- Not having a strategy in place. Keep it simple but have it in place.
A test plan outlines the scope, strategy, approach, and resources of a software testing project. Starting without specific strategies or a test plan in place can prove to be detrimental to the entire venture since a test plan brings organization and order into the testing project.
While beginners mainly focus on the execution part rather than the preparation, veterans can vouch that a test plan makes the layout infinitely easier to grasp. A clear strategy will allow you to have an accurate route of the testing project in mind, and also to keep track of the test cases you need to execute. It is, fundamentally, the game plan of the entire project.
- Not outlining the scope in clarity
In starting, it is often easy to overlook the need to specify the details. Software testing is a process with a lot of variety nested in it. Different kinds of software testing practices have particular utilities and scopes of operation. Therefore, it becomes essential for a software testing plan to delineate the scope of the software testing, to make the utility of the operation more specific.
The idea behind specifically defining the scope is to ensure that everyone on the software testing team is on the same page. A pivotal role in this is played by the clear definition of an objective and a strategy.
- Timeline Vs Quality tradeoffs.
No matter what the nature of the software is, certain tradeoffs are inevitable to balance out the product and the resources available to construct it. For example, the timeline, the features that can be put into the product, the quality of said features, and the product overall, everything should be balanced when it comes to prioritizing. Failing to accurately gauge the weight of each product element, and the consequent revisions to the product will mean an overall decrease in the product’s utility and quality.
- Making testing Non-functional aspects an afterthought or letting go because of budget constraints
The objective of software testing services is to find and rectify as many rectifiable elements as possible. Not testing non-functional aspects and only concentrating on one section of the software can become a huge impediment in carrying out a comprehensive software testing project. If the objective is clear, it becomes obvious that repeating the same test cases will not yield any innovative results.
Leaving the Non-functional aspects to be tested later will mean that the testing is skewed in a partial direction and is missing a wide-ranging assessment. To gauge how the tested software would pan out in real-world usage, both Functional and Non-functional aspects need to be tested with equal emphasis.
- Not factoring in your target audience’s ecosystem
When you are designing a software testing project, the test cases you include can often be representative of a single aspect of software operations. So, for example, while you may know how the product behaves in a certain environment, correctly gauging the product’s behavior in the user’s environment is going to be a different ball game altogether. Therefore, overlooking the specific environment of your ultimate target audience can be a grave mistake that beginners are prone to.
Ideally, what you can do is integrate UAT, or User Acceptance Testing, in the software testing strategy. UAT is a terminal-stage software testing process, where a sample of the target audience tests the ultimate usability and behavior of the product in a real-world environment.
- Not baselining and/or updating your regression suite and strategy
While the entirety of the software testing process holds equal importance in delivering the perfect product, missing out on the most fundamental steps can certainly hinder the efficiency and output of the process. Baseline testing is one such fundamental process in software testing, which can resolve several preliminary issues before you launch the actual software testing process. It functions as a referral point for subsequent testing.
Post the baseline test, the baseline and the test results are analyzed comparatively. The objective is to figure out whether the product is functioning as per expectations. Without a baseline test, the development team will probably move on without correctly gauging the pre-existing problems. Besides, it is not uncommon for the User Acceptance Test to redline many easily avoidable issues in case of a skipped-over baseline test.
- Believing all/most documentation is unnecessary
While excessive documentation can often act as a cumbersome addition to a software testing plan, not all documentation and records are unnecessary. Designing a comprehensive test plan or a baseline strategy are both primarily documentation-oriented software testing operations. However, these are vital steps in the software testing process that can prove extremely detrimental to the quality of the product if neglected.
A common mistake for beginners is to consider all kinds of documentation to be dead weight in a software testing environment. But giving in to this misconception can be counterproductive in terms of the quality and functionality of the product.
- Not measuring the quality of your testing
The objective of the software tests is to ensure that the end product is of the expected quality, and the software test combines many steps and processes to ensure that. However, a common rookie mistake is to blindly trust the textbook infallibility of the software testing process itself.
Engaging QA experts in the software testing process alone does not necessarily mean that the test itself has a completely comprehensive design. Quality checking your test plan is an integral part of ensuring that the test results come out as exhaustive and dependable. Designing a high-quality software test is key to delivering high-quality software.
