How is QA Testing Relevant in-App Development Lifecycle?

Testing combats all fallacies and misconceptions about implementing testing during SDLC!

Organizations of all sizes struggle to combat some ingrained partialities. There is a particular pattern of bias against static testing, which gets a bad rap even though it helps avoid costly errors early in the development cycle. It forfeits high initial costs and potential time delays, which makes companies engage in it.

Differences: The Tussle between Static and Dynamic Testing

Static testing is time-intensive, uncovers mistakes that are insignificant to endanger the application. It does not test the code, and static analysis tools do not reveal if client requests are met. Therefore, it is pertinent to balance pointless and imperative, and simultaneously avoid time delays.

Also, static analysis helps catch only up to 10% of quality defects. Therefore, static testing is incapable to cater every software quality defect. There can be challenges in performing static testing automatically. Automated tools only scan the code, and are incapable of separating weak points that may cause problems during runtime. It also does not validate interfaces and how each segment will interact with the other. It also does not ensure how the system will perform under load and how susceptible is it to hackers or the degree of user-friendliness.

Benefits: The Importance of Testing in App Development

Testing is most fruitful if implemented in the earlier stages of the software development life cycle.

• Involving Dynamic Testing: Dynamic testing searches for bugs inside the code, while static testing executes without code execution. Quality Assurance teams align to check the specifications to identify defects. This practice during the earlier stages antecedes the requirements for revision at the later stages of software development.
• Identifying Potential Gaps: Testing identifies gaps in the interfaces and functionality of independent modules and the system as a whole. It lets developers ensure how the system should ideally perform. Static testing does not let developers rely on their experience to make imprecise assumptions about the functionality or the aesthetics of the application, which often results in errors. It frees test engineers to focus on higher-value tasks, which reduces costs and uplifts productivity.
• Testing in Early Stages of Development: Moreover, testing in the early stages of development ensures system efficiency and user-friendliness. Static analysis tools validate that the features accompany the user’s perspective. Testers need to validate the information architecture, and general user flows. They also antedate the final presentation with the original idea. It enables them to identify all missing gaps and ensure that the requirement captures all details.
• Discussing with Fellow Developers/Designers/Project Managers: When test engineers review documents along with peer team members, it helps them reach a consensus about the potential anomalies, alternative approaches, conformance to business, or, industry standards. It also improves process efficiency as presenting results to clients is commonplace.

Purpose: How should you justify the need for testing?

It is very important to know the investment-gain ratio while planning to start with testing, once development completes. To justify the static testing return on investment, follow these steps:

1. Calculate the total hours spent on static testing.
2. Translate those hours into a dollar amount.
3. Convert the number of defects found through static testing into the number of hours required to fix them through traditional testing.
4. Convert the proposed number of hours for testing into a definite dollar amount.
5. Step 4 – Step 2 will give you the sum of hours applicable in static testing in the development cycle.

Role: What can systematic testing achieve for you?

Testing can accomplish the following business objectives for you:

• It helps understand and review business and technology drivers for mobile apps for creating a test strategy.
• It helps identify and understand ‘key’ challenges, risks, and expectations associated with testing a mobile application.
• Developers can apply specific test types and test levels according to the mobile application.
• It helps identify and use suitable environments, and appropriate tools for mobile application testing.
• It helps understand methods and tools to support mobile application test automation.
• Tests can check the app’s compatibility with screen sizes, aspect ratio, and screen density. These can show the potential effects of device overheating on the system under test. Test types can check the various input sensors used in mobile devices. Tests can reveal user interface issues when changing screen orientation. Tests can be used for changing the access permissions to the device features requested by the app. There can be tests to verify the impact of an app on a device’s power consumption and the impact of its power state on the app. There can be tests for the handling of notifications by the system under test. Tests can verify the correct functionality of quick-access links. Tests can impact an app of the user preference settings provided by an operating system.
• Also, there can be tests that distinguish the specific requirements for native, web and hybrid applications. There are tests for apps that are available on multiple platforms or operating system versions. And, tests required for co-existence and interoperability with other apps.
• Additionally, tests can check connectivity testing, including those across networks, when using Bluetooth and when switching to flight mode.
• Tests can also check installability, resource behaviour, security issues, stress and load in mobile apps. Some tests check the database and summarize the internalization, globalization, and localization properties. There are tests for accessibility testing, level testing, field testing.
• There are tests for carrying out application store approval for publishing apps.
• Tests can sometimes recall session-based test management, personas, and mnemonics in the context of exploratory mobile testing.

What is the role of the QA tester in SDLC?

Software applications are never complete without rigorous stages of software testing. It takes place in stages of test case creation, creating unit tests (created by developers), Alpha-beta testing, regression testing, stress/load testing, smoke testing, preparing system tests, integration testing.

Delivering the best user experience and improving the software is impossible without testing efforts.

The role of software testing in SDLC involves completing the phases of the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC). It is not equivalent to quality control. It is not easy. It requires running test scripts and executing SQL queries to get things done. There are specialized and skilled people to perform software testing.

Software testing life cycle (STLC) includes:

1. Requirement Analysis
2. Test Planning
3. Test Case Development
4. Test Environment Setups
5. Test Execution
6. Test Cycle Closure

Major Roles Involved in Software Testing:

1. STLC involves understanding the mindset and requirements of the clients. Although the application is developed in the lines of SRS and SDS, still the team may go too deep to include the most essential technical details ignoring the actual requirements. It, therefore, becomes ‘essential’ to check the exact requirements and compare them.
2. It is pertinent to understand the platforms and the target devices.
3. It is essential to design the strategy and the potential test scenarios. It helps understand the business needs and opting for correct testing techniques and the types.
4. It is used in selecting the correct testing tools for automation testing – Selenium, Protractor, Cucumber, Apache JMeter, Appium, and LoadRunner. It helps simulate thousands of users from a single machine.
5. Testing strategies and testing tools help optimizing tasks through writing efficient scripts using any language.
6. Executing and re-testing scenarios is ‘important when there is the need to perform the risk analyses.
7. Scheduling QA activities via testing tools and the available resources help to allocate the resources on the right tasks based on the code releases at the regular interval.

Major Tasks That Software Testing Does

• Testing to read the software requirement specification document
• The team ensures that all necessary resources are available to every team member
• Preparing status report
• Ensuring standards as per company policies
• Designing the reusable test scripts
• It ensures proper execution of the test scenarios and delivering the bug-free project.

Frequently Ask Question:

How often should you plan static testing?

Can you plan to build a house without planning the height of the ceiling or the size of the kitchen pantry? The software world seeks similar intuition from application architects and software test engineers. Static testing enables enterprises to identify defects, fix them, predict errors, and correct bugs before coding. But it saves organizations valuable time and money, offsetting the initial cost to carry it out.

Why is testing ‘important’ in the system life cycle?

Testing draws attention as it forms the basis of the developed application and makes it deployment-ready. It improves the (1) quality, (2) reliability, (3) performance of the system, (4) ensures the superior quality of the product, (5) reduces the overall maintenance cost, (6) provides better functionality.

Conclusion: What are the ‘key’ takeaways?

Testing at an earlier stage saves time, cost and resources as it enables picking various business models for mobile applications. It lets development teams describe how available mobile analytics data propels input for the test strategy and test plan. It alerts teams about how the potential risks to mobile apps.

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