Why Should You Test Your Application All the Time?

Nowadays, each software application needs to deliver seamless user experience across multiple devices, platforms and browsers to stay popular and profitable. But the performance and user experience of the software is impacted by a number of external factors including systems, processes and infrastructures. No business can exercise control over these external factors affecting its software’s user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). That is why; it becomes essential for businesses to test their software repeatedly and continuously to maintain its quality and user experience.

5 Reasons Why Software Applications Must Be Tested Continuously

1) Shorter Delivery Cycles

A steady increase is being noted in the number of organizations adopting agile project management methodology. The agile methodology emphasizes on short and incremental software delivery cycles. The methodology further requires programmers and testers to work together and concurrently. Once a particular functionality or module of the software is developed, the testers need to assess its quality and share the test results with various stakeholders in the project. The shorter delivery cycles have made it essential for businesses to perform continuous testing.

2) Early Detections of Defects and Bugs

Many studies have highlighted a business can reduce software testing time and cost drastically through continuous testing. When the defects or bugs in an application are detected early, it becomes easier for programmers to get them fixed. As the code is still fresh in their mind, the programmers can work on the defects without putting extra time and effort. Thus, a business can switch from waterfall testing to continuous testing to reduce the defect turnaround time significantly.

3) Overcome Time and Resource Constraints

Most businesses explore ways to enhance test coverage by overcoming constraints related to resources and time. When the software testing commences after the development phase of the project, the testers have to perform the required tests within a stipulated amount of time without affecting the software’s time to market. But when the testers perform continuous testing, it becomes easier for them to complete all tests without requiring any additional time. Hence, continuous testing helps businesses to deliver a flawless software application despite the constraints related to time and resources.

4) Produce High Quality Code

Many enterprises nowadays review source code of software applications to make it safe and secure. The testing model requires the source code of the software to be assessed and reviewed frequently and thoroughly. While reviewing the source code, the testers can identify the pieces of code that may make the application vulnerable to security attacks. A business can always produce high quality code by performing continuous testing. When software is tested continuously, it becomes easier for testers to each and everything in a build. They can even review the source code of the software repeatedly to ensure that the software is not vulnerable to evolving security threats.

5) Essential for Mobile Apps

Nowadays most businesses develop mobile apps by targeting multiple devices and platforms. So they need to ensure that the app deliver quality user experience across many devices and platforms. Likewise, they need to check the application’s user interface across different models of smartphones, tablets and phablets. With mobile operating systems being updated at regular intervals and new mobile apps emerging on a regular basis, it has become essential for businesses to check the mobile app’s performance and user experience continuously. So the businesses must test the mobile apps continuously to accomplish more downloads and higher returns.

Each enterprise can facilitate continuous software testing in a number of ways. It can always provide testers with test automation tools to perform the tests repeatedly and continuously without putting extra time and effort. Likewise, it can adopt continuous integration (CI) methodology to enable the testers to perform the tests accurately and frequently. 

What is the Need to Test Your Retail Apps Frequently?

It is the age of technology and everything we do is related to technology or dependent on it in some way. The advent of technology has hugely aided the way that people used to buy things. Most people are now hooked on to internet shopping which is conducted online via the numerous mobile shopping apps or retail apps that are present. It allows them to browse and order the things they need sitting at home or at office or on the go and the ordered product gets delivered right at their door step. This helps in saving a lot of time and is convenient for most people who are super busy in their lives or for people who are away from their home and require to deliver the products.

One of the best things about conducting business in an age which is primarily mobile centric is the fact that they have a tool for almost everything that is needed. Be it streamlining certain business opportunities or increasing the productivity of the retail app or creating an easier user interface for your customers to deal with, you get a tool for everything.

However to ensure that your app is up and running it is very important that you need to test your app before launching it so that you can ensure complete satisfaction on the customers’ end. It will also ensure that your app increases the profitability of your business based on the ease and productivity and speed as well as security of using your app. It is not enough to test your app only before you launch it. Retail apps should be tested frequently even after being launched. This is due to the fact that the retail apps are used by a huge number of customers each day which makes it prone to development of bugs which may cause problems in the functionality of the app.

The retail apps are usually multi tier in nature and are connected to payment gateways and banking apps so that the customers can make payment of the products they have bought.  This ensures that your app should have top notch security facilities so that it can avoid any kind of fraud that may cause harm to the customers as well as to your reputation. This is one of the major reasons to keep testing the retail apps frequently so that the security facility of the app is never compromised. It also has to safe keep the personal details filled in by your customers while operating your retail app.

With the advancement of the technology you also need to include more and more features in your retail apps in order to enrich the shopping experience of your customers. This also initiates the process of frequent testing of your retail app to make sure that the prevailing functions are in sync with the new ones and work perfectly with the new functions that are included in the retail app. Also your retail app will have varied amount of traffic on each day which will obviously peak during the holidays and occasions when people are prone to exchanging gifts. Frequent load testing of the retail app will make sure that your app doesn’t snag under pressure and even if it does, it can bounce back to its normal functionality as soon as possible without causing much distress to your customers.

We hope to have clarified the need to test your retail apps frequently. It will help you to maintain a healthy app and a loyal customer base. 

Why is Selenium a Good Weapon to Have in Your Arsenal?

When it comes to software testing, every testing organization seeks the help of automated testing tools as it helps in saving both time and money. Software testing is an important part of the whole software development procedure and the cost of the process affects the whole cost of the project. This is why more and more organizations are opting for open source tools rather than investing in commercial tools which cost a lot of money, ultimately increasing the cost of the whole project.

There are a huge number of automated testing tools available for the purpose of testing the various aspects of the software; however, Selenium tops the list. Selenium is becoming more and more popular each day with the testers and the organizations who specialize in testing both functionality and GUI of the web based applications. It is also effective as far as unit testing is concerned in case of JavaScript. Another important fact behind the popularity of the selenium software is the fact that it is supported by immense number of open source developers who are regularly working on the further development of the tool on a regular basis.

So why is selenium a good weapon to have in your arsenal? Here are some reasons to satiate your query.

1.      Selenium is capable of working on almost all the available operating systems which makes it far more popular than the other available automated testing tools out there.
2.      Being an open source automated testing tool, selenium s far more cost effective that the commercial counterparts which are available in the market.
3.      Selenium supports various languages like such as Python, Pearl, and Ruby, PHP, .NET (C #) and Java pretty well. However, in order to perform your task with the selenium tool, knowing just one of the many languages is more than enough.
4.      Selenium is built in a way where it doesn’t depend on any particular scripting language for its workability which is a huge advantage when it comes to software testing. This provides you with the liberty of writing the automated testing script in any language you wish to or prefer. 
5.      Selenium is easy to work with as it functions with equal ease on all the leading and popular browsers like Opera, Safari, Chrome, IE 6, 7, 8 or Mozilla Firefox.
6.      Supported by Google, Selenium is regularly developed by a team of professional and dedicated developers who are trying to make it better every day.
7.      When you use selenium for automated software testing and detecting various elements on your web based software, it uses robust processes like CSS, Xpath, DOM and so on.
8.      When it comes to exerting of frameworks that revolve around Object oriented programming such as Keyword Driven, Data driven and Hybrid, there are no automated tools which can match up to selenium.
9.      Selenium is very well integrated with various open source frameworks like TestNG, JUnit, NUnit and so on which are popular in the software industry.
10.        Selenium proves to be a huge help when it comes to testing software which involves multiple machines or multiple browsers in different machines at the same time. Selenium helps in saving both time and money as it allows easy workability on various different machines at the same time thus allows you to complete large projects which have a limited period of time for completion.

What are you still waiting for? Get selenium in your arsenal and get all the advantages of this awesome tool to test your web based applications now!

The Role of Software Testing in Healthcare

As technology is advancing, the future is becoming more and more inclined on its use. The case is no different in the healthcare industry where the professionals are becoming more dependent on the use of technology to save data about the patients as well as the various medical staff that are present for serving these patients. More and more technology is being used in healthcare for the purpose of storing information and integrating various data from various resources to ensure that the patients get top service without much hassle. This makes software testing an important part of healthcare software development in order to ensure that the data are safe and software are efficient to handle such huge and complex process.

It is quite obvious that the healthcare industry requires saving a lot of information such as medical plans, enrolments and annual contracts that are required to be recorded for a long period of time and are regularly updated. This requires the healthcare apps to be pretty complex in nature and containing multiple tiers. These can lead to complexities related to data integration which needs to be resolved before providing the software to the professionals to be used without any problems. Here comes the role of software testing in healthcare.

1. Software testing plays a role in the healthcare industry in order to ensure that the huge multi tier system is up and running at all times and does not succumb under pressure. It also guarantees quick comeback of the systems even if it snags.
2. Healthcare industries often have to face a huge surge of traffic inflow in case of any calamities or mishaps which will automatically increase the load on the software system used by it. Software testing ensures that the software performs equally well even in such cases.
3. Healthcare industries often have to face prolonged period of work without any possible break which is at times accompanied by an increased amount of load. This is extended to the software as well. The role of software testing in healthcare is to make sure that the software performs brilliantly during these prolonged work periods.
4. Software testing makes sure that the system integration in the healthcare industry doesn’t cause any major problems. Healthcare industry often requires system integration for the collaboration of data or in order to maintain a constant flow of data between systems so that the records are well maintained and the system runs smoothly.
5. Impacts of cross system on the applications used in the healthcare industry requires software testing for checking.
6. Software testing plays an important role in the healthcare industry by checking the interdependency of the various software which are frequent in the industry to ensure that they are functioning smoothly and causes no problems.
7. Healthcare industry uses software to store a lot of vital and personal information of the patients which if breached and hacked into can give rise to fatal consequences. Software testing helps in maintaining the security of these various systems used.
8. Software testing helps in maintain an easy user interface of the applications used in healthcare so that they can be handles by people who are not pro at the utilization of same.

These are some of the top most methods by which software testing helps the healthcare industry by helping the developers to create apps that are completely secure in nature and will help the professionals to save all the data and integrate the various files which would take a lot of labor if done in a manual manner. 

What are the Upcoming Testing Challenges for IoT?

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Okay! It is high time we face the fact that the world is majorly running on mobile devices in the current days. Along with the boom in the field of mobile devices, there has been (obviously!) a boost in the mobile app development which is closely followed by the development of IoT. Soon the world will come to a situation where all things like cars, entertainment devices, transport systems,  robots, HVAC systems, computers, wearable, etc. and things that, till date, have not had electronics until we put it in them e.g., shoes, hardcopy paper, clothes, furniture, pets, back-of-your-neck, etc. will be provided with IP addressed devices.

So what is this so talked about IoT? IoT or Internet of Things, is the basically nothing but the physical objects or “things” to which electronics, software, network connectivity, and sensors have been integrated, to create a network, so as to give them the power to exchange data among each other.

Now, coming to the point! Like all new kids on the block, IoT too has to face many challenges and barriers before it can become successful and hugely popular. Following are some of the major upcoming challenges faced by the QA team while testing IoT.

1. Cost: Multiple devices means all of them have to be brought together in testing environment and a multi tier environment has to be created. This becomes a very costly affair and requires huge efforts to be recreated.
2. Interrelated Systems: The subsystems, sub-components, and services are all interrelated for proper functioning of the IoT and are usually controlled by third party. If the testers are unable to reach any one of the systems, the whole software testing procedure fails and hence is a huge challenge for the QA team.
3. Multiple Teams: Multiple devices results in multiple fields of specializations which in turn requires multiple teams who are specialized in respective field to work simultaneously on the testing task.
4. Testing Tools: IoT is comparatively new. Hence, the testing tools of the system are not well developed which makes it difficult for the testers to perform the procedures due to the inadequacy.
5. Sensor quality and Accuracy: When multiple devices are involved, it is obvious that all will not be of the same quality which makes testing of the various IoT devices quite troublesome.
6. Compatibility Issues: There will be many devices which are unique in their own way with their own functionality which make them hugely different from the other. Hence compatibility of the different devices will be challenging.
7. Complexity: With the multi tier devices as well as software, complexities are pretty common to occur when all the devices are to be integrated together to form one large device of many parts.
8. Connectivity Issues: All the systems need to be connected well with each other for proper functioning.
9. Power Problems: When so many physical objects are running together in an integrated manner, power is obviously a huge issue.
10. Security / Privacy Issues: IoT operates through remote sensors which increase the chances of breaching privacy or security a lot easier. This will be one of the major upcoming problems for the testers.
11. Safety Concerns: The IoT is integrating many devices together which open up further chances of entry points by malwares. The increase in the layer of the software in turn increases the complexities of safety issues.

These are some of the most sought after challenges in the field of IoT testing which needs to be attended at once for proper development of the same.

Metrics to Measure Quality of Software that was tested

Nowadays most enterprises invest in various tools and frameworks to effectuate and speed up their software testing efforts. But each business still needs to measure the quality of software after the testing process is over. As standards of measurement, metrics are commonly used by businesses to assess the quality of the software and effectiveness of the testing process. Thus, the managers can use the metrics to take crucial decisions related to release of the software. The software metrics can be divided into three broad categories, i.e., coverage, progress and quality. A business needs to use metrics belonging to these three categories to assess the quality of the software effectively.

Metrics Used Commonly to Assess the Quality of Software

Test Coverage: It belongs to the category of coverage metrics. The test coverage metric helps manager to assess the quality of the software based on planned test coverage. The manager can calculate the percentage of test cases executed by using the following formula. 

(Total number of test procedures/Total number of test requirements) *100

System Coverage: The system coverage metric also falls under the category of coverage metric. A manager can calculate system coverage metric to analyze the test coverage at the system interface level.

Test Procedure Execution: As part of progress metrics, test procedure metric helps manager to determine the extent of the pending or outstanding testing efforts. The status of test procedure execution can be ascertained using the following formula.

Number of executed test procedures/ Total number of test procedures

Error Discovery Rate: Both error discovery rate and defect density are calculated using a single formula. The progress metric helps managers to take rational decisions related to the application’s release. A manager can calculate the error discovery rate metric by dividing the number of defects identified by total number of test procedures executed.

Defect Aging: It is also important for the manager to determine the turnaround time for a defect. As part of progress metric, defect aging metric helps manager to decide the amount of time required to fix the defects identified during testing process. He can calculate the defect aging metric by deducing the date defect was identified from the date defect was fixed.

Defect Fix Retest: The manager also need to check if the application is retested quickly and effectively after the identified defects are fixed. As a progress metric, defect fix retest metric helps managers to decide the amount of time required to release the new build. The metric is calculated by deducting the date of retesting the software from the release date of the new build.

Quality of Fixes: The managers also need to assess a variety of development issues to assess the quality of the software accurately. They can assess the quality of defects fixed by the programmers by dividing the number of defects reopened by the total number of defects fixed. The metric will help manager to understand the impact of bug fixes on other functionality of the software.

Software Problem Reports: The manager also needs to understand the total number of defects identified during the testing process and their significance. So he needs to break down the number of defects identified by priority. Once the defects are organized based on their priority, it will be easier for him to check if all crucial defects are fixed and the application is retested.

Test Efficiency: As a quality metric, test efficiency helps managers to assess the effectiveness of software testing efforts.  A manager can calculate the test efficiency metric by dividing the total number of required tests by the number of system errors.

Test Effectiveness: While assessing the quality of the software, the manager needs to check the effectiveness of tests conducted by the testers. He must analyze the test reports to find out the number of defects identified during the testing process.  The information will help him to assess the effectiveness of tests quantitatively.

Many managers include the quality metrics in the project from the very beginning to obtain accurate and relevant information about the quality of the software through test reports.   However, the managers must include a variety of metrics in the project to assess the quality of the application and testing efforts effectively.

Ways in Which Software Testing is Helpful for Healthcare Industry

Technology has been advancing in leaps and bounds in the recent eras. All aspects of the human life are now depended on technology in some way or the other. Human life is badly intertwined with the technology and the scenario is no different with the healthcare industry. Healthcare industry uses technology pretty heavily these days in order to maintain information about the patients and related officials and other required details of the industry. This makes testing of the software used in the healthcare industry an absolute must which will ensure that the software is foolproof and will cause no problems when being used.

Healthcare industry is reputed for the use of software which are highly complex in nature and usually contain multiple tiers which are used to integrate variety of information like that of medical plans, enrollments and annual contracts which are to be regularly updated and maintained for long periods of time. All these complexities often lead to data integration complexities which are to be taken care of before releasing them for the use by healthcare professionals so that the data can be safe with them and no data would be lost due to the bugs or glitches.

1. Software testing ensures that the multi-tier system of the software used in the healthcare industry is up and running at all time and springs back to its original form even after snagging under pressure.
2. Via software testing it can be made sure that the various software used by the professionals of the healthcare industry provide equally brilliant results even if there is extra load dumped on them due to any kind of mishap.
3. The software used in the healthcare industry for various purposes, may have to perform tasks continuously for an extended period of time without any possible break. Software testing ensures that these prolonged working periods do not cause any trouble with the performance of the software.
4. The healthcare industry often have to integrate multiple systems together in order to collaborate the data stored in all the systems or in order to maintain a constant flow of data between these systems. The proper integration of these systems are ensured by the implementation of software testing procedures.
5. Software testing helps in checking the cross system impacts on the performance of the applications used in healthcare industry.
6. One of the most important parts of the software used in healthcare industry is the inter dependency of the various apps or software used in the industry, which is checked by the software testing procedures.
7. Just like in the banking industry, the software to be used in healthcare industry are also at a risk of being breached which can give rise to fatal consequences. Software testing ensures that these types of security glitches are avoided.
8. At times the software of the healthcare industry needs to be handled by people who are not very apt with the usage. Software testing ensures that the applications are user friendly.

These are some of the top most ways which software testing ensures that the healthcare industry is benefited from a good software and continues its journey to serve the mankind on a whole. We hope to have made you realize the importance of the various software testing procedure in the success of a healthcare industry software so that you introduce the various processes as early as possible in the software development life cycle in order to provide your customers with a software devoid of all kinds of possible bugs and glitches.

Prioritizing Bugs - How do Testers Decide?

Nowadays, testers have to test all aspects of a software application within a stipulated amount of time. The time constraint makes it essential for the professionals to understand the importance of each bug, and prioritize it for resolution. That is why; testers often find it challenging to prioritize the bugs based on their importance, and required turnaround time.

It is a common practice among QA professionals to prioritize all bugs according to four distinct levels, i.e., critical, high, medium and low. The critical bugs prevent the testers to from continuing testing beyond a particular point. So the maximum turnaround time for such bugs is 24 hours.  The high priority bugs affect the normal functionality of the software at the users end, and must be fixed before its release.

The medium priority bugs affect the performance and user experience of the applications, and can be fixed after its release. The low priority bugs do not have a huge impact on the application’s performance, and can be postponed due to time constraints. However, the testers must keep in mind some common best practices while prioritizing bugs.

Common Best Practices Testers Follow while Prioritizing Bugs for Resolution

Label Security Bugs as Critical

The bugs affecting user data will have a direct impact on the application’s popularity and profitability. There are also chances that the security issues will increase the business’s legal liability. So the testers must prioritize the security risks related to user data, and ensure that such bugs are fixed immediately.

Focus on Frequency of Occurrence

Some defects in the software occur sporadically, whereas others occur more frequently. The bugs occurring more frequently often results in software failure and affect the user experience negatively. The QA professionals can easily identify the bugs that occur frequently based on the bug report and problem tickets. These defects must be fixed in the next build to enhance the application’s performance and user experience.  

Look for Bugs disrupting Business Activities

Certain software applications are designed with features to help businesses accomplish specific objectives like process improvement. So the bugs disrupting the business process or activities must be resolved immediately. The testers must refer to the key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify the bugs that affect specific features or functionality of the application, and hence prevent the business from accomplishing certain tasks or objectives smoothly.    

Identify the Bugs affecting User Experience

Nowadays the popularity and profitability of a software application is directly linked to its user experience. So any bugs affecting the application’s user experience will have a negative impact on revenues. Often bugs found in the software’s user interface (UI) affect the user experience negatively. The QA professionals must refer to the KPIs to identify such bugs, and mark them as high-priority items for resolution.

Prioritize Bugs Impacting the Traffic or Revenue

Often the major key points of a project are impacted by specific bugs. For instance, some bugs can affect the website’s performance, user signup, click-through rates, and similar important metrics negatively. So these bugs will have an adverse impact on the revenue generated by the web application. The testers must get the bugs resolved in the same release to prevent the website from losing more traffic and revenue. 

Isolate the Defects

It is always important for the testers to prioritize the bugs according to the severity of their impacts. They can easily determine the severity of the impact by isolating individual bugs. The bugs affecting the software’s key feature and functionality must be fixed urgently. On the other hand, the bugs affecting the rarely used features can be fixed during the next build. So the testers need to analyze the impact of each bug individually to categorize them properly.

The QA professionals must remember that bug prioritization is a subjective decision. The best practices and guidelines for bug prioritization will differ from one project to another. So they must identify the severity of each defect to prioritize the bugs effectively for resolution.

Internet of Things and Its Impact on Software Testing Industry

As a network of physical objects, Internet of Things (IoT) enables a wide variety of devices to collect and exchange data through sensors, software applications, and network connections. The environment provides each device with a unique identifier, and allows various devices to collect and exchange data over a network through machine-to-machine interaction. The machine-to-machine communication will make the devices both smart and complex. Also, the interaction will have a huge impact on the software testing industry as most devices will use specialized software applications and tools to collect and exchange data with each other.

Assessing Major Impacts of Internet of Things on Software Testing

Strong Testing Strategy

The conventional software testing strategies normally focus on specific devices, operating systems and web browsers.  But businesses have to focus on embedded software while making strategy to test IoT applications.  They have to ensure that all aspects of the application are tested thoroughly and in many environments. At the same time, the testing strategy must emphasis on unit testing, continuous integration, clear requirements, complete test coverage, lean test plans, detailed user stories, and informative test reports. The conventional testing strategies have to be completely revamped to deliver a flawless IoT application. 

Emphasis on Cloud-based Applications

The devices will communicate with each other over the internet, and through software applications and sensors. Most devices in future will be designed with sensors. In addition to making it smarter, the sensor will further enable the device to gather, measure, and analyze data. But the sensors are completely different from conventional machines. The enterprises have to build the right infrastructure to leverage the information collected through sensors. Many businesses will soon rely on cloud-based applications to interpret and exchange the data collected by sensors. So IoT will require testers to assess a variety of cloud-based applications to check the effectiveness of sensors and embedded software.    

Focus on Usability, Performance and Security Testing

IoT will make it essential for enterprises to emphasis on usability, performance and security testing of IoT applications. Normally, the next generation applications will sport a minimal design, with smaller controls or buttons. So the testers must perform usability testing to ensure that the users can operate the device in a quick and convenient way. Likewise, the testers have to perform elaborate performance testing to assess the application’s performance under varying internet connections. As the application will gather and exchange data over the internet, the testers need to ensure that it detects, collects and stores data despite disruptive internet connection. At the same time,   the professionals also need to perform security testing to protect the IoT environment from various security threats. The security testing will include emphasis on assessing the strength of passwords and effectiveness of encryption techniques.

Test Automation becomes Essential

The QA professionals have to perform a variety of tests to assess the functionality and performance of an IoT application accurately. They also need to repeat certain tests to assess the application under different conditions or based on various parameters. So enterprises have to automate the manual testing efforts to increase test coverage and complete all required tests within a shorter amount of time. The test automation tools will further help users to evaluate code coverage and interoperability of devices without putting any extra time and effort. Likewise, the emulators and simulators will help the enterprise to test IoT applications across many devices without investing in real devices and hardware.

Need for New Testing Tools and Frameworks

The businesses cannot rely on conventional software testing tools and frameworks to test applications accurately in the IoT environment. They will need test automation tools designed specifically for testing sensors, cloud-based applications, and embedded systems. Likewise, they will also need tools to assess the application’s performance across many devices, platforms and networks. The managers will also be required to pick the right test automation tools to assess custom and complex IoT applications.  Many companies are expected to launch specialized test automation tools by targeting the IoT environment.

On the whole, businesses have to explore innovative ways to test software applications developed for the Internet of Things environment. Also, the testers will need advanced and customized tools to assess effectiveness of the software application to facilitate communication and data exchange between a variety of devices.  

5 Signs that Prompts Business Owners to Initiate Software Testing

Software testing is considered to be the pillar of successful software. If you are in a software business, it is very important that you, as the owner provide facilities for your software to be tested before releasing. However your product will provide you with signs which will indicate the same.

1.  Bugs Leading to Reduced Output: Most of the time if the software has been released without being tested, it develops various kinds of bugs which usually interfere with the way the software is supposed to react and the possible output it gives. This usually leads to dissatisfaction of the customers who terminate the usage of the software. This will ultimately lead to the failure of the software which will lead to the loss of business and should be a clear indication to the owners to start testing their software before launching to avoid such loss.
2.  No Desired Output: The main aim of the business owners is to launch a product which provides the customers with the desired output that will make the customers use their application resulting in desired profit. However, when the developed software doesn’t provide you with the output that it is meant to give, it may be time to start software testing in order to detect the errors which are preventing your application from producing the desired results so that they can be rectified and the settings can be altered to change it. Testing helps in pinpointing the errors and saves time.
3. Loading Problems: You may have created a software and released it in the market for the use by the customers but it can’t handle the load of multiple customers at a time. This will lead to the customer unrest which will soon lead to the customer’s unrest who will shift to a app which has better work ability and doesn’t hang up as easily. This will ultimately result in the loss of your organization and may be one of the most potent signs which indicates that you start testing your software as soon as possible to avoid this kind of problems that lead to discontinuation of the app created.
4.  Lagging Behind in the Market: The advancement of technology has provided us with many benefits but it has also lead to an increased amount of competition as there are multiple apps similar to the one your organization has created which provide people with better performance than yours. This will lead your customers to choose the application created by your opponent rather than yours as it provides better service and desired output in shorter time interval. This will result in you lagging behind in the highly competitive market and is a clear indication that prompt action is required in the field of software testing.
5. Reduced Profit: The main concern of any business organization is to gain profit from the products that they are offering to the customers. As a business owner it should be your top priority to ensure that your organization is always of the profitable side of the ledger and in order to do so you need to provide your customers with quality products. A lack in the profitability is a clear indication that your customers are not satisfied with the quality of product your are providing them with and in order to improve this situation you need to test your software to detect the glitches before offering them to your customers.

These are the top five signs which should prompt any business owner to initiate software testing in order to maintain the profitability of their company. 

Growth of Software Testing Over the Years

Software testing is a part of the software development life cycle, which is slowly and steadily gaining popularity in the IT industry. The people are slowly and steadily becoming aware of the importance of the software testing procedure in the success of the software. Software testing is an extensive process which starts before the development of the software. It initiates with the feasibility test which detects whether the software is logical to exist in the first place and ends with the likes of beta testing methodology which occurs after the development process has been completed.

When it all began, software was all about development. Organizations were satiated with a good set of developers who used to do all the planning and execute them to provide end users with the software required. But as and when the advancement gained momentum, it was seen that the development alone is not enough to sustain the IT industry. Users want bug free software which will be perfectly secure and functional under various adverse situations. This is only possible with a well-equipped software testing team.

The software testing industry has seen an excellent growth spurt. It has contributed USD 10 billion from zero in a matter of 12 years from 1998 to 2010. Today the software testing procedure has been classified into various parts which tackle different zones of the developing software. The main aim of the software testers is to attain maximum test coverage. Over the past decade, the software testing has grown from a single test which would determine perfect functionality of the software to multiple tests which determines designs, security, tenacity, sanity and other aspects of the software apart from functioning. It is predicted that there will be a huge growth in the specialized software testing procedures which will cover nearly 40 % of the total software testing industry, the rest being occupied by various functionality testing.

Currently, the various IT organizations are paying special heed to the software testing methodologies and more fund are being invested in the same so as to dig out better and more advanced techniques which will result in better software as an end result. The software testing industry is now providing job to thousands of individuals. Organizations are setting up separate testing departments which are in charge of planning the software development which is then executed by the development section and sent back to the testing department which then test the same for various aspects. The results obtained by this process are again forwarded to the development division, which rectifies the mistakes for the sake of even better software for the end users.

With the advancement of technology in the future, it is expected that the software testing industry will grow too as it ensures faster delivery of the developing software to the users and also helps in gaining the satisfaction of the same. As more people are taking an interest in the testing division, it is rapidly developing. It is now being considered as an integral part of the development industry and is becoming equally important. Watching the current and future trends it can safely be depicted that the testing industry will be one of the most departments of the IT industry which will be engaging talented individuals.

Software Testing and Its Need for the Banking Industry

When it comes to software, banks probably have the most complex lot of them all. These systems need to be up to date and have a high level of security due to all the monetary transactions that are being conducted through them round the year. What makes these systems even more complex is the multi tier facility and integration of the system with many other systems. Banking systems also have to support a huge number of transactions at any point of time and are used by a large number of people. The banking systems also need to be ever ready to solve customer problems and keep a track of a huge database and everyday transactions. Disaster management is another aspect of the banking software system.

Thus, when it comes to software systems of the banking industry, it needs to be upgraded and of high quality, both in performance and security grounds. This is why banking industry needs software testing of their system to make them bug free and in order to have high quality product which are unreachable by most. Software testing is absolutely essential for the banking software system so that the complex workflow that the system encounters never crashes.

Software testing is the branch of software development life cycle, which helps to keep the system in good shape. It checks the system of bugs, performance and security issues, user friendliness and other issues that may make the software problematic to the end user and cause trouble in delivering the desired results. It starts off with the feasibility tests which detects the plausibility of the existence of the software (which starts before the development of the software) and ends with the beta testing of the software (which occurs after the developmental process has been completed). Basically, the better the testing, the more powerful and workable software.

As the software of the bank is one which requires to be working nearly 24 x 7, hence the quality of product used in these places should be the finest. Also, one of the primary criteria of such systems is the security issues. This is why software testing of these software’s is an absolute must. The various types of software testing techniques that are available in the market will be able to convert the software used in banking industry one of the strongest systems around which are capable of handling the great load and will not snap due to an excess load which it may face from time to time. The testing will also ensure that the system springs back to its former self, even if it snaps. Testing will also ensure that the software is smoothly compatible with other systems which may require depending on it, like the payment gateways and billing desks as well as integration of the various tiers of which the banking software system is made up of. These systems have to maintain as well as constantly update a huge database of transaction which can be made full proof only by the testing procedures.

This is just a gist of the entire scenario to give you a glimpse as to why the software systems used by the banking industry are in dire need of software testing which should be of high quality.

New Trends to Watch Out for in QA Testing

Be it population or globalization or cutting age technology, business is facing a major change almost every year and QA testing is no different. Over a mere few years, QA testing has undergone major changes. It is showing certain trends which will further alter it in the near future. The following are a list of such trends which are steadily gaining importance in the QA testing industry.

1. Integrating QA through Agility and TCoE: Testing Centers of Excellence (TCoE) along with agile testing is going to play an important role in incorporating the QA department as one of the major part of the business. Companies are investing money in QA to avoid after cost production and enhance customer satisfaction.
2.  Greater Focus on New Technology: Although there has been a sharp rise in the mobile app development from 31% to 55%, yet when it comes to testing the mobile software, organizations are at a loss of skilled testers. Cloud computing has made advancement, but security and performance is still an issue and is going to be the focus of IT industry in the near future.
3.  Higher Automation Levels: As agile testing keeps reducing the time required for the testing procedure, organizations are opting for automated testing facilities to save time as well as money. The automatic testing facilities have made a marked progress in the field of development and will continue to do so in the future. It is exerting its importance in the regression testing, unit testing and load testing.
4.   Greater Focus on Security: With the emergence and growing importance of cloud computing, security has appeared to be a major issue. Organizations are putting in stress to increase the security features of the cloud computing as well as mobile facilities to stop security breaches so that testing facilities can be safely moved to clouds and accessed at all times.
5. Context Driven Testing: With the increased amount of mobility as well as social media, the whole world seems to be integrated with the help of software. Business owners are now looking for a method to increase the test coverage to a maximum level in order to prevent central hubs of hardware, middleware and test environments. Context driven testing provides the businessmen with the power to do so.
6.  Continuous Integration Testing: Continuous integration testing ensures that the software is being tested of bugs, performance and security issues right from the beginning of the developmental phase in short intervals. This ensures that the defects do not pile up at the end of the process and reduces the load on the developers. This is trending a lot in current days as it saves both time and hassle of the developers
7.  Independent Software Testing: As the importance of QA testing is becoming clearer day by day, companies are now seeking the help of individual organizations which are experts in the QA testing jobs. Many organizations are popping up which are emphasising on hiring individuals with great skills for testers and are focused in the QA testing of software only.

These are some of the most noticeable trends of the QA testing industry, which is going to be of major importance in the future and will be changing the course of software testing industry.

Challenges Faced by Testers during Testing Cycle

In the past decade, software development has made a huge progress in the future direction. However, the scenario is not as good when it comes to the testing of the software. Statistical survey shows that the budget of the IT industry has increased from 18% to 26% in a span of two years, but the budget allotted to the testing departments is not even close to satisfaction. Marked development is needed in this field in order to ensure good software for the customers.

1.    Agile Development: According to the statistics, 93% of the companies prefer agile development method of software testing as compared to 83% of them in 2013. This method requires a new set of skills and view as it has less documentation and faster methods of testing the software. Automation has made marked progress and is the best choice for regression testing which has mounted up. Testers are being reduced to advocates of the end users.
2.      Mobile Technology: With the advent of smart phones, the internet is being accessed majorly through them. Loads of apps are beings developed for these small platforms. This has shifted the testing industry from software to mobile app testing realm. This has reduced the focus off of the pure manual testing of software. The testers, while testing mobile application requires a varied set of skills in order to handle the job of the small platforms. The traditional software testing protocol is being replaced.
3.     Big Data: Gathering and sorting out data is looming big in the software industries these days. Each and every IT company gathers a huge amount of data, but not all can analyze it or check the validity of these data and use the results for future benefit. However, the real trick behind the accumulation and analysis of the data lies in the fact as to how well you have extracted the data and how error free it is. Dealing with such a huge amount of data and storing the same in a beneficial manner is appearing to be a huge challenge.
4.     Cloud Access: With the emergence of cloud computing, people are hugely relying on it, majorly due to the ease of access to the data stored in the cloud. People are always on the go, and they need to access their data on multiple devices and it has been made possible due to cloud computing. However, moving software testing to the clouds is posing to be a huge challenge, especially on the security and performance front as there is a huge chance of security breach along with loss of data.
5.      Lack of Resources: This is one of the most brooding challenges that the testers face. Lack of resources results in incomplete testing of the software or tests which are not up to the mark of the quality provided by the company, ultimately resulting in dissatisfied customers. If these lacks of resources are combined with the lack of training, then the yield is even more disastrous. Optimum resource is required for proper usability, security, and performance testing.

These are the most jarring challenges which are being faced by the software testers every day, during test cycles. To get improved results from the software testing processes, organizations should pay heed to these challenges and try solving these challenges.