9 Tips on Software Testing

Nowhere is the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" more true than in the area of software. Perhaps because software is not a tangible product, each beholder is likely to have a different eye for what constitutes a quality system. This can prove to be a challenge for projects that deliver software systems, however there are some measures that the project manager can take to improve the chances of delivering a working system to the organization that everyone can agree measures up to the organization's need for quality. This is not intended to be a comprehensive article on the art of software testing, or a "how to" on the subject. The business of testing software is best left to the professionals in your Quality Assurance group. However there are some tips that I can offer the project manager that, when combined with the QA group's expertise, will improve the chances of meeting your organization's need for quality.

Make sure that quality targets are set for the system. The question is "What does a quality system look like". You need to have your stakeholders describe this to you so you can communicate these goals and objectives to the team. Targets should be measurable and the project should have access to measurement tools. An example of a measurable target: the system cannot pass QA testing with any severity 1 defect. The project should have access to a problem reporting tool capable of recording and tracking defects.

Targets should be set for all aspects of quality. The obvious targets are those that have to do with functionality: does the system do what it is supposed to do? But there are other facets of quality such as performance: does the system perform the task as quickly as it should, or load: does the system accommodate as many simultaneous tasks as it should. If the system is expected to serve a user community of 1,000 users, can all 1,000 log on at once? 500? Can the users perform their tasks once they're logged on to the system and experience the desired level of performance? Finally, does the system fail as it should? A system that is designed to accommodate 500 users at one time should provide the 501st user with an appropriate error message telling them of the system limitation.

Quality goals and objectives are an important deliverable and should be part of the project plans that get approved by the stakeholders in the gate meeting that marks the transition from planning to implementation. Approval by the recognized stakeholders will show the organization that your team has a clear idea what quality looks like and is capable of demonstrating achievement.

Quality activities should be governed by a plan and it's your responsibility to author the plan. The plan should identify all the different types of tests and all the activities required to perform them. Activities should include setting up writing the test plans, writing test scripts, setting up the test environments, developing test data, populating databases with test data, and initiating the project in the issue reporting tool. Don't forget to include any activities necessary to implement automated test tools, license purchases and etcetera. The plan shouldn't include the individual test plans. These are usually developed in parallel with the software by the QA group. The quality plan is component of the project plans and should be approved with the rest of the plans at the gate review meeting marking the transition from planning to implementation. The identification of quality goals and objectives shows the organization that your team knows what quality looks like and the approval of the quality plan shows it that your team knows how to achieve the quality goals and objectives.

Plan to eliminate as many defects from the software as early in the development cycle as possible. Remember that the cost of fixing defects increases from development, to system testing, to QA testing, to Beta testing, to production. This increase in cost is not linear, in some cases it can be exponential so planning to eliminate as many defects as early as possible will deliver your quality targets at the lowest price possible. Some of the cheapest testing comes from reviews: design document and code. These reviews or walkthroughs use the experience on your team to identify mistakes before time and effort is expended on testing. The second cheapest form of testing is unit testing. Make sure that your programmers have the tools they need to unit test. There are many excellent automated test tools out there that save considerable time building the envelopes, stubs, and drivers that are otherwise necessary for unit testing.

Most software systems will have a lifecycle that includes upgrades or new releases. New functionality and features in a new release are the primary focus of attention but some form of regression testing should be done to ensure that no existing features or functionality has been broken in the new release. The best source of these regression tests are the tests produced for your project so don't discard or lose track of them; store them in a location easily accessible by the next project - you could be the project manager so the time you save here may directly benefit you! Regression testing can be labour intensive and time consuming which is why software vendors such as Hewlett Packard offer automated testing tools. The time and cost invested in the initial project to introduce an automated testing tool can be a powerful weapon for reducing maintenance costs of the system. Your project's sponsor may be unwilling to spend the money on automated tools at this point, but at least make the business case so they can make an informed decision.