April 28, 2021

Do You Have a Testing Problem? Where to Look & How to Determine

Automation

Continuous Testing

An effective and efficient testing strategy is something we all aim to achieve. But it’s not easy to get there. And it doesn’t happen overnight.

In fact, it’s pretty easy to have a testing problem. Testing is often the bottleneck of the SDLC. Automation is hard to stabilize. And it can be time consuming to find out where you went wrong.

Keep reading to see whether you have a testing problem, and what you can do about it.

Common Testing Problems Teams Face

Escaped Defects

Escaped defects are a sure sign of a testing problem. They impact customers and damage your brand. And the later you find them, the more they cost to fix.

No matter how good their test automation framework is, QA managers and engineers still get blamed whenever defects escape to production — whether they are functional or nonfunctional.

Escaped defects can occur when teams lack Agile testing and instead wait to test until late in the cycle. Instead of taking this siloed approach, teams should test continuously upon each code change and iteration.

How to Eliminate Escaped Defects With a Proven Test Automation Coverage Strategy >>

An optimized delivery pipeline that utilizes automation ensures teams get fast and continuous feedback on tests. It also helps them catch defects before they get to production. Of course, proper test coverage is also critical to preventing escaped defects, which brings us to our next point.

Misaligned Platform Coverage

Whether you’re testing web or mobile apps, or both, you have a lot of ground to cover. The landscape continues to grow more fragmented with unlimited permutations of devices, browsers, OSes, and generations to test.

Top Test Coverage Metrics for Flawless Apps >>

But you can’t cover it all. Instead, focus on the highest priority platforms for your audience and region. Test on the devices and browsers people use to visit your app and website. You’ll also want to keep an eye on market share data and device releases and browser updates. This will give you the best test coverage.

You can get all of this information in our Test Coverage Index which includes:

Data on the top-used phones and browsers in your region.
Mobile and web browser release calendars.

Insights across North America, Asia, and Europe.
Expert test coverage recommendations.

Flaky Tests

If you suffer from flaky tests, this could be a symptom of another testing problem: a misalignment of the skillsets of team members.

While SDETs have strong coding backgrounds, business testers have varying levels of the coding skills needed to write automated test scripts for frameworks such as Appium and Selenium.

That is why it is recommended to match the right tools and technologies with different skillsets. Business testers can transition from manual to automated testing with low-code and no-code options, such as TestCraft. Or, they can utilize BDD frameworks such as Quantum to create reusable test scripts in plain English.

By utilizing these technologies, teams can create more robust and reliable test scripts — and get the entire team involved in test automation creation.

Code & Test Script Issues

If teams lack best practices related to coding, issues with test scripts can increase.

Teams can utilize code design patterns to mitigate test script issues. Code design patterns such as Page Object Model, singleton, factory method, and others, can help you improve code quality in your test scripts.

For teams encountering script issues, reusability can help them maintain their code. Teams can reuse scripts to mitigate issues. By treating test code as production code — which include code reviews, refactoring, and version control — code can be better maintained.

Teams can also do periodic testing of their code, schedule debugging sessions, and identify issues with object identifiers ahead of critical regressions.

Additionally, ensuring high stability across platforms prior to integrating new tests into the CI and the pipeline can reduce the amount of broken builds and testing frustration.

Lack of Visibility Into Your Tests

The more you test, the more data you accumulate. But if you lack visibility into your data, you have a testing problem.

Data accuracy and relevancy is needed for automated testing to be successful. DevOps teams need fast feedback in order to test off the latest data.

Too often, teams test against the wrong data. They use data that is outdated simply due to the fact that it takes them too long to gather and organize that data. If the data model wasn’t updated correctly, outdated data can provide irrelevant or incorrect results.

Test Reporting: What It Is & How to Make It Work for Continuous Testing >>

Processes and communication can also keep teams from receiving correct and current data. Sometimes data is owned and generated from another team member, such as a data scientist. Disconnections can throw off data. And of course, communication gaps can affect the quality of the data as well.

Through a sophisticated test reporting and analytics solution, teams can achieve fast feedback. They can gain visibility into data lags. Data visualization can show them how it impacts the productivity of their team.

Bottom Line

These testing problems are tricky to fix — but they’re not impossible to overcome. With the right tools and testing strategy, you can develop an efficient delivery pipeline. Partnering with the right testing solution can make all the difference too.

Perfecto, the award winning testing cloud, is here to help.

We’re the industry-leading testing platform. Bring us your toughest automation questions or testing problems. Utilize our cloud for web and mobile test automation at scale. And let our unmatched testing expertise guide you through the entire process.

Give it a try with a free two-week trial. Or, watch a demo of Perfecto to see testing in action.

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State of Continuous Testing