With the increasing number of smartphones and connected devices developed and more and more engineers need to deal with the verification and validation of the connected device. Obviously, the smarter your product gets, the more complex these testing activities become. Simultaneously, there are new regulations with respect to these products that are a result of the defects in the products. This adds more burden on the testers that put in their efforts to ensure the functional safety of these smart products. The good news is, QA teams can be on the right path with the help of test management tools.
Test Management and Its Implications
Test management involves the organization and control of the process required for the verification and validation of the tests. Traditionally, businesses relied on spreadsheets and wordprocessors for test management, but thanks to testing management tools to the rescue.
Most of the testing efforts may utilize manual test management solutions that are based on spreadsheets, but large enterprises used test management applications. While teams have been practicing test management at a very basic level, they are present in the form of different tools and software apps. The general aim of a test management tool is to help teams to plan, develop, execute and access all testing activities within the overall product development lifecycle. This includes the coordination of all the testing processes, tracking dependencies and relationships between the test assets. They also aim at defining, measuring, and tracking the quality goals.
Challenges in Test Management Process
When teams are asked what challenges they face in the test management process, they normally respond to questions like:
- Why do they need to test?
- What do they need to test?
- Where should they test?
- When should they test?
- And how do they conduct the tests?
Although this may sound quite simple, yet there are many obstacles that may frequently arise in a typical system.
How to Make your Test Management Process Effective?
Enough Time to Test
Typically, there are many inevitable delays in a complex project that are assigned to the short ‘testing cycle’. Even the best projects are likely to have tough time constraints on testing tasks. Teams can overcome this obstacle by ensuring that they are provided with enough time to test. As their priorities are changing and shifting tasks, they should have more time to analyze test data for test results and quality metrics.
Sufficient Test Resources
In addition to ample time to test, another thing that QA teams need to be carefree about is getting the right resources to perform the required testing activities. Often, resources may be shared on other tasks or projects. While hardware resources for testing can add delays and complexities, it is important to have enough human resources to resolve the matters easily. This can make your test management process much easier.
Remote Testing Teams
Ever since December 2019, firms are realizing the importance of remote working teams. Although testing resources may be available but not at the same geographical location. In order to cut down the costs, firms leverage talent around the world. Although this has introduced more technical obstacles yet it is a helpful model for every organization. Test management tools help teams located in different locations/continents share artifacts and stay connected without any delay or confusion regarding the overall project. They can maximize their efficiency with these tools to narrow down the geographical distances.
Clear User Requirements
Although there are many testing strategies, yet validating requirements is a top priority factor for businesses that need to be completed. In order to do this, firms need to have unambiguous and testable requirements. Using test management tools can significantly improve requirements management and teams can be facilitated with good requirements.
Sync with Development Teams
Test management tools can also help QA teams to sync with the development teams. This is as important as the other areas of test management. It helps all stakeholders to remain on the same page and allows testers to work closely with their developers. Team coordination is a must-have factor to achieve product quality.
Reporting the Right Information
A team’s testing efforts are only useful it can communicate the testing status and some measure of quality for a project. Generating reports is a simple task, but presenting the right information at the right time to the stakeholders involved is one of the most important tasks in a test management process.
All the above-mentioned factors can help QA managers in the effective management of the testing processes and steering their QA teams in the right direction.
