2017 - TESTCo

Three Criteria to Select the Best Software App Testing Company

October 31, 2017/in Software testing company /by Jeff Hotz

It seems there is a new software app testing company born every week. That can be good or bad depending on your situation.

It’s good in that newer companies can bring innovation and higher levels of customer service to a very mature market. This can give you a broader set of choices to meet your unique needs.

It’s bad in that there are so many choices! Pages and pages of them and then more websites to help you evaluate their particulars. It’s been proven that too many choices can actually make it harder to make a wise choice.

Why Bother? The Risks of Making a Bad Choice for your Software App Testing Company

There are many risks in business and technology. Testing your app properly will identify these risks so you can make a smart decision about what to do with the risk. If you fail to identify and eliminate the risk, your business will suffer the consequences.

Selecting the best software app testing company also has risks.

Testing is Secondary

Your software app testing company is not really a testing company. They primarily build apps but do offer testing when they don’t have enough work building apps. Your risk is that your app won’t be properly tested by trained, professional Test Engineers. Rather, your app will be tested by junior developers who’d rather be building something than testing it.

Test engineers are better than junior developers because:

Test engineers can learn your application, write and organize test cases into suites and run defect reports; a junior developer can only run test cases and tell which ones passed and failed. The knowledge and problem-solving abilities separate test engineers from junior developers.
Test engineers can keep their test case suites updated to match the applications’ changing functionality requirements; the junior developer can only notify you when test cases no longer work
Test engineers can compare their test case suite to their functionality matrix to ensure the right areas of the application are being tested at the right time. This differs from junior developers because they can only run as many test cases as they can get test coverage on.

No QA Manager

Your software app testing company provides a “project manager” but doesn’t provide a QA Manager. Your project manager will make sure your “testers” are working but won’t have much information on how to focus or optimize their work. Poor work, poorly led seldom produces outcomes that you’ll be confident in.

Using competent QA managers for your project is vital because normal “project managers” cannot perform the same functions needed to complete a project. QA managers are superior to project managers because of the multiple roles they play within a QA project. Some of the roles a QA manager plays include:

Team builder: QA managers are responsible for building teams that consist of test engineers, managers, etc. It’s up to the QA manager to ensure that all operations are going well and they take care of any team needs. This can include training, on-boarding or hiring team members.
Project manager: QA managers also fulfill the role of project manager within a QA team. QA managers are responsible for talking with the client, setting project goals and making sure it is completed. They provide reports to clients and act as the client’s ear within the QA team.
Expertise: QA managers also are responsible for providing expertise for the team. At TESTCo, all QA managers have at least 5 years of experience and 1 year of working within TESTCo. This industry and TESTCo experience makes QA managers the most knowledgeable staff within a QA team.

No Strategy

Your software app testing company can’t offer an effective QA Strategy or Plan. They don’t specialize in software testing and QA. They can “test it for you” but you won’t be able to see and measure how deep or how broad your app was tested.

Specializing in software testing and QA is important because it correlates with the service your application will get. General software service providers who additionally offer QA services do not have the expertise or the staff needed to do QA for your application at a high level. Specialization in software testing and QA is one of TESTCo’s unique value propositions. The industry experience and the talent at TESTCo ensures your application will have the correct strategy and testing for all your needs. How does TESTCo specialize in software testing and QA?

Over one million test cases completed since 2002
A team of software engineers that can be available to work on your project within 24 hours
Software test engineer, not testers, assigned to test your application
Software testing services to fit any QA strategy

At TESTCo, we are built on top of these three foundations – Test Engineers, QA Managers and proven/tested QA Strategies. If your software app testing company is missing any of these foundations, your risk of failure is higher.

Three Criteria for Selecting a Software App Testing Company

You’re going to need at least three really important things from your software app testing company if you want to be successful with your app launch or update.

You will want to Set and Achieve Your Goal. You may not have a goal yet – or you do and don’t realize it. “Just test it” isn’t a goal – that’s an activity. “Zero customer found defects” is a goal. “Zero fatal crashes” is also a goal. You’re building a software app for some business purpose, right? What is that purpose and how can your software app testing company help you achieve it?
You will want to achieve your goal Within Your Constraints. You *do * have constraints! Most probably you have limited time and limited budget to achieve your goal. If you’ll share your constraints with you software app testing company, you’ll avoid a nasty surprise and/or the run around trying to make an overly large proposal fit into a tiny budget and timeframe.
You will want Real and Lasting Value. You probably want defects – bug reports. Yes, those are valuable but only if they are accurate, unique and developer-ready to fix. You can also capture even more value that last much longer than a bug report. That additional value might be a small process change that improves your software development speed or it may be an open source requirements management tool that help you shave a couple days off your product specification process. Insist on and capture that extra long-term value, too!

You have a huge variety of choices when you select a software app testing company to help you complete and release your software project. Making a wise choice will save you countless hours and thousands of dollars that a poor choice will cost you.

Ask us these questions at TESTCo. I’m confident you’ll be pleased with our answers. I’d enjoy speaking with you about your project. Call me at 888.254.9709 or schedule a call back using the green button on this page.

We’re different from most outsourced qa testing companies in refreshing ways. Browse our case studies and testing tips to learn why.

Bonus – Three Traps to Avoid when Selecting a Software App Testing Company

So, you’re clear on your goals and constraints. You’re on the alert for how your choice of a software app testing company can improve your situation now and in the future.

Now, be on the alert for these three common traps.

1. Price Vs. Cost

Seeking the lowest hourly rate – their price – can lead you into a trap where the hourly rate is low but your project cost is high. This can happen when your software app testing company struggles to attract and find top quality software testing talent. They might also possibly be testers that were originally software developers but weren’t good enough. Be on the alert for “too good to be true” hourly pricing.

2. Missing Manager

Software app testing companies can also reduce their hourly rates by “body shopping”. This occurs when you rent or lease a person’s time to perform tasks for you. One of the most common ways to reduce the price of a tester is to eliminate any management oversight or coaching. You get the tester and that’s it. This may or may not work well for you. If you’re an experienced QA Manager with plenty of experience managing remote teams, this might work for you. If you’re not experienced with outsourced testing or QA, you might be disappointed when you find out that you’re going to need to manage and task this person every day.

3. Testers Vs Test Engineers

It is very common to find “testers” available to help you at a relatively low cost. This might work for you if your software app is simple and you already have a QA Strategy, Test Plan and Test Cases. A “tester” can probably run those test cases for you. If you have anything other than a very simple app or don’t have a QA Strategy, Test Plan and Test Cases, hiring a “tester” will lead you to disappointment. Only a Test Engineer is educated and experienced in the art and science of software testing and quality assurance.

If you are on the alert for these Three Software Testing Traps, you’ll make a better decision with a higher degree of certainty. That’s what you’re looking for, right – a Certainty of Success?

Double Bonus – Three Tests Plus One Guarantee to Consider When Selecting a Software App Testing Company

So, now you’re clear on your software testing goals and constraints and you’re on the alert for the traps to avoid.

You’ve “pre selected” one or two testing companies that you think can help you achieve your goals.

You’ve talked with them in depth and shared all of your relevant project information.

You’ve received a “proposal” that tells you what they will do, what it will cost and how long it will take.

Here are four “tests” you can use to make sure you’re getting everything you need to be successful with the software app testing company you are going to select.

1. Repeat Your Goals and Constraints

Your proposal should clearly explain your goal and constraints. This is evidence that the software app testing company *knows* and *understands” your goals. If this is missing from your proposal, you should be concerned that they don’t clearly understand your project or goals.

2. At Least One Strategy and A Plan

Your proposal should show “the math” – just like your grammar school mathematics teachers required. Software and software testing projects are complex and there are many different ways to achieve your goals. Your proposal should show the software QA Strategy that was selected as the best approach to achieve your goals within your constraints. It also goes without saying that your proposal should also include a plan that implements the selected Strategy. Double check that the Plan actually follows the Strategy. Award bonus points if your proposal shows more than one QA Strategy and the thinking behind how the best Strategy was selected.

3. A “Fixed Price” Offer?

You probably won’t see a Fixed Price offer in your Proposal unless you ask for one. So, ask and see what their response is. This will give you an indication of how confident the software app testing company is in their Strategy, Plan, and Estimates. Be aware though, that Fixed Price projects can be more contentious to manage to completion. That said, it never hurts to ask.

4. A Success Guarantee

You almost definitely won’t see a Success Guarantee in your Proposal. But, what types of success guarantees will your software app testing company offer you? Ask and see what their response is. The is a powerful conversation to have with your software app testing company and here’s why. Not every project goes according to plan and your’s may not either. Wouldn’t you rather know how your software app testing company is going to respond now, before the crisis happens, than later when everyone is caught by surprise? You deserve to know if your testing partner is committed to your project and how they are going to help you resolve the crisis – if and when it occurs.

If a software app testing company can pass these tests, you’ve found a partner to help you achieve your goals.

If they can’t pass these tests, you’re taking on additional risks needlessly.

Why Regression Testing Must Be Included in Mobile Application Testing

Are your mobile apps prone to breaking after implementing a new feature or update? If so I encourage you to make mobile application regression testing a regular part of your test plan?

You see, after an update or new feature has been added there’s a really good chance that you have some new defects in your older, previously working code. Why might that happen? There are several reasons that your previously “good” mobile application now has new defects after your last update.

Why Defects Appear in “Good” Mobile Applications

Changes in the mobile operating system – it is not uncommon for changes and improvements in a mobile operating system to have a negative impact on your mobile application. This isn’t intentional nor does it happen every time. Testing on a variety of mobile operating systems and devices can help you find these regression defects quickly. Knowing which operating systems and devices to test is where professional mobile application regression testing can help you save time and money.
Changes in code module dependencies – most mobile applications are built by assembling a set of basic software components and then customizing how they interact with each other and your customer. These basic software components are almost always being changed and improved. When those new changes and improvements are included in your new mobile application version, errors are likely to occur. Writing test plans to specifically test mobile software component interaction will help you find these types of regression defects. Professional software test engineers know and use effective test strategies and plans to help you identify and test these “risky” areas.
Human error in development or testing – humans make mistakes – sometimes knowingly and sometimes without knowing. Most regression defects caused by human error are not intentional – in fact, just the opposite! Human errors typically occur when an improvement in one area of the code has a negative impact on some other area of the code that wasn’t foreseen by your software developer. For example, improving the user experience for logging in may have an unexpected impact on how a password reset request works that cause it to fail. QA managers, as an integral part of a mobile application regression testing team, can help you better understand how your requirements/user stories can show you clues to find these types of regression defects.

Smart Mobile Application Regression Testing Begins with a Smart Test Plan

Regression testing doesn’t fit easily into an Agile software development process. And yet, going without regression testing for your mobile application can lead to loss of prospects, customers, and revenue. Working with the right outsourced mobile app testing company certainly goes a long ways to removing the risk associated with rolling out mobile app enhancements.

Go ahead, call me. 888-254-9709. Even if you just want to pick my brain, I want to hear from you. Or, if you prefer, click the blue button on this page to schedule a call back.

Mobile Application Testing Company Selection

How to Select a Mobile Application Testing Company

October 17, 2017/in Mobile application testing /by Jeff Hotz

Mobile application testing is arguably more important than regular software testing.

Here’s why. Most mobile applications are free and most software is paid for. Additionally, most mobile applications are designed to attract new customers and retain your current customers by making it easier to buy from or work with your company. Most software is used within a working environment. See the difference? Mobile applications primarily attract and retain customers where most software is used to accomplish a task.

Now, defects or bugs in ANY software are a problem but defects and bugs in mobile applications have a much higher cost than most defects in regular software.

Why?

Because people seeking help or a new source to purchase from have ZERO TOLERANCE for defects that make it hard to begin or continue doing business with your company. If they find a defect in software they’ve purchased from you, you’ll get a help desk call. If they can’t get your mobile application to work, what do they do? Think about it for a second – what happened the last time you encountered a defect in a mobile application. What did you do? Yeah, you probably closed the mobile application and went somewhere else. I do.

The cost of a defect in a mobile application is higher than the cost of a defect in most software. The cost is a lost customer or new prospect

Mobile application testing is little different from software testing in a couple of other key areas, as well.

“Walled Garden” Software Distribution Challenges

Releasing your mobile software requires “approval” from a third party prior to listing on Apple Store or Google Play. How will this requirement impact your release dates and software testing schedule? What do you need to know to avoid Apple or Google declining your mobile app?

Inputs & Navigation Vs Display & Calculation

The intense focus on Inputs and Navigation in mobile apps requires different software testing strategies to avoid wasted time and effort. How will you know you’ve tested the most vulnerable areas in your mobile app?

Devices, Browsers, Networks and Emulators

So many and growing every day! Your mobile software will operate slightly differently on various device, browser and network combinations. Which combinations are required and which are optional? Which combinations need testing on a real device or network and which can be tested on an emulator? Making the wrong choice can cost you prospects and customers!

Test Engineers & QA Managers Vs Testers

Almost anyone that has used a mobile device “can” test your mobile app. But should they? Test Engineers coupled with a QA Manager can give you full QA coverage and Risk analysis. Testers can usually do what you tell them to.

Not every software testing company will know these key areas well enough to meet all your needs as a mobile application testing company.

Where to start?

There are many mobile application testing company choices available to you. What should you consider and where should you start to make your selection?

Clearly define your quality goal and your budget for time and dollars. This will help whoever you select to build an accurate proposal/estimate. There will always be more QA work that is needed but business decisions drive mobile software projects. Time and money are key constraints that limit what can be done.
Mobile application testing experience is critical. Mobile application testing is different than testing regular software and requires different tools, patterns and methods. Likewise, mobile application developers are seldom a good choice for testing your mobile application. Software test engineers are your best choice.
The size and recency of the device and emulator library will dictate how successful a mobile application testing company can be for you. The wide variety of mobile devices and operating systems dictates that you make two wise choices.
- Which devices and operating systems are most important to you and your customers?
- Which devices does your mobile application testing company actually have? When a particular device/operating system is not available, an emulator must be used instead. Emulators are useful for some testing but almost always fail to provide the complete testing coverage that most modern mobile applications require

The Cost of a Bad Choice

You must already be convinced that testing your mobile application is important and needed – as evidenced by your visiting this page.

Congrats! Some of your competitors either don’t bother to test their mobile application or do it poorly.

Don’t believe me? Just download one of them and see how long it takes before you can crash it. Not long, right?

Here are the big costs you need to avoid when selecting your mobile application testing company.

Price Vs Cost – in software testing, you really do get what you pay for. Low rates/prices are the teaser and longer projects, poor defects, missed coverage and blown out deadlines are the true cost. Compare their calculated project cost instead of the hourly rates. Then, get a money-back guarantee to make double sure. Even better, get a fixed price for your project.
Talent Vs Availability – not everyone is a talented Test Engineer. In fact, most “testers” aren’t engineers at all. If your problem can be solved by “just get it tested” then almost anyone will do – and there are plenty of those folks out there. If your goal is “on time with zero defects” then you’ll need talent – Test Engineer talent and QA Manager Talent. And yes, the price for a Test Engineer is higher but see #1 above.

The Real Cost of Working with a Bad Testing Provider

When doing mobile testing, there are several strategies you can employ. You can test the application yourself, have developers test it, have a 3rd party team test it or you can choose to not test it at all. Out of these choices, having an expert 3rd party team is generally the most cost-effective option; this allows you to access expert testers and get your application into the market as soon as possible. While the ROI of a good 3rd party testing provider is great, working with a bad testing provider comes with its challenges.

The costs of working with an incompetent mobile testing provider is multi-layered. First, there’s the obvious cost of hiring the testing provider to test your mobile application. Prices for selecting a provider can range between companies, but it’s important to be cautious about providers that may charge well below industry prices or providers that are located overseas. While the upfront cost may be lower than other providers, the back-end cost of failed testing and wasted time in addition to the upfront cost can be enormous.

Working with a bad testing provider generally accompanies working with incompetent testers. This doesn’t mean that the testers are bad in general, but a regular software tester might be unable to see your application from the code and system level. This is why it’s important to have software test engineers because they have the understanding to develop and implement a test plan that achieves your project goals.

A good provider is generally very cost-effective. The price of the testing done is reasoned by all the facets of mobile testing that is done for your application. This can include functional testing, performance testing, network testing, cross-device testing, usability testing and more. With each type of testing, there’s a subset of testing that is done to make sure all avenues of mobile testing is done for your application. With good providers, all of these services are provided by competent staff that include testing engineers and QA managers. Having that kind of technical bandwidth and expertise for your application would otherwise require full-time salaried staff and an array of testing platforms.

The Keys to Successful Mobile Application Testing

The three key areas where mobile app testing differs from software testing are:

Faster and Simpler – mobile application projects are usually faster to start and complete since they are smaller and more focused. Applications on mobile devices are also usually simpler in functionality than software applications due to limited screen real estate and uncertain connectivity.
Experience and Completion – mobile apps typically focus more heavily on the user experience than most software applications. Also, clear evidence that the transactions made in your mobile application have been completed are more important due to the tendency of mobile applications to lose network connectivity.
All Those Different Devices – software applications and (most) web applications run in a web browser on a desktop operating system. There are a finite number of operating systems and web browsers that need to be tested against a software or web browser application. There is an almost infinite number of mobile operating systems/browser combinations – definitely more than you could possibly test.

With these three big differences in mind, can you see how selecting the right mobile application testing company might be important in the success of your mobile application project?

Questions for Your Next Mobile Application Testing Company

Here are some great questions to ask when you’re shopping around for a company to test your mobile application.

With our very fast sprints, how will you design your testing strategy to help us increase our speed?
Since we have very simple functionality, how much and what type of testing do you propose to make sure we achieve our goal of Zero Defects?
What strategy do you propose to test the usability of our mobile application?
How will you test and validate transaction completion and notification? How will you test graceful failures?
What is your strategy to help us figure out which devices to test on and which devices that an emulator should be OK?
Is hard device testing necessary or will a tool or emulator be sufficient? Which tools/emulators do you recommend and why?
Where does test automation fit into your strategy and why do you recommend it?

Mobile application testing is similar to but different enough from traditional software testing that a slightly different approach to selecting the best mobile application testing company can mean the difference between your success and failure.

Want to talk with someone at TESTCo about how we’d test your mobile app? Most clients, at first, aren’t even sure how much testing will be necessary. We will give very practical advice in the first call. Call and talk to me personally. 888.254.9709 Or, click the green button on this page to schedule a call back.

The Problems with Agile QA Outsourcing

September 22, 2017/in Agile testing /by Jeff Hotz

There are two problems with Agile QA Outsourcing and we have a solution.

Here’s the first problem.

“Testers”, and particularly, outsourced software testers are poorly qualified to provide all the quality assurance services that you need in your Agile software projects.

Surprise! 80% of Quality Related Activities are Non-Testing Activities

Consider all of the quality-related activities in your agile software project:

Requirements Generation – missing stories, creeping scope, dependencies, edge cases, acceptance criteria & story gaps
Estimations – missing functionality, dependencies, more edge cases,
Planning – regression planning, test automation planning, test strategy and planning
Documentation – acceptance criteria, test data sets, configuration management
In-Sprint – testing, defect reporting, test case creation, test automation, regression testing

You can easily see that 80% of the quality related activities are non-testing activities.

Why are “Testers” the problem?

Most “Testers” have little or no training in technology engineering, software development methods, or team work.

Most offshore “Testers” have been identified and selected as “Testers” because they are not qualified to be “Developers”. They may have experience testing, possibly even in an Agile software project, but they haven’t been trained in software engineering or software quality.

See the potential for issues?

But Wait, There’s More!

The second problem we frequently see with Agile QA Outsourcing is the fact that “agile” is different in every organization – sometimes it’s different on every project!

So….if Agile is different every time, what does Agile QA Outsourcing really mean? Well, we believe that it means that we adjust how we work to match how you work. We start every software testing and QA project the same way – with this question.

“We have a full toolbox but we’re only truly useful if we understand how to work *with* you. So, can you tell us your agile process and how you’d like to see us work with you?”

That’s where Agile QA Outsourcing starts at TESTCo.

Agile QA Outsourcing, the TESTCo Way

TESTCo’s success in Agile QA outsourcing is based on three distinct advantages that most software QA companies do not have.

Test Engineers – are trained and experienced in using the best systematic approach to find and document defects in your software. “Testers” can run the test cases you give them.
QA Managers – are responsible for evaluating and selecting the best QA Strategy, building the test plan with the Test Engineers and reporting quality measurements and statistics each day.
Agile QA Strategies – are used to match our QA Strategies with your team’s approach to Agile Development so that everyone’s work and outcomes are perfectly aligned and in sync.

Business Outcomes to Expect from TESTCo Agile QA Outsourcing Services

The most important business outcome we produce for our clients is a measure of the risk and certainty of your software. We will tell you, on a daily basis, the quality of your software which will allow you to make a business decision about when to deploy your software for the maximum benefit with the least risk.

Mostly this looks like a daily report with a list of defects and recommendations.

But, there are also many other business benefits that you can expect from working with TESTCo on your Agile QA outsourcing project:

Requirements are completed sooner with greater detail and fewer missing dependencies.
Estimates are more accurate and delivered functionality is more complete.
Plans are more accurate and updated more frequently.
Documentation is up to date and sustainable.
In-Sprint Testing is faster, better and cheaper

If your Agile QA Outsourcing is not making your Agile software projects better, faster and cheaper, then contact us and let’s discuss your unique situation and how we can help you. Not ready to talk, but want to learn more about software testing for Agile projects. I’ve written an informative report you can download here.

Download Agile Testing Report

A Short Guide to Web Application Testing Services

September 11, 2017/in Web application testing /by Jeff Hotz

Web application testing services is a general term that can quickly spiral down into a techno babble of software testing methods and practices. That perspective misses the real point about why you want to test in the first place.

In this short guide, I’ll help you understand what those terms mean and how to get what you really want – Certainty of Success.

Testing evaluates and minimizes risk exposure. Testing shows you where there are faults in your web application that might cause you or your business injury or harm.

Software testing answers this question – “Where or how might I suffer a loss or injury to my business with this software and how might I prevent that?”

Web Application Testing Can Be Your Most Valuable Investment

Modern web applications are no longer a simple or inexpensive business tool. They typically take many weeks or months to build and can easily cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. As a business owner or manager, you need and want to make sure that your investment is successful and produces the business value you expect – increased sales, reduced expenses or even more customers.

Not only have you invested a lot of money, you’ve also invested a lot of time, energy and thinking in your web application project. It should go right but you know there are many, many moving parts and it’s possible that something might not work right.

Why is Web Application Testing so Important?

Web application testing has many effects on your website’s visibility and how users are affected by your website’s features. With web application testing, you can see exactly what are the causes to the root issues on your website. This allows you to fix any major and minor bugs and other issues on your website to ensure that the user experience is seamless. Ignoring web application testing can lead to broken links, image loading, keys not working and more. Customers have a short attention span when visiting your site, so fixing these issues will increase the time users spend on your site.

Some of the main benefits of web application testing include:

Compatibility:

Web application testing ensures that your site is compatible across browsers, devices and more. Your current site may look different when accessed from different browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Since browsers are constantly changing, testing will help make sure that your website performs well regardless of which browser a user is using.

Website performance:

Web application testing is also crucial to optimizing performance. There are a lot of factors on your website that influence performance; aspects of your website like code, graphics, user interface, etc. have a significant impact on your website’s performance. Testing illustrates which of these factors is slowing down your performance and how you can fix it.

SEO ranking:

Web application testing can also increase your SEO rankings significantly. SEO rankings are not random and Google takes many aspects of your website into consideration in regards to SEO. For example, things like broken links, images not loading and duplicate content can hurt your SEO rankings. Web application testing can find the root cause of your SEO issues and resolve them permanently.

Security:

Testing is also essential to show all of the security risks your website is experiencing. Cyber attacks can damage your website, brand and entire business. Web application testing can reveal the vulnerabilities your website has and how you can address them immediately. Without testing, you can’t know exactly what cyber attacks your website is susceptible to. Depending on the nature of your business, a cyber attack can lead to personal customer information being stolen and that can have significant legal ramifications.

Here’s How Defects Cost Your Company

Customers frustrated by a web application defect will either stop their interaction with you or call your support phone number. This is either a loss of revenue or an increase in expenses.
Prospects who can’t purchase or order from you because of a web application defect will probably not pursue the additional steps needed to be your customer – they’ll shop somewhere else. This is a loss of revenue.
Your staff or team members who can’t complete their work due to a web application defect WILL PROBABLY continue working on that task and consume much more time to complete it. They may possibly stop working on that task because they can’t complete it. This is an increase in expenses and also probably a loss of revenue.

These are just some general ways that defects can cost your company significant capital. There can be additional costs depending on your business, the complexity of your product and what type of industries you operate in. For example, heavily regulated industries such as aerospace and healthcare will require you to prove your product is safe multiple times before getting out to market again. Additional defects in the future can lead to the closure of your entire business.

In short, web application testing can help insure the value you’ve built in your web application and prevent any unexpected risks or losses to your business. This might be one of the most valuable investments you can make!

The Three Primary Areas Of Concern Leading To Web Application Testing Services

Does your web application do what it is supposed to do? “Functional Testing” in web application testing services is the process of evaluating the behavior of your web application to determine if all of the “functions” in your app perform as you expect them to perform. Examples of functional behavior include everything from accurately calculating and processing transactions to gracefully and politely denying access to anyone without valid log in credentials – and everything in between. Functional testing can take several forms – from writing formal test cases and test plans to ad-hoc or exploratory testing.
Will your web application work on the web browsers and mobile devices your customers use? “Cross Browser Testing/XBT” or “Compatibility Testing” is the process of evaluating the behavior of your web application to determine if it performs properly on a variety of operating systems, web browsers and mobile devices. Examples of XBT include testing on the last three versions of IOs or Android (not everybody takes the updates!) to testing on the last three versions of Windows with Firefox, Chrome, Safari and whatever Microsoft is calling their current web browser. Don’t forget iPads and other tablets!
Will your web application crash when a lot of your customers use it at the same time? “Load Testing” is the process of determining the “break points” in your web application as the number of simultaneous users increases. Very few web application crash anymore and this is due to the way that servers are typically provisioned and managed. Gone are the days of getting “slash dotted” when your web server couldn’t keep up if your web application or web page suddenly got national attention or “went viral”. Load Testing will evaluate a variety of usage scenarios and report the simultaneous user count at which your web server begins to slow down and annoy your users. These are the “break points” at which you will want to make sure that your servers are increased to effectively handle the additional load.

Other Business Risks To Mitigate With Web Application Testing Services

Depending on your type of business and your willingness to accept risks there are other justifications for web app testing.

Can your web application be hacked? “Security Testing” will explore a variety of different hacks or penetration schemes to determine if, where and how your web application is subject to loss of data or inappropriate access. Most security testing is focused on external penetrations but internal cross penetration of privileged capabilities may also be a risk area.
Is your web application too slow? “Performance Testing” is the process of determining your web application’s the speed of processing transactions. These measurements are taken in a variety of places within the most widely used scenarios and then reported to your development team for speed improvements where necessary. In most modern web applications, this is no longer a big concern.
Is your web application legal? “Compliance Testing” is the process of comparing the behavior and display of your web application to the rules and regulations that your business is subject to. This can be a complex process, primarily because most regulations are subject to some degree of interpretation. An example of compliance testing that you should take into consideration is ADA compliance.

Web application testing services can look complex and baffling when you’re just given a web page full of techno babble. But, it can also be safe, easy and reliable when you can easily understand your options and select the services that are most valuable for you and your business.

A Quick Checklist To Help You

Even after you understand what web application testing services are, it can still be daunting to get the help you want and need for web application software testing your project. So, here’s a quick checklist of questions you can consider as you decide what works best for your web application testing project.

What is the goal for my project?
What are my constraints for my project?
What are the top 3 risks for my project?
What is the vendor’s goal for my project?
What strategies did the vendor recommend based on my goal & constraints?
What does the vendor offer or recommend to reduce the risks on this project?

This isn’t a complete list and there are a lot more questions that can help you improve your chances of success. But, if you know the answers to these six questions and make your selection based on those answers, you have an extremely high probability of selecting the best web application testing services partner and having a successful testing project.

A Sample Web Application Testing Project

Everyone’s web application testing project is different. But, with the hundreds of web application testing projects we’ve completed, it possible to show you an outline of what you can expect for your web application testing project.

Monday – you just got out of a product meeting and your web application project is nearing completion – you need to be ready to test in a week!

Tuesday – you Google “web application testing” and find our website. You send us a contact form asking for help with your project. We write back within an hour and agree to talk on the phone on Wednesday.

Wednesday – we talk on the phone for 30 minutes and discuss your web application testing project’s goals and constraints. You’re clear that you need help and you need to get it right the first time. We answer all your questions and you’d like for us to provide you with a proposal and quote. We schedule a 60 minute Scoping Session on Thursday with a QA Manager and Senior Test Engineer.

Thursday – you meet with our QA Manager and Senior Testing Engineer in a web-based “show and tell” to demonstrate your web application and show us the details of where you are concerned. We describe several different strategies that match your goals and constraints so we can get an idea of which strategies appeal to you.

Friday – we deliver a quote and proposal that clearly shows which strategy we recommend along with a detailed work plan and price quote that meets your budget constraints and timeline. You agree and ask us to begin work on Monday.

Monday – you begin by meeting with your QA Manager and Senior Test Engineer to discuss any last minute changes. Your web application testing project has begun! Your first Daily Production Report arrives in your Inbox early in the evening for you to review.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – You receive a Daily Plan in your Inbox with full details of the day’s work. You can also expect a call from the QA Manager if anything is unclear or we are blocked in our work plan. You receive a Daily Production Report each evening that details the testing work completed with links to all of the test cases we’ve built and defects we’ve found.

Most web application testing project are completed within 3-5 days.

Lastly, after your web application testing project is completed, you’ll receive a Final Report with a detailed list of our work and links to outcomes (you own the test cases we build for you). You’ll also receive a list of recommendations from our QA Manager of things that you might improve to lower your risk and expenses in the future.

That’s it! This process took two weeks but can be compressed to a single week if you find yourself in a rush.

TESTCo provides on-demand testing services for websites, web apps, and software. software testing services that are Safe, Easy and Reliable so that you can delight your customers and eliminate any nasty surprises when you release your software.

Tips For Product Managers

Many of our clients are Product Managers and we’ve collected a few Best Practices for Web Application Testing that should help you get more of what you want with less hassle and worry.

Write and publish a Goal for your web application project. Almost every web application project requires a team. For a team to be successful, they’ll have to know and work towards a specific goal each day.
Start testing now! Even if you don’t have any “code” yet, you can begin testing by building test cases and test scenarios from your stories and use cases. A little known secret is that software developers actually appreciate test cases and scenarios included with the story! Why? Ever had someone explain something to you that almost made sense? If you had an example, would it have made more sense? Yeah, your software devs will appreciate your forward thinking.
Plan for quality and start early. Most project plans focus on getting the deliverables completed – usually with the assumption that they will pass testing. Here’s a Pro Tip – most deliverables DO NOT PASS TESTING the first time. Plan more time for quality DURING your project and your project will complete much more smoothly and on time. If you wait to the end to test, you’ll almost always need more time in your project plan.

If you’ll do these three simple things, your web application project will complete Faster, Better and Cheaper!

When “Just Test It” Isn’t Enough

September 5, 2017/in Web application testing, Website testing /by Jeff Hotz

If your goal or the goal you give to a web testing company is “go fast and break things” then you should skip this.

But, if your goal is to build websites and web apps that delight your clients and that propels your company to achieve its goals, then there is something for you to learn in this post.

We’re occasionally asked to “just test this for us” and we’re happy to do that. After all, we’re a software and web testing company. It would be silly not to.

But, if you knew a little more about what is possible with software testing and quality assurance, would it influence your decision about which web testing company you choose and what you asked them to do?

OK, then, here’s what’s possible that you might be missing when you ask a web testing company to “just test” your software.

You want it tested to find the defects that will cause your software or web application to ABEND (any old JCL/Cobol programmers out there?), crash or disrupt your customer from achieving their goal.

You want defects!

But Wait, Just Defects?

Yes and no.

Yes, you want as many defects as your web testing company can find for you. After all, it’s better that we find them than your customers and prospects, right?

And, all software has defects, right? It just goes with the territory and that’s why all software needs to be test.

But, what if you could also reduce the number of defects your team produces and figure out how to build software faster?

Would it help you, your team and your company if merely by having your software tested, you also found out how to measurably improve your software production speed and reduce your software development costs?

The Hidden Secret of Effective Website and Web App Testing

Here’s a secret that few people take advantage of – your web testing company should also have a QA Manager that can help you pinpoint broken places in your software development process where you are building your web software inefficiently or ineffectively. The QA Manager should help you see where you’re either doing it poorly or doing it wrong.

And yet, most people never take advantage of this hidden gem for one of two reasons.

You just don’t ask your web testing company how they could help you build better software. In most cases, this is because most web testing companies simply sell you a tester. When you have a Test Engineer on your project, you’ll have the confidence and opportunity to ask where they think your process could be improved.
Your web testing company doesn’t provide an experienced QA Manger on every project. An experienced QA Manager has seen and successfully completed hundreds of software testing projects. They’ve seen it all! An experienced QA Manager has an enormous toolbox just packed full of QA and Testing methods, processes, tools, tips and tricks that they’d love to share with you. And, you’re hearing from your web testing team every day (you do get daily status reports, right?) and these are the perfect opportunity to get advice and feedback from your web testing company’s QA Manager on how you might improve your software production process.

You should expect more from your web testing company. More than just defects or bugs. You should get help to improve your process so you spend less time and money in the future.

Give Your Web Testing Company Clear Goals If You Want Clear Outcomes

You will almost always need more testing than you can afford. It’s just the nature of software and the art/science of software engineering. You already know this. I’m sorry that it is this way and hope you’ll find some hope and relief in this article.

Since there is more testing work than you can afford, your web testing company will need to decide what to test and how to test it.

Clear goals prevent wasted time and money chasing the wrong thing.

Clear goals for your software testing company will ensure that you are satisfied with the outcomes and value they produce for you.

Clear goals are the #1 factor leading to effectively achieving your goals.

Crystal Clear Constraints Equal On Time Results

You can only afford so much. Budgets are budgets and we all have to make do with less sometimes. Sometimes, even your patience and available time are a constraint – you hired a web testing company to help – why are they asking all these questions?

That’s fine and expected. But, you still need to get the testing coverage you need in the timeline you’ve got so you can achieve your business goals.

Clear constraints (money, time, talent, patience, etc) will help your web testing company make accurate promises, plans, and estimates.

Clear constraints help us further understand your goals and how we can help you.

Lack of clear constraints is the #1 reason most projects end abruptly without completion.

Read a true story about how TESTCo worked miracles by knowing the goals and constraints before testing even started.

Clear Strategy Equals Repeatable and Sustainable Results

For TESTCo, Strategy is the process of assembling a set of assets with advantages and actions relative to achieving the goal. A solid Testing Strategy will help us achieve your goals within your constraints.

There is always more than one way to skin a cat or test your software.

“Just test it” is a strategy but it ignores almost everything you need to be successful.

What is a Software Testing Strategy and How do We Use It to Help You?

Very simply, a strategy is a collection of assets that have a specific advantage that can be put into action to help you achieve your goal within your constraints.

A strategy helps you fill the “How will we do this?” gap that sits in between your goal and your constraints.

Most goals are aimed at Zero or very minimal defects when the software is deployed. Most constraints are time and budget – it needs to be done by a certain date and within a certain budget.

Once you know the goal and the constraints, you can begin to find and organize your “assets” to work (within the constraints) to achieve your goal.

There are three challenges in this approach that you’ll need to be prepared for.

Which software testing strategies are relevant and effective to your goal and constraints?
Of those relevant strategies, which will give you the biggest outcome for the least cost and risk?
Do you have all the “assets” you need to pursue your strategy?

If you’re a seasoned QA Manager, you probably already have a list of “go-to” software testing strategies. If you’re not a seasoned QA Manager, your web testing company should have a QA Manager that can walk you through this easily.

At TESTCo, we typically evaluate two or three strategies before selecting and recommending the best for our clients to achieve their goals within their constraints.

“Testers” Usually Don’t Have a Strategy

“Test Engineers” and “QA Managers” have a library of different testing and QA Strategies they can employ to achieve your goals. That’s why TESTCo only employs test engineers. That’s why a QA Manager is assigned to every project. Your web testing company should provide these for you!

“Just Test It and Hope For the Best” is also a strategy, it’s just not a very good one. That’s one reason you want to be careful about hiring a company to test your software, website and apps.

Lack of a strategy is the #1 reason for looking foolish to your boss or customers.

Goals, Constraints and Strategy Equal Value and Delight

You know you need testing for your software, website, or web application and you also know you have a limited budget.

Sure, you can get it “tested”.

But, why?

If you’ll share your Goals and Constraints with us, we’ll show you that you can have more.

Your boss and customers will appreciate it.

Common Web Testing Services Explained

May 30, 2017/in Web application testing, Website testing /by Jeff Hotz

You’re looking for Web testing services, but we know you’re really looking for Website testing or Web app testing. Correct? You’ve come to the right place.

We typically see three types of testing when someone asks us to provide Web testing services.

Functional Testing Gets the Inputs and Outputs Right

Does your website or Web app gather data, collect information or calculate any sums?

Does your website create reports or display graphs of data?

Or, maybe your website looks up data or connects with other databases to show the results?

Ever wonder if it’s possible to crash your website or web application with “bad data”?

If you want this type of web testing service, you’ll probably want some Functional Testing to make sure that the inputs and outputs all behave properly. What could go wrong? Usually, not much if your users are behaving as well. But, if they get confused and press the “Back” button one too many times, does your Website or Web app help them or just crash and make them start over? Functional Testing will find these problems for you before they frustrate your prospects and customers.

This is the primary concern for most people that want web testing services.

Cross Browser Testing Requires More than a Tool

Do your prospects & customers use a wide variety of desktop and mobile devices to visit your Website or Web app?

Have you tried your website or web app with something other than your favorite browser?

Can you see from your server logs that your prospects & customers use different browsers and operating systems?

Did your website or web app developers use some “tricky” code to get your site to do something “cool”? Will that “cool” code run on all browsers or only the one your developer uses?

If so, you’ll probably want some Cross Browser Testing (XBT) to make sure that you website or web app displays properly in the most popular browsers, devices and operating systems. Why could this be a problem? Some of the newest browsers and mobile devices won’t display some HTML/CSS code properly. The most common approach to solving this problem is to rent or buy a Cross Browser Testing Tool.

We use this approach as well. However, there’s more to using a Cross Browser Testing Tool than first meets the eye. Most Cross Browser Testing Tools emulate a mobile device/operating system/browser. This usually works but when it doesn’t, you won’t really know unless your very familiar with which tools work best and which devices don’t emulate very well. Additionally, just using the XBT tool is challenging if you genuinely want accurate test results. Sure, almost anyone can use them but we’ve found that an expert can get much more value with much less frustration from the XBT tool than an average or new user.

Tips for Successful Website Testing

Load and Performance Testing

Are you worried about your Website or Web app crashing due to too many prospects or customers?

Do you know how many prospects or customers can visit your website or web app before it overloads and crashes?

Adding server resources is easy today, but they aren’t cheap. How will you know when to turn on more servers?

If so, congratulations! We hope the good part of your concern (too many prospects or customers) comes true and we can also help you make sure the “crashing” part doesn’t happen.

Load testing generally answers the question, “How many users can my Website or Web app handle before it becomes too slow or crashes?”.

Performance testing generally answers the question, “When and where does my Website begin slowing down or performing poorly?”

With performance testing, aspects of performance like responsiveness, speed, reliability and scalability can be quantified. There are different types of performance tests and they can gather different, specific results depending on the objectives. The data from performance tests can analyze the different KPIs such as response time, latency and errors per second. With this, you can identify bottlenecks, errors and bugs and figure out the next steps forward. Performance testing should be used when you want to check the performance of your website, apps, networks, databases and more.

Load testing provides several more insights than performance testing. Load testing examines how your system performs with many concurrent users. This will exhibit how your system will react when there is heavy traffic over a given period of time. Load testing differs from performance testing because it is something you should be doing all the time. Load testing allows you to test different user scenarios and optimize your system to handle large volumes.

Load Testing will typically be your biggest concern. Load Testing will give you a quick analysis of the user loads (number of simultaneous users of your Website or web app) that show performance problems. With this data, it’s a straight forward task to build reserve capacity for your Website or Web app that will engage when specific user loads are reached.

API Testing, or Not

API Testing can be included or ignored in your website testing services depending on how you use them.

How connected is your website or web app to other websites and web apps? Maybe more than you realize!

Is your “front end” separate from your “back end”?

On the Back End

Is the “back end” used by other website or web apps?

Sometimes, your website or app is built so that the “front end” is separated from the “back end”. This means that the “front end” website or app, where you input information and read responses, is unique, separate and autonomous from the “back end”. The “back end” is also a unique and autonomous system where your server application and databases store the user info, combine or compare it with various other data sets and then send outputs back to the “front end”. This front end/back end situation is largely a technical decision based on your unique situation and preferred technology.

On the Front End

The “front end” communicates with the “back end” by using API calls. API stands for Application Programming Interface. APIs provide a simple and effective method for communicating between the “user side/front end” and the “server side/back end”. This allows development (and testing) to occur at different times without impacting the end users.

Do you need to include API testing in your website testing services?

Sometimes and it depends.

If you only have a single front end and a single back end, then your APIs are primarily a convenience connection and don’t typically need testing. Why? Since you only have a single front end and single back end, the only time the APIs are used is through the front end and front end testing can usually provide you with the quality and confidence you’re looking for. The possibility of overlooking an API in this situation is very small.

But, if you have multiple front ends or your front end calls multiple back ends, then you’ll definitely want to get your APIs tested. In this case, the possibility of overlooking an API call that is faulty is quite high if you only test through the front end.

Each API testing situation is unique. The decision to include API testing in your website testing services is your choice. We’re happy to take as much time as you’d like to explain our approach and recommendations.

Benefits of API Testing

Testing core for functionality: This is the first and most important benefit of API testing. API testing allows access to an application without a user interface. Testing the core functionality of an application gives an early evaluation of an application prior to GUI testing. This allows testing to be proactive because smaller issues can be resolved then before becoming large problems in the latter testing stages.

Protection

One of the most important functions of API testing is to protect you from malicious code and breakage. API testing removes any vulnerabilities that can lead to both malicious software and breakage.

Time effectiveness

API testing is time effective because it takes a fraction of the time it takes to do normal GUI testing. API testing can do far more testing than GUI tests in the same time period because it doesn’t have the same restrictions. For example, GUI tests have to have webpage elements polled which significantly slows down the testing process

Integration with GUI

API testing can easily integrate with GUI testing. Functional GUI tests can be done along with API tests for comprehensive testing.

Although the benefits of API testing are vast, there can be several issues that can arise from API testing in certain cases. Some the drawbacks include:

Tracking API Inventory

Since there are numerous APIs and they act independently, it’s important to keep up with any updates on APIs and how that can affect the overall program. Neglecting APIs can lead to many difficult issues down the road

Complex protocols

Since APIs interact with each other through defined contracts and protocols, the protocols may lead to difficulties when integrating and testing between different components

Sequencing API Calls

Often, API calls need to appear in a specific order for it to work. This can create issues for the testing team if they cannot come up with the correct order. Having a release candidate can help with managing and seeing the sequence of API calls

All of these drawbacks mentioned above are things that TESTCo has done and solved time and time again. When consulting with TESTCo, feel free to mention any of your API concerns and TESTCo will provide strategies and plans of action to assess your concerns.