The most frequently mentioned challenges in delivering high-quality software are frequent requirement changes and a lack of time to ensure quality testing. The need to deliver quality at a rapid pace necessitates a shift in QA approaches in which software teams must use shorter release cycles and test early and frequently in production-like environments. However, frequent requirement changes and a lack of time emerge as the biggest impediments in the implementation of this change.
1. Frequently Changing Requirements
Frequent changes in requirements often lead to the existing test cases and automation test scripts being broken. The changes in requirement typically take the path of specifying new conditions, assertions getting updated, the usage flow getting diverged from one form to a different new form etc. All these changes cause the existing test cases and scripts to get broken as most of the test artifacts have all the necessary data like the below hard coded into them:
- expected application state at the start of the test
- test data to use within the script
- flow of steps to follow in the script execution
- expected checks and validations post the trigger even occurring etc.
These necessitates teams to rewrite their existing tests and scripts for regression testing, thus rendering automation unusable when it is critically needed, hence reducing the efficacy of automated regression testing. The testers in such teams have to split their time into fixing the broken scripts and creating new test artifacts for the newly introduced changes. More often than not this forces them to undertake more manual testing instead, which slows down the overall testing and delivery process
2. Lack of Time
Today’s applications are increasing in complexity. They have to deal with a plethora of facts like a multitude of browsers, devices, viewports and business rules. Often it becomes impossible to track what changes are happening and which areas of the application are impacted by them. Various techniques such as risk-based testing are employed to reduce the testing vector, and focus on the most critical areas only. This lack of time leads to a continuous battle where teams are forced to decide how to use the available time between creating newer test cases, fixing existing broken test cases or creating new testing strategies. When a team lacks time, they are unable to invest resources in test automation up front and must instead rely on manual testing. The lack of automation makes it more difficult to pursue short and rapid release cycles, resulting in a vicious cycle of inefficiency.
Solution to this testing challenge?
The root cause of these challenges is the fact that the existing automation tools and testing processes being used in the team are not able to keep pace with the evolving application ecosystem. Traditional techniques and tooling makes it impossible to keep pace with the agile testing that is required. In such teams, the testing activity is the weakest link in the SDLC process and drags the team velocity down, leading to suspect test coverage and quality, impacting release timelines. Fanatiqa can help teams here. Fanatiqa has been engineered from the ground to be a fast agile testing platform that lets you test your application along with its changing requirements, fast and easily. Fanatiqa makes the process of fixing your broken test scripts a breeze to allow same sprint execution and testing.
Recent Comments