10 Significant Points for Effective Quality Assurance and Testing

This blog is written with an objective to make test aspirants, professionals, and other keen students,  aware about the practices which are essential for implementing effective testing and quality assurance. The points which we are going to discuss here, gathered through the real experience of software testing and QA efforts. These points will surely help young test engineers to refine their knowledge about test implementation and QA practices.

1. Process :

It is essential for an organization to prepare and defines a strong process that is certified by software industry experts in order to start software quality assurance. The process can be treated as guidelines which needs to be developed over time. It can be used as official standards and should be followed throughout the SDLC and STLC process until the establishment of complete process.

2. Managerial Commitment :

Managerial commitment is necessary behind the success of test and quality of project. For this, it is required to align all the development managers and test managers engaged in a project. Here, every one must have knowledge about the necessity of testing and QA activities for business.  

3. Personal Experience :

A good practical experience is beneficial for a project to eliminate the probability of error occurence in a project. Therefore, it will be a best practice to hire a resource that have good understanding and experience of handling issues efficiently.

4. Deliverables :

In software development and software testing process, all the deliverables, like requirements, test cases, test design, test plan needs to be defined properly. This will assure that test professionals can effectively understand the project and implement best techniques for ensuring quality of software.

5. Tool Usage :

To increase the efficiency and effectiveness of implemented test, software tools needs to be employed. The tools save testing time and cost for identifying testing defects, designing and creating test cases, and test cases execution. The test team should be aware of using automation tools for testing an application with great outputs.

6. Metrics : 

It is a good practice to develop and create test metrics for measuring the quality attributes in application. With the help of metrics the current version of software project is compared with previous version of software for its quality and performance. This will help testers and developers to identify the issues or errors and make changes in software accordingly.

7. Testing Environment :

It is necessary to implement an appropriate testing environment so that actual defects of application can be identified. Test environment that will efficiently supports the software needs to be developed by the developer's team and the designed tests should be executed to identify the defects and actual behaviour of application.

8. Test Data :

After developing a test environment, there will be a requirement of test data to execute day-to-day operations. This will help testers to identify the performance and other issues associated with application. So, here it means that not only the test environment is necessary but also test data is also essential for execution of test cases.

9. Change Management :

Just like the real production environment, testing environment needs to be traced for changing configurations. It will help in ensuring controlled results and take appropriate actions according to the changing requirement configurations.

10. Developer Awareness :

It will be a helpful practice for developers to have awareness about all the business goals, processes, and change management. This practice will be beneficial for implementing an effective techniques for testing and quality assurance on software project.

The above mentioned are some of the important practices which according to testing experts needs to be considered while going to perform testing or quality assurance for a software project. These practices will increase efficiency and productivity of a successful test.

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A Helpful Career Guide for Software Testing Professionals

Over the last one decade or so, the profile of software tester has undergone tremendous changes and the IT industry has experienced an incredible growth. Testing has become show-stopper for several software program implementations. The business has actually realized the significance of structured testing of applications before release. This is the reason that the network of training institutes like QACampus is expanding when a large number of students are going through them for becoming trained in this profession so that they can be able to get the right job and build their bright career as well. This post will basically focus on how to build software testing career successfully or what points should be remembered for giving new heights to software testing career!

Software testing is becoming more commentative as the proportion of economic activities that is dependent on software continues to grow. Though there is slow growth of this sector, but in the coming years, there will surely be a boom in it as individuals are going for this as their career option due to the fact that the demand of skilled testers are great when more and more corporate holders are showing their interest in hiring them so that they can be able to ruun their technology department smoothly and efficiently.

With outstanding popularity of software testing as a career option, a large number of institutes are being providing software testing certification course in various kinds so that students can be able to get the perfect training to become a good tester. The courses on manual, automation, selenium, database, security and other testing types are well formulated after doing extensive and comprehensive research and considering the testing requirements of students by the group of technology experts.

Let's have a look on the points that are to be considered for building a successful tester and going in the right direction towards reaching career goal...

• Select the Desired Testing Type for Career Building: Initially, you have to make your mind that whether you want to go with the software testing profession. Later on, you have to choose a testing type like manual, selenium, database, security, mobile app and others on which you have to build your career.

• Choose the Right Institute and Course: Now you should be focused on selecting the right and trusted institute from where you can take the best training in software testing. For this, you need to do some research work and investigate few options and choose the reliable one. Once you have done with the institute choice, now you have to select the right course on which you want to get the certification of becoming a tester.

• Get Access to the Reading Stuff Written by Software Testing Experts: Once you are done with the above points, you can start with the training. With this, you should get through the theconology expert's written materials so that you can get the most unique ideas for getting the right testing education.

• Join the Social-based Communities: As internet is the best, an effective and a quick medium of information and communication, you can join social based communities that constantly update the helpful suggesstions provided by the experienced testers to beginners.

• Develop Communication, Analytical and Technical Skills: Apart from all these, you need to develop your communication, analytical and technical skills so that you can have the proper understanding of all the technical terms in software testing industry.

• Practice and Learn New Ideas and Techniques: By learning and practicing new software testing techniques, you can give your testing career to new heights. This is also the best way of having an understanding of all technical concepts and generating innovative ideas & implementing them in the testing process.

• Take Part in Good Software Testing Conferences: The other way of boosting software testing career is to visit to the conferences organized related to software testing and take part in it. Here you will be able to get familiar with the suggesstions related to IT sector of experienced people. This will certainly help you in enhancing your career in both short and long run.

I hope that this post will help you in have the good career building options...So always focus on your career goal and get the best & ultimate results...

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Details of Software Testing Methodology

This blog is written with an objective to make readers understand about software testing methodologies including testing approach, agile methodology and about the selection of software methodology in software development process. Let us start with software methodology concepts.

What is Software Methodology ?

A software methodology is a separation of software development process into distinct phases or stages which contains activities to decide effective management and planning. It is often considered a subgroup of system development life cycle (SDLC). This includes several activities or practices followed by the software project team to efficiently develop and maintain software application. The software methodology is also known as software development life cycle, system development methodology, software process or 

software development process.

Common Software Methodologies :

Below mentioned are some important and common software methodologies which includes :

1. Waterfall Model
2. Prototyping
3. Iterative & Incremental Development
4. Spiral Development
5. Rapid Application Development
6. Agile Methodology
7. Extreme Programming

1. Waterfall Model :

The waterfall model is a software development process in which development progress through sequential downwards phases (just as waterfall). The phases includes :

• Requirements analysis
• Software design
• Implementation
• Testing
• Integration
• Deployment or Installation
• Maintenance

In waterfall model first phase is the requirement phase, during this all the requirements of project are to be defined completely before starting the test.  In this phase the testing team deliberate test strategy, scope of testing and plan a detailed test.

Only after the completion of software design the team will move on to next phase of test cases execution to ensure the proper behaviour of software as expected. In waterfall methodology the testing team can proceeds to next phase only after completing the previous phase.

2. Prototyping

Software prototyping, is an another software development process in which the incomplete versions of the software which is being developed are created.

The basic principles of this model are :

• This is not a complete software development methodology, but is a useful practice to handle selected  small parts of large software.
• These are the attempts to minimize risk in project by dividing project into small parts and facilitate an easy change during software development process.
• Regular involvement of user is there in development process due to which the probability of the user acceptance of the project increases.
• Small scale models of the software are developed which follows the repetitive modification process until the required target has not achieved.

3. Iterative & Incremental Development :

In Iterative model, a big software project is divided into smaller parts and each divided part deals with multiple repetitions of the waterfall model. After completing iteration, a new software module is developed. This newly developed module is integrated into software architecture after which entire software is tested. Feedback gained from testing is instantly available and is included in next cycle.

4. Spiral Model:

It is a software development model in which some aspects of waterfall and rapid prototyping models are combined to take advantage of bottom-up and top-down concepts. It provide significance on repetitive risk analysis which is appropriate to large complex software. The main focus in this model is on risk assessment and to minimize project risk.

5. Rapid Application Development (RAD) Model:

This is a software development model, which helps iterative development model and the rapid prototypes development instead of large amounts of direct planning. The planning for developed software using RAD model is helpful to easily write and modify software according to requirements.

The RAD process begins with preliminary data models and the business process model development through structured techniques. In next phase, the project requirements are verified by using prototyping to refine data and the process models. All these phases are repeated several times with technical design and business requirements in collective used for  system development.

6. Agile Methodology :

Traditional methodologies of software development works on the criteria that software requirements remains unchanged throughout the compete development process. But due to increase in complexity the changes needs to be performed during development process.

In Agile methodology, a software product is developed in incremental and rapid cycles. This phase also includes continuous interactions with developers, client and customers. This mainly focuses on change reaction rather than comprehensive planning.

7. Extreme Programming :

Extreme programming is an another type of agile methodology that believes in short software development cycles. A software is divided into number of simple tasks. Programmers develops code for a small part of software and get back to user for feedback. The points gathered from the user's review have been incorporated in software and then proceeds to next task. In extreme programming where customer requirements are continuously changing, the developers mostly work in pairs.


Extreme programming principles :

The test driven development is followed in extreme programming as mentioned below :

• Test cases addition to the test suite for verifying new functionality, which are not developed yet.
• Executing all the test in which the newly added test case gets failed as the functionality is yet to be developed.
• Create some code for the implementation of new functionality/feature.
• Executing test case again and this time the newly developed test case should pass as the code has been written for new feature.

Which Software Methodology should be selected  ?

There are number of different methodologies available for software project development and its testing. Each methodology is developed with specific objective and has relative advantages and dis-advantages.
The software methodology selection depends on factors like client requirement, project schedule, project nature, etc.
From testing point of view, some methodologies concentrates on testing input in early stage of development cycle whereas other wait until the model has been completed.

How software testing methodologies can be implemented ?

The testing methodologies are not structured just for the purpose of software code testing. But in actual the goal of the testing is to satisfy testing methodologies.

• Scheduling: Real scheduling is important to implementing efficient testing methodology and the schedule must meet the requirement of all team members.

• Defined Outputs: To keep all team members on same page, properly defined output has been provided to the team members. The output must contains direct content without uncertainties.

• Test approach: Once completing the scheduling and availability of properly defined output, the testers team should be able to implement the right test. The definition documents and software developer meetings helps testing team to make use of best testing approach for project.

• Reporting: Clear reporting is difficult to achieve, but the reporting step decides the effectiveness of software testing approach which is being utilized.

The details mentioned here are enough to understand software testing methodology in details. If you like this blog then please share your feedback with us so that we can add more details to this topic. Also your valuable feedback will help us write more important and essential things about software development and testing processes.

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Software Testing Institute – What to Consider while Opting an Institute?

Software testing has now become a demanded profession as many corporates are hiring testers for making their applications to run in a smooth way. That is why individuals are getting into this profession. And rising career opportunities in the testing industry has lead to opening of many institutes all over the world that help aspirants to achieve their goals by providing them required training and academic sessions. For instance, QACampus is an institute in Noida that run classes on different kinds of software testing like mobile, automation, manual and security testing and provide various courses related to them. Getting proper guidance from the best institutes will be truly helpful for you to stand on the front with confidence in the software testing profession line.

If you are looking for the best software testing institute; I will help as I will be discussing some vital points to consider while choosing an institute. So follow them below in a careful manner!

• Know the Background of an Institute: To know the past scenario of an institute is important to have a clear idea whether it has never been involved in unfavorable situations like doing fraud. However, you would not be able to get the full information of the background of the institute. But you can still go through the provided details on the experience it has.   
• Look the Environment: As far as environment is concerned, you should meet the people of institute and take a glimpse of the environment of teaching. Again, you will not be able to judge anything completely but you can get something important from this conception.
• Select the Best Course: Apart from providing the various courses to the students by different institutes, they also attract students by providing same courses in different packages at high cost. So you have to be little careful in selecting a course even if you have interest in a particular course.
• Ask for All Information: If you are considering 2-3 institutes and choosing the best one then you should be knowing all the information related to the courses, infrastructure, fees, placements, training sessions and so on. You have to clear out all the possible confusions so that you can select the best institute.
• Feel Confident & Not Be Over Confident; Then Go Ahead: When you feel that your selected institute can be trusted after considering all the key points of the institute then you can move ahead and take the admission. However, you should never feel over confident on anything related to institute and have misconceptions on courses and other things.
• Try to Contact Ex-Students: You can also try to get feedback of existing or ex-students of a particular institute. This will certainly help you in knowing the positive and negative points of an institute. As a result, you will be able to make a decision of selecting the right institute in an appropriate and a perfect way.

I hope that now you have get the knowledge of what things to keep in mind while selecting a software testing training institute. All these points are important in every aspect and will help you in making the right decision. So follow them, select the best institute and get the best software testing training to accomplish your career goal!

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Seven Special Social Networking Tools for Having Terrific Publicity

Are you searching for some ways to boost your social media marketing campaign? Do you greatly want to get exposure of your software testing institute on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ or any other social networking site? It is social media optimization that you don't want to miss out in this competitive market for not only creating name & fame but also increasing your revenues by having more and more students visiting your institute to learn this industry and becoming a professional tester. Like many other websites, QACampus.com take the privilege of social media to put their testing training materials and other sorts of contents on this platform to help aspirants looking for making a successful career in software testing. Here I will be sharing some effective tools through which you will be able to publicize every content via World Wide Web!

As we all know such social networking websites are widely being used all over the world for sharing messages & marketing purposes, so let's have a complete list of social media tools with unique features so that we will get an idea about how such marketing tactics are useful, helpful or beneficial...

• Unlock to Share Plug-in
  The unlock to share plug-in is my favorite social marketing tool as it unlocks the additional content when Internet users visit your website and share your testing stuff on Google+, Twitter or Facebook.
  
  
• Cyfe
  As far as Cyfe is concerned, it is another social tool through which visibility into social channels can be boosted while searching for metrics that typically admins only those tools or channels that can be accessed to. This tool can set up the visual real-time dashboard for websites providing different options such as Twitter Search, Facebook Insights, Google Trends and so on.
  
  
• Buffer
  Being one of the most useful and coolest social media tools, Buffer is a social-based technology that can schedule your posts and tweets ahead of time and thus create a consistent social media presence on your accounts. As you are aware with the fact that in order to be benefited from social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and so on; you actually have to actively be posting stuff on them so that your website can remain active.
  
  
• Pop-Ups.
  Pop-ups is another way of promoting a website and its offerings on social networking platforms. These can be used for setting on delays & scheduled. Great visuals can be added through this tool for getting the attention from viewers.
  
  
• The Expertise Page of LinkedIn
  LinkedIn is providing many options for publicizing the website or content through social platform. Important factors such as best keywords to use in social profiles, working for other companies, joining of groups for building relationships, target companies and so on should be focused while using this promotional tool. For instance, software testing websites like QACampus can use this tool for sharing social profiles of many companies so that aspirants who are seeking for a career growth in this profession can use the valuable information posted on it.
  
  
• Tweetbot
  This tool is designed by Twitter for allowing you to do everything on Twitter application. It allows you to consider on the tweets that are important in your Twitter stream.
  
  
• Facebook Pages Manager Application
  This social application is made for different purposes like managing multiple pages going on the social network. It will help you in promoting programs and services at anytime and anywhere. Even it has an advantage of reaching greatly on most important posts by using its promoted posts feature through mobile phone.
  
  

Social networking is the best way of promoting websites and giving them an incredible exposure around the world. With factors involving in publicizing a site through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+, all these social networking platforms are great in demand by corporates as of course they help in every aspect of promotion. So when are you using all these social marketing web tools for enhancing your website's performance??

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Mobile Application Testing – Must for Smooth Working of Mobile Functions

An Intro on Mobile Application Testing

Mobile application testing is a process of common type of software testing through which an application installed in mobile phones is tested for its consistency, usability and functionality. It can be performed as an automated or manual type of testing. Whether Android or i OS mobile phones, it works on smart phones for making them function properly. The process of this kind of testing involves performance check of software across multiple handled devices along with different operating systems and screen sizes. Hence, a team of qualified testers implement a complete tested and certificated application for users to get a bug-free application so that they can be able to use their technology in a smooth way. The types of mobile application testing include usability, interrupt, memory, performance, laboratory, functional, installation and certification testing.

Discussing the Key Challenges Involved in Mobile Application Testing

It is believed by expert testers that mobile application testing is a daunting task as it involves a number of problematic situations. Following are some important challenges that need to be understood for performing this kind of testing in a better way:

• Scripting: Testing is done on applications in accordance to the varying test scripts. As devices differ in display properties, menu structure, input methods and keystrokes, so a single piece of script does not function on every device.
• Network Operators: As there are hundreds of mobile network operators providing services all over the order so each one of them uses a different kind network infrastructure. This actually limits the flow of information.
• Diversity in Mobile/OS: The other challenge of performing mobile application testing is performing the task of testing on single application across multiple devices running on the same platform. This happens due to different mobile operating systems available and each one of them has its own limitations.
• A Variety of Mobile Devices: It becomes difficult in performing testing in mobile devices that differ in input methods, screen sizes and hardware capabilities.

Listing the Key Benefits of On-line Mobile Application Testing
On-line mobile testing can be a good option for those who want to get applications tested in a convenient way. Some key benefits of on-line mobile testing are as follows:

• There is an availability of large number of devices for performing the task of testing.
• It gives an option to perform test execution on several devices in parallel.
• With no phone plan, a tester can test outgoing & incoming call services along with messaging.
• One can avail a variety of plans such as yearly, monthly or hourly subscriptions.
• Even automation can be recorded & played as videos.
• The last but not least, users would be able to use tools at any time and any place.

The Last Words

Mobile application testing is critical for delivering a premium-quality application. So it should be performed after having a complete knowledge of it.

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An Overview on Software Testing Profession

What is Software Testing?
In order to provide an error free system or solution to the customer, a testing of software basically assists in detecting and thus removing out any bugs, defects or errors in an application under its development process. Testing can be done on anything like food, auto-mobile or machine apart from software. For example, the experts of a car manufacturing company give the final testing of cars with auto parts before delivering them into showrooms for sale. It is mainly categorized into manual automated testing.

There are some best Software Testing Institutes in Noida like QACampus (www.qacampus.com) that provide an ultimate platform for all professionals who want to create their career in this field. They provide a number of advantageous facilities such as experienced trainers, flexible timings, excellent lab facility, best practical guidance, small training batch, 100% placement and so on.    

Why Testing is Required?

Testing is required for making software error free so that you can provide a proper application solution to your clients. Despite creation of software by the team of skilled developers, there is a requirement of testing team for detecting and removing any hidden bugs or errors. It is a common trait of human nature; we feel our developed system perfect in full functioning.  We often feel that there is no problem in our designed system. But matter of the fact is that there are 99% chances of detecting a problem by checker, observer or tester. A thing, which is re-checked by other person, he or she can observe a problem in it. If you could be able to minimize the problems with the system you developed, you would be benefited financially. Your clients would feel delightful on your best testing services while making their systems to function in a proper manner. This is the reason that testing of software is important.

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