Here are some of the topics covered in this book:

• Fundamentals of software testing
• When defects gets introduced in SDLC?
• Why does software have defects?
• What is Verification?
• What is Validation?
• Software Testing Techniques
• Static Testing
• White Box Testing
• Black Box Testing
• Gray Box Testing
• Objectives of Testing
• Software testing Principles
• Reviews
• Types of Reviews
• UI / GUI Testing
• Test Planning
• Test Plan and Test Plan Template
• SRS/FRS template
• Test Scenario
• Example Test Scenarios
• Test Case
• What is a good test case?
• Test case design techniques
• Requirement traceability Matrix (RTM)
• Defect Reporting
• Configuration Management
• Software Configuration Tools

**************************

If you want to stay updated with latest information from software testing industry and more testing free eBooks, please consider signing up for our free newsletter by providing your email address in below sign up form:

Download this eBook:
Just right click on below link and then click on “Save link as” to save this eBook zip file on your computer:

==>> Manual Testing Help eBook Download

If you enjoy this eBook don’t forget to share it with your friends. You can also put all your queries in comments below.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Manual Testing Help eBook – Free Download Inside!

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Application Testing is an activity that every software tester performs daily in his career. These two words are extremely broad in practical aspect. However, only the core and most important areas will be discussed here. The purpose of this article is to touch all the primary areas so that the readers will get all the basic briefing at a single place.

Categories of Applications

Whether it is small calculator software with only the basic arithmetic operations, or an online enterprise solution; there are two categories of applications.
a. Desktop
b. Web

For desktop applications, testing should take into account the UI, business logic, database, reports, roles and rights, integrity, usability and data flow. For web applications, along with all these major areas; testers should give sufficient importance to performance, load and security of the application. So AUT is either desktop software or a website.

Application Testing Methodologies

This is a well-known and well discussed aspect; there are only 3 universally accepted methodologies;

a. Black Box: In black-box testing, the AUT is validated against its requirements considering the inputs and expected outputs, regardless of how the inputs are transformed into outputs. Testers are least concerned with internal structure or code that implements the business logic of the application. There are four primary techniques to design test cases for black box testing;

i. BVA (Boundary value Analysis)
ii. EP (Equivalence Partitioning)
iii. Decision Tables
iv. State Transition Tables (and diagrams)

a. White Box: Primary focus of this methodology is to validate, how the business logic of application is implemented by code. Internal structure of the application is tested and the techniques available to do so are;

i. Code Coverage
ii. Path Coverage

Both the above listed techniques contain several other strategies that may be discussed in some other article. Some techniques are discussed in ‘Test Case Design Techniques’ topic.

a. Grey Box: Practically speaking, this is a mixture of black box and white box. In this methodology, mainly the tester tests the application as in black box. But, for some business critical or vulnerable modules of application; testing is done as white box.

Application Testing Tools

According to the best of my knowledge, there are at least 50 testing tools available in market today. These include both paid and open source tools. Moreover, some tools are purpose specific e.g. UI testing, Functional Testing, DB Testing, Load Testing, Performance, Security Testing and Link validation testing etc. However, some tools are strong and provide the facility of testing several major aspects of an application. The general concept of ‘Application Testing’ is its functional testing. So, our focus will be on functional testing tools.

Here is the list of some most important and fundamental features that are provided by almost all of the ‘Functional Testing’ tools.

a. Record and Play
b. Parametrize the Values
c. Script Editor
d. Run (the test or script, with debug and update modes)
c. Report of Run session

Different vendors provide some specific features that make their product unique to other competitor products. But the five features listed above are the most common and can be found in almost all the functional testing tools.

Following is the list of few widely used Functional Testing tools.

1) HP QTP (Quick Test Professional)
2) Selenium
3) IBM Rational Robot
4) Test Complete
5) Push to Test
6) Telerik

Software Test Plan (STP)

For any activity, some planning is always required and same is true for software testing. Without proper plan there is always high risk of getting distracted during the testing. If this risk becomes a fact, the results could be horrible.

Following are the 5 main parts of a good Test Plan:
a. Scope
i. Overview of AUT
ii. Features (or areas) to be tested
iii. Exclusions (features or areas not to be tested) with reason
iv. Dependencies (of testing activities on each other, if any)

b. Objectives: This section describes the goals of testing activity e.g. validation of bug fixes, new features added or revamp of AUT etc.

c. Focus: This section describes what aspect of application will be included in the testing e.g. security, functionality, usability, reliability, performance or efficiency etc.

d. Approach: This section describes what testing methodology will be adopted for which areas of AUT. For example, in the STP of an ERP application; the approach section may contain the information that black box testing will be approach for payroll. On the other hand, for reports the approach will be grey box testing.

e. Schedule: This sections describes that who will be doing what and where on the AUT, when and how. Schedule section is, in fact, a ’4Ws and H’ of the STP. Normally it is a simple table, but every organization may have its own customized format according to their own needs. Once the test plan is ready and application is under development; testers design and document the test cases. In the “Application Testing – Methodologies” section above, I have listed the TC design techniques.

Application Testing Cycles

Once the AUT is ready for testing, the practical phase of testing cycle starts in which testers actually execute the test cases on AUT. Keep in mind that here the testing cycle is discussed regardless of Testing Levels (Unit, Module, Integration, System and User Acceptance) and Testing Environments (Dev, QA, Client’s Replica, Live).

a. Smoke Testing: The very first testing cycle that is wide and shallow in approach. The purpose of smoke testing is to verify that there are no crashes in the application and it is suitable for further testing.

b. Sanity Testing: The second testing cycle that is narrow and deep in its approach. Its purpose is to verify that a specific module is working properly and is suitable for complete testing.

Tip: Usually there is not ample amount of time available to run these two cycles separately. So, a mixture of both these cycles is adopted in practical.

c. Functional Testing: The proper and full fledged testing of application is performed in this cycle. The primary focus of this activity is to verify the business logic of the application.

d. Regression Testing: This is the final cycle of testing in which the bug-fixes and/or updates are verified. Moreover, regression testing also ensures that there is no malfunctioning in other areas of AUT due to fixes and changes.

Bugs are logged in every testing cycle. There is no distinct border line between the testing cycles. For example, in Regression the Functionality is also verified and it may also require smoke, sanity or their merger first.

Application Testing – Best Practices

I think, hundreds of articles are available about this on internet. Every article suggests different number of best practices ranging from 7 to 30 (that I have seen so far). However, I have just 5 tips for readers.

1. Plan Properly
2. Test Keenly
3. Log the bugs Clearly
4. Do Regression Test Efficiently
5. Improve above four skills Continuously

Conclusion: Application Testing is a vast subject and the primary activity of any software tester. In this article, I have provided the overview of some most fundamental and necessary areas that fall under this topic. Application Testing involves strategies, phenomena, approaches, tools, technologies and guidelines. However, I have addressed the conceptual and practical insight of its salient concerns.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Application Testing – Into the Basics of Software Testing!

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

As I mention in my earlier post, in general, understanding about software testing documentation is “It can be done only by the person who has free time”.  We need to change this mindset, and then only we can leverage documentation power on our projects.

It’s not that we don’t know how to do the documentation right. We just don’t think it’s important.

Everyone must have standard templates for all the kinds of documentation starting from Test strategy, test Plan, Test cases, and Test data to Bug report. These are just to follow some standards (CMMI, ISO etc.) but, when it comes to actual implementation how many of these documents are really used by us? We just need to synchronize our quality process with documentation standards and other process in an organization.

The simplest thing to follow all kind of documentation is to involve a person in project from kick off phase who understands the project dynamics, domain, objective, and technology. And who else better than a QA person for this (of course there are technical writers present to do this – but considering a general scenario of small companies where technical writers are not present).

To achieve this goal of testing and documentation I feel we need to focus on some points.

Here are the top 10 tips to help you achieve your software testing documentation goal:

1. QA should involve at the very first phase of project so that QA and Documentation work hand in hand.

2. Process defined by QA should follow by technical people, this helps remove most of the defects at very initial stage.

3. Only creating and maintaining software testing templates is not enough, force people to use them.

4. Don’t only create and leave document, Update as and when required.

5. Change requirement is important phase of project don’t forget to add them in the list.

6. Use version controlling for everything. This will help you manage and track your documents easily.

7. Make defect remediation process easier by documenting all defects. Make sure to include clear description of defect, reproduce steps, affected area and details about author while documenting any defect.

8. Try to document what is required for you to understand your work and what you will need to produce to your stakeholders whenever required.

9. Use standard template for documentation. Like any excel sheet template or doc file template and stick to it for all your document needs.

10. Share all project related documents at single location, accessible to every team member for reference as well to update whenever required.

I am not saying that by applying above steps you will get sudden results. I know this change won’t happen in a day or two, but at least we can start so that these changes start happening slowly.

After all “the documentation needs documentation”.  Isn’t it?

Share your tips. How you maintain software testing documents related to your project?

This is a guest article by ‘Tejaswini patil’. She is working with an E-learning organization as an Associate Manager QA.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
10 Tips to Help You Achieve Your Software Testing Documentation Goal

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Basically this book is an introduction to software testing. So those who are new to software testing field can start their preparation by reading this book. You will get basic idea of manual and automation testing.

Here is a summary of what this book is covering:

• What is the need of software testing?
• Different software development models
• Testing in the software development life cycle
• How to develop testing mindset?
• Regression Vs. Retesting
• White box Vs. Black box testing
• Verification and validation
• Alpha and beta testing
• Unit, Integration and System testing
• Acceptance testing
• Automation testing – Basics
• Testing the design
• Usability testing
• Performance testing
• Test planning
• Test estimation
• Test cases and elements of test cases
• Test tracking, Test planning and Test plan review
• How to manage defects and defect reports?
• Test metrics for testers
• Product release control

In all this book is a nice introduction to software testing. Author explained some key software testing concepts like Regression and Retesting difference, Alpha and beta testing etc. where many testers get confused.

Download “Testing Primer” book:
To download this book Click here

What is your favorite software testing book? Also share your ‘best software testing book’ experience with our readers.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Software testing book for preparing testing interviews and learning basics of software testing [download]

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Here are the differences you can see:

SMOKE TESTING:

• Smoke testing originated in the hardware testing practice of turning on a new piece of hardware for the first time and considering it a success if it does not catch fire and smoke. In software industry, smoke testing is a shallow and wide approach whereby all areas of the application without getting into too deep, is tested.
• A smoke test is scripted, either using a written set of tests or an automated test
• A Smoke test is designed to touch every part of the application in a cursory way. It’s shallow and wide.
• Smoke testing is conducted to ensure whether the most crucial functions of a program are working, but not bothering with finer details. (Such as build verification).
• Smoke testing is normal health check up to a build of an application before taking it to testing in depth.

SANITY TESTING:

• A sanity test is a narrow regression test that focuses on one or a few areas of functionality. Sanity testing is usually narrow and deep.
• A sanity test is usually unscripted.
• A Sanity test is used to determine a small section of the application is still working after a minor change.
• Sanity testing is a cursory testing, it is performed whenever a cursory testing is sufficient to prove the application is functioning according to specifications. This level of testing is a subset of regression testing.
• Sanity testing is to verify whether requirements are met or not, checking all features breadth-first.

Hope these points will help you to clearly understand the Smoke and sanity tests and will help to remove any confusion.

Thanks to VijayD for answering this question in simple way for our readers.

If you have more points on smoke and sanity testing to elaborate on, please comment below.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Smoke testing and sanity testing – Quick and simple differences

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Question:

What is the difference between client-server testing and web based testing and what are things that we need to test in such applications?

Ans:
Projects are broadly divided into two types of:

• 2 tier applications
• 3 tier applications

CLIENT / SERVER TESTING
This type of testing usually done for 2 tier applications (usually developed for LAN)
Here we will be having front-end and backend.

The application launched on front-end will be having forms and reports which will be monitoring and manipulating data

E.g: applications developed in VB, VC++, Core Java, C, C++, D2K, PowerBuilder etc.,
The backend for these applications would be MS Access, SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, Mysql, Quadbase

The tests performed on these types of applications would be
- User interface testing
- Manual support testing
- Functionality testing
- Compatibility testing & configuration testing
- Intersystem testing

WEB TESTING
This is done for 3 tier applications (developed for Internet / intranet / xtranet)
Here we will be having Browser, web server and DB server.

The applications accessible in browser would be developed in HTML, DHTML, XML, JavaScript etc. (We can monitor through these applications)

Applications for the web server would be developed in Java, ASP, JSP, VBScript, JavaScript, Perl, Cold Fusion, PHP etc. (All the manipulations are done on the web server with the help of these programs developed)

The DBserver would be having oracle, sql server, sybase, mysql etc. (All data is stored in the database available on the DB server)

The tests performed on these types of applications would be
- User interface testing
- Functionality testing
- Security testing
- Browser compatibility testing
- Load / stress testing
- Interoperability testing/intersystem testing
- Storage and data volume testing

A web-application is a three-tier application.
This has a browser (monitors data) [monitoring is done using html, dhtml, xml, javascript]-> webserver (manipulates data) [manipulations are done using programming languages or scripts like adv java, asp, jsp, vbscript, javascript, perl, coldfusion, php] -> database server (stores data) [data storage and retrieval is done using databases like oracle, sql server, sybase, mysql].

The types of tests, which can be applied on this type of applications, are:
1. User interface testing for validation & user friendliness
2. Functionality testing to validate behaviors, i/p, error handling, o/p, manipulations, services levels, order of functionality, links, content of web page & backend coverage’s
3. Security testing
4. Browser compatibility
5. Load / stress testing
6. Interoperability testing
7. Storage & data volume testing

A client-server application is a two tier application.
This has forms & reporting at front-end (monitoring & manipulations are done) [using vb, vc++, core java, c, c++, d2k, power builder etc.,] -> database server at the backend [data storage & retrieval) [using ms access, sql server, oracle, sybase, mysql, quadbase etc.,]

The tests performed on these applications would be
1. User interface testing
2. Manual support testing
3. Functionality testing
4. Compatibility testing
5. Intersystem testing
Some more points to clear the difference between client server, web and desktop applications:

Desktop application:
1. Application runs in single memory (Front end and Back end in one place)
2. Single user only

Client/Server application:
1. Application runs in two or more machines
2. Application is a menu-driven
3. Connected mode (connection exists always until logout)
4. Limited number of users
5. Less number of network issues when compared to web app.

Web application:
1. Application runs in two or more machines
2. URL-driven
3. Disconnected mode (state less)
4. Unlimited number of users
5. Many issues like hardware compatibility, browser compatibility, version compatibility, security issues, performance issues etc.

As per difference in both the applications come where, how to access the resources. In client server once connection is made it will be in state on connected, whereas in case of web testing http protocol is stateless, then there comes logic of cookies, which is not in client server.

For client server application users are well known, whereas for web application any user can login and access the content, he/she will use it as per his intentions.

So, there are always issues of security and compatibility for web application.

Over to you: On which application are you working? Desktop, client-server or web application? What is your experience while testing these applications?

To get software testing articles in your inbox click here to subscribe with your email address. 

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
What is client-server and web based testing and how to test these applications

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Below sample bug/defect report will give you exact idea of how to report a bug in bug tracking tool.

Here is the example scenario that caused a bug:

Lets assume in your application under test you want to create a new user with user information, for that you need to logon into the application and navigate to USERS menu > New User, then enter all the details in the ‘User form’ like, First Name, Last Name, Age, Address, Phone etc. Once you enter all these information, you need to click on ‘SAVE’ button in order to save the user. Now you can see a success message saying, “New User has been created successfully”.

But when you entered into your application by logging in and navigated to USERS menu > New user, entered all the required information to create new user and clicked on SAVE button. BANG! The application crashed and you got one error page on screen. (Capture this error message window and save as a Microsoft paint file)

Now this is the bug scenario and you would like to report this as a BUG in your bug-tracking tool.

How will you report this bug effectively?

Here is the sample bug report for above mentioned example:
(Note that some ‘bug report’ fields might differ depending on your bug tracking system)

SAMPLE BUG REPORT:

Bug Name: Application crash on clicking the SAVE button while creating a new user.
Bug ID: (It will be automatically created by the BUG Tracking tool once you save this bug)
Area Path: USERS menu > New Users
Build Number: Version Number 5.0.1
Severity: HIGH (High/Medium/Low) or 1
Priority: HIGH (High/Medium/Low) or 1
Assigned to: Developer-X
Reported By: Your Name
Reported On: Date
Reason: Defect
Status: New/Open/Active (Depends on the Tool you are using)
Environment: Windows 2003/SQL Server 2005

Description:
Application crash on clicking the SAVE button while creating a new
user, hence unable to create a new user in the application.

Steps To Reproduce:
1) Logon into the application
2) Navigate to the Users Menu > New User
3) Filled all the user information fields
4) Clicked on ‘Save’ button
5) Seen an error page “ORA1090 Exception: Insert values Error…”
6) See the attached logs for more information (Attach more logs related to bug..IF any)
7) And also see the attached screenshot of the error page.

Expected result: On clicking SAVE button, should be prompted to a success message “New User has been created successfully”.

(Attach ‘application crash’ screen shot.. IF any)

Save the defect/bug in the BUG TRACKING TOOL.  You will get a bug id, which you can use for further bug reference.
Default ‘New bug’ mail will go to respective developer and the default module owner (Team leader or manager) for further action.

Related: If you need more information about writing a good bug report read our previous post “How to write a good bug report“.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Sample bug report

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

As testing is the last part of the project, it’s always under pressure and time constraint. To save time and money you should be able to prioritize your testing work. How will prioritize testing work? For this you should be able to judge more important and less important testing work. How will you decide which work is more or less important? Here comes need of risk-based testing.

What is Risk?
“Risk are future uncertain events with a probability of occurrence and a potential for loss”

Risk identification and management are the main concerns in every software project. Effective analysis of software risks will help to effective planning and assignments of work.

In this article I will cover what are the “types of risks”. In next articles I will try to focus on risk identification, risk management and mitigation.

Risks are identified, classified and managed before actual execution of program. These risks are classified in different categories.

Categories of risks:

Schedule Risk:
Project schedule get slip when project tasks and schedule release risks are not addressed properly.
Schedule risks mainly affect on project and finally on company economy and may lead to project failure.
Schedules often slip due to following reasons:

• Wrong time estimation
•  Resources are not tracked properly. All resources like staff, systems, skills of individuals etc.
•  Failure to identify complex functionalities and time required to develop those functionalities.
•  Unexpected project scope expansions.

Budget Risk:

•  Wrong budget estimation.
•  Cost overruns
•  Project scope expansion

Operational Risks:
Risks of loss due to improper process implementation, failed system or some external events risks.
Causes of Operational risks:

•  Failure to address priority conflicts
•  Failure to resolve the responsibilities
•  Insufficient resources
•  No proper subject training
•  No resource planning
•  No communication in team.

Technical risks:
Technical risks generally leads to failure of functionality and performance.
Causes of technical risks are:

•  Continuous changing requirements
•  No advanced technology available or the existing technology is in initial stages.
•  Product is complex to implement.
•  Difficult project modules integration.

Programmatic Risks:
These are the external risks beyond the operational limits. These are all uncertain risks are outside the control of the program.
These external events can be:

•   Running out of fund.
•   Market development
•   Changing customer product strategy and priority
•   Government rule changes.

These are all common categories in which software project risks can be classified. I will cover in detail “How to identify and manage risks” in next article.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Types of Risks in Software Projects

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

First of all I would like to introduce three dimensional testing career mentioned by Danny R. Faught. There are three categories of skill that need to be judged before hiring any software tester. What are those three skill categories?
1) Testing skill
2) Domain knowledge
3) Technical expertise.

No doubt that any tester should have the basic testing skills like Manual testing and Automation testing. Tester having the common sense can even find most of the obvious bugs in the software. Then would you say that this much testing is sufficient? Would you release the product on the basis of this much testing done? Certainly not. You will certainly have a product look by the domain expert before the product goes into the market.

While testing any application you should think like a end-user. But every human being has the limitations and one can’t be the expert in all of the three dimensions mentioned above. (If you are the experts in all of the above skills then please let me know ) So you can’t assure that you can think 100% like how the end-user going to use your application. User who is going to use your application may be having a good understanding of the domain he is working on. You need to balance all these skill activities so that all product aspects will get addressed.

Nowadays you can see the professional being hired in different companies are more domain experts than having technical skills. Current software industry is also seeing a good trend that many professional developers and domain experts are moving into software testing.

We can observe one more reason why domain experts are most wanted! When you hire fresh engineers who are just out of college you cannot expect them to compete with the experienced professionals. Why? Because experienced professional certainly have the advantage of domain and testing experience and they have better understandings of different issues and can deliver the application better and faster.

Here are some of the examples where you can see the distinct edge of domain knowledge:
1) Mobile application testing.
2) Wireless application testing
3) VoIP applications
4) Protocol testing
5) Banking applications
6) Network testing

How will you test such applications without knowledge of specific domain? Are you going to test the BFSI applications (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) just for UI or functionality or security or load or stress? You should know what are the user requirements in banking, working procedures, commerce background, exposure to brokerage etc and should test application accordingly, then only you can say that your testing is enough – Here comes the need of subject-matter experts.

Let’s take example of my current project: I am currently working on search engine application. Where I need to know the basic of search engine terminologies and concepts. Many times I see some other team tester’s asking me questions like what is ‘publishers’ and ‘advertisers’, what is the difference and what they do? Do you think they can test the application based on current online advertising and SEO? Certainly not. Unless and until they get well familiar with these terminologies and functionalities.

When I know the functional domain better I can better write and execute more test cases and can effectively simulate the end user actions which is distinctly a big advantage.

Here is the big list of the required testing knowledge:

• Testing skill
• Bug hunting skill
• Technical skill
• Domain knowledge
• Communication skill
• Automation skill
• Some programming skill
• Quick grasping
• Ability to Work under pressure …

That is going to be a huge list. So you will certainly say, do I need to have these many skills? Its’ depends on you. You can stick to one skill or can be expert in one skill and have good understanding of other skills or balanced approach of all the skills. This is the competitive market and you should definitely take advantage of it. Make sure to be expert in at least one domain before making any move.

What if you don’t have enough domain knowledge?
You will be posted on any project and company can assign any work to you. Then what if you don’t have enough domain knowledge of that project? You need to quickly grasp as many concepts as you can. Try to understand the product as if you are the customer and what customer will do with application. Visit the customer site if possible know how they work with the product, Read online resources about the domain you want to test the application, participate in events addressing on such domain, meet the domain experts. Or either company will provide all this in-house training before assigning any domain specific task to testers.

There is no specific stage where you need this domain knowledge. You need to apply your domain knowledge in each and every software testing life cycle.

If you are reading this article till this point then I would like to hear on which domain you are working on? So that our readers can get better idea of different domains and projects. Comment your domain below.

Update: As per the request from many readers I have updated our software testing resource page for the BFSI domain online documents and articles for downloads.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
How Domain knowledge is Important for testers?

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

• Degree of excellence – Oxford dictionary
• Fitness for purpose – Edward Deming
• Best for the customer’s use and selling price – Feigenbaum
• The totality of characteristics of an entity that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs – ISO

How a Product developer will define quality – The product which meets the customer requirements.
How Customer will define Quality – Required functionality is provided with user friendly manner.

These are some quality definitions from different perspective. Now lets see how can one measure some quality attributes of product or application.
Following factors are used to measure software development quality. Each attribute can be used to measure the product performance. These attributes can be used for Quality assurance as well as Quality control. Quality Assurance activities are oriented towards prevention of introduction of defects and Quality control activities are aimed at detecting defects in products and services.

Reliability
Measure if product is reliable enough to sustain in any condition. Should give consistently correct results.
Product reliability is measured in terms of working of project under different working environment and different conditions.

Maintainability
Different versions of the product should be easy to maintain. For development its should be easy to add code to existing system, should be easy to upgrade for new features and new technologies time to time. Maintenance should be cost effective and easy. System be easy to maintain and correcting defects or making a change in the software.

Usability
This can be measured in terms of ease of use. Application should be user friendly. Should
be easy to learn. Navigation should be simple.
The system must be:

• Easy to use for input preparation, operation, and interpretation of output.
• Provide consistent user interface standards or conventions with our other frequently used systems.
• Easy for new or infrequent users to learn to use the system.

Portability
This can be measured in terms of Costing issues related to porting, Technical issues related to porting, Behavioral issues related to porting.

Correctness
Application should be correct in terms of its functionality, calculations used internally and the navigation should be correct. This means application should adhere to functional requirements.

Efficiency
To Major system quality attribute. Measured in terms of time required to complete any task given to the system. For example system should utilize processor capacity, disk space and memory efficiently. If system is using all the available resources then user will get degraded performance failing the system for efficiency. If system is not efficient then it can not be used in real time applications.

Integrity or security
Integrity comes with security. System integrity or security should be sufficient to prevent unauthorized access to system functions, preventing information loss, ensure that the software is protected from virus infection, and protecting the privacy of data entered into the system.

Testability
System should be easy to test and find defects. If required should be easy to divide in different modules for testing.

Flexibility
Should be flexible enough to modify. Adaptable to other products with which it needs interaction. Should be easy to interface with other standard 3rd party components.

Reusability
Software reuse is a good cost efficient and time saving development way. Different code libraries classes should be generic enough to use easily in different application modules. Dividing application into different modules so that modules can be reused across the application.

Interoperability
Interoperability of one system to another should be easy for product to exchange data or services with other systems. Different system modules should work on different operating system platforms, different databases and protocols conditions.

Applying above quality attributes standards we can determine whether system meets the requirements of quality or not. As specified above all these attributes are applied on QA and QC process so that tester or customer also can find quality of application or system.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
What are the Quality attributes?

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.