucial in all types of businesses. Mistakes can be sometimes very expensive to cope up with and can yield a huge loss. Hence, effective testing is necessary to check product quality before delivering or marketing. That being said, implementing the right and appropriate testing method is essential.

Choosing the right automation testing tool could be a tough job. At times, choosing the wrong tool could lead to results which are unexpected and unforeseen, besides there being significant technical difficulties in making the tool work in your environment. Situations like these will, at best, set back your test automation efforts and may also sabotage them for some time

For a tester, one of the ideal ways to ensure that a system has the endurance to sustain actual load/business demand and at the same time serve multiple users reliably and in a timely manner is performance testing. We do performance testing so that we can provide management with the necessary information to make intelligent decisions about improvement and risk.

Traditionally, the test team has always been responsible for software quality. They own software quality control and assurance, putting themselves in both a reactive and a proactive mode in ensuring the product is of exceptional quality in meeting and exceeding end-user needs in the marketplace.

The art of software testing is extremely sophisticated and often misunderstood by those who do not engage in software testing. For such ‘non-testers’, these common misconceptions about software testing are often related to how software testing differs from other forms of testing.

Managing technical debt has been one of the most emerging problems for the current general of software testers, especially those organizations that develop and maintain large software systems. Similar to a bad debt in the financial industry, the term was devised by Ward Cunningham to draw an analogy with financial debt to indicate how incurring debt in the short run is beneficial but hurts badly in the long run if not repaid. Basically, the term was meant to remedy the practice of making non-optimal technical decisions.

There is no doubt that software testing has come a long way since a few decades back when the role of the tester was very specific and limited. This period may be regarded as the most exciting yet challenging times that a tester is going through. Those who are able to handle and convert these challenges into opportunities clearly have a strong road laid ahead of them both for the products they are working on and for their own personal careers.

Big Data and Analytics testing involve unstructured input data, data formats and types, processing and storage mechanisms as well as software and products that are completely new. This requires new abilities and skills, the building of new toolsets and instrumentations which are beyond the scope of traditional testing.