The Value of Human Expertise: Why Manual Testing Remains Essential in the Digital Age
There is a sentiment in the market today that expresses a "We can do without Manual Testing" viewpoint. It might be to reduce costs, or in more simple terms, a narrative that "we are all testers, save you some time and potential headache, but the sentiment is not entirely true. The manual test position may look different, it may not be couched in the same explicit form of days past, but the necessity of manual, or exploratory testing remains as strong as ever.
Over the years, Quality Assurance has evolved to not only being a role within the software development cycle but to being an essential thread within the software project team. We are all responsible for the quality of the product we are working on: Development, Automation, DevOps and of course Manual Testers.
QA (Quality Assurance) has evolved from focusing on whether or not the application is working to seeing the product from different perspectives and contexts. Understanding the needs, feelings and emotions of the end user in order to evaluate the product is essential. By representing the end user, this requires folks having an understanding beyond the requirements created by the Product Owner or the needs of the company.
Manual testers understand the organization's business processes, have in-depth knowledge of the product, its capabilities and also function as fully fledged end users who interact with the application, providing a new point of view, not only of the bugs but also the market, the competitors and product functionality - both what is required and what is desired.
In addition to their deep knowledge and insights, they actively seek continuous improvement. They use various methods and cutting-edge technology to optimize processes and detect errors early. One strategy, among others, integrates the DevOps methodology into the overall development pipeline. While manual testing is inherently hands-on, DevOps tools can optimize how manual testing is planned, executed, and reported.
To learn more about this fantastic methodology, read "What is DevOps" here. You will gain insight into continuous improvement, enhanced collaboration, team communication, and more!
Discover what it is and how you can assemble your software delivery team according to your project's needs here.
Bridging the Gap: How Manual Testing Enhances Automated Processes in Quality Assurance
Automated testing is definitely consuming the discussion space today. Everyone wants to automate and by doing so believe they may be able to do away with the more manual positions. Our response to this is twofold:
First, we agree that automated testing is crucial when testing repetitive and complex tasks or regressions tests, not only doing it faster, but more accurately and at any time of the day or night. That is valuable and effective. But QAs focus on the what and why of testing, bringing critical thinking, curiosity, creativity and human-observation into the equation.
Second, the best outcome is to effectively do both. By allowing automation to take over the more repetitive tasks, QAs can focus on aspects such as exploratory, behavior, usability, ad-hoc testing, and dimensions we cannot go into in this limited space. Together, automation allows the team to quickly react to the validation of changes in functionality in any part of the application. And the QAs can find different ways to better understand their product, challenge UX and intention of use as an end user and effectively ensure they are providing the best possible experience for their final users.
Read this if you want to learn how to choose manual and automated testing to improve the quality of your software.
The Human Touch in Testing: Unleashing the Power of Manual Testing for Superior Results
At Jalasoft, we involve QA at the beginning of the software development life cycle for various reasons. Testers need time to become product domain experts. Time so they can understand requirements but also study them and see beyond the explicit and into the implicit and the omitted.
Testers need to study personas, scenarios, and variable combinations, amongst others, to author test cases. In addition, they need time to study marketing claims and competitors in the domain to understand the product's value proposition. Testers need to be involved in team meetings when requirements are being discussed, and user stories are being discovered and introduced in the backlog.
Testers must actively ask questions from day one, ensuring backlog items are testable. As soon as a piece of software is ready to be tested, a tester needs to be ready to test it. By incorporating software delivery best practices from the onset, Jalasoft ensures that QA is seamlessly integrated into the development cycle, significantly enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of testing processes.
Contact us today to explore how our comprehensive Manual Testing Services and agile nearshoring approach can elevate the quality and success of your software projects. Let's work together to exceed your expectations.
Read this Best Practices for Software Project Management article to increase your knowledge to develop high-quality software.
