Testing is a skill that can be learned and improved with practice. If you are a newbie tester in the software development industry, then you need to learn some techniques that will help you detect the flaws in software as soon as possible. The efficiency of testers directly impacts development time because as soon and as minutely you detect the bugs, developers can work on them and improve the overall functionality.
There are a number of ways in which you can approach testing. Here are three effective test ideas that will help you detect errors in software before it’s released for public use.
#1. Quick Attacks
Suppose you have no previous idea about the functionalities of the software and its requirements. In such a situation, the traditional technique of transforming requirements into tests won’t be helpful. Instead, you should attack the application like a pirate and try to confuse it by entering wrong info.
How does this work? If the form says a field must be filled, keep it blank; if the UI asks you to maintain a workflow, take a different path; if an input field supports only digits, then write letters or make the number so long that the system can’t process it. If the system prevents you from entering any number, then check whether the application requires a whole number or decimal point numbers can work as well. However, if letter is a must, then use special characters that can’t be accessed directly from a keyboard.
The rationale behind this random attack is to check the scenarios that programmers may not have expected. If you are testing a responsive web-based app, then try to resize the browser quickly, and see whether the app adapts the screen size and resize or not. To check the workability of the log-in page enter no data at all and press enter! It should refresh and show you a message like “enter information” or something similar to that.
Advantages
It helps you evaluate the functionalities of the software within a very short time. Once your test is done, you can say that you have a fair idea about the application. Quick attack techniques are easy to learn.
As noted in the basic examples in the previous paragraphs, using this technique bugs can be identified immediately.
Disadvantages
Quick attacks certainly detect bugs, but often those bugs really don’t matter. The process is like beating around the bush to find anything that either should be there or should not be there in the system.
#2. Use Cases and Soap Opera Tests
Soap opera testing focuses on the role of the software. Don’t consider the software as a bundle of features, rather consider what a human would try to accomplish with the help of this tool. The soap opera tests may seem crazy and hypothetical but can provide a speedy, informal estimate of software quality. By using this method, you can check the functionality of the software right at the start and avoid many costly defects.
Advantages
Business clients love this technique as you can actually try to replicate the scenarios that can happen in real life. You can perform this type of testing as a part of requirement analysis and involve your clients.
Disadvantages
You can overwhelm your IT team and users with too much detail and soap opera tests are so complicated that if an error occurs, you may waste lots of time just to isolate the source of that error. While this kind of testing can help you find functional errors early on, it is just a quick and dirty way of finding just a few functional errors.
#3. Common Failure Modes
There are certain classic errors that rear their head when a certain kind of software is developed. For example, a decade back, buyers on online store has a lot of problems with finding their country or other details related to their location in the registration form. This made it impossible for them to buy products. This was a common problem a few years ago, but now it hardly occurs in any eCommerce site.
Why? Because testers found the common error and programmers wrote better codes. This testing method is useful because it helps you find recurring mistakes and you can train your programmers “what not to do”. This way, developers will progress and testers don’t have to deal with the same issue with similar type of applications.
Advantages
You can detect the common failures of a platform and work on them to make sure that the same thing never happens again.
Disadvantages
The more you use this technique, the more vulnerable it becomes. It is not something you can depend on – it is just one more thing that you can do to detect bugs early on.
Do you’ve more things to share? Share your views in the comments…!
Author Bio: Prashant Chambakara is a test automation technology enthusiast, loves to share insights, views and information on software testing and its associated branches like automation testing, test automation tools, etc. Connect with Prashant on Twitter @PChambakara.