“If QA (Quality Assurance) is done then why do we need to perform QC (Quality Control)?”, this thought may come to our mind some times and looks a valid point too.  This means if we have followed all the pre-defined processes, policies and standards correctly and completely then why do we need to perform a round of QC?

In my opinion QC is required after QA is done. While in ‘QA’ we define the processes, policies, strategies, establish standards, developing checklists etc. to be used and followed through out the life cycle of a project. And while in QC we follow all those defined processes, standards and policies to make sure that the project has been developed with high quality and at least meets customer’s expectations.

QA does not assure quality, rather it creates and ensures the processes are being followed to assure quality. QC does not control quality, rather it measures quality. QC measurement results can be utilized to correct/modify QA processes which can be successfully implemented in new projects as well.

Quality control activities are focused on the deliverable itself. Quality assurance activities are focused on the processes used to create the deliverable. QA and QC are both powerful techniques which can be used to ensure that the deliverables meet high quality expectations of customers.

E.g.: we have to use an Issue tracking system to log the bugs during testing a web application. QA would include defining the standard for adding a bug and what all details should be there in a bug, like summary of the issue, where it is observed, steps to reproduce the bugs, screenshots etc. This is a process to create deliverable ‘bug–report’. When a bug is actually added in issue tracking system based on these standards then that bug report is our deliverable.

Now, suppose some time at later stage of project we realize that adding ‘probable root cause’ to the bug based on tester’s analysis would provide some more insight to the Dev team, then we will update our pre-defined process and finally it will be reflected in our bug reports as well. This is how QC gives inputs to QA to further improve the QA.

Following is an example of a real life scenario for QA / QC:

QA Example:

Suppose our team has to work on completely new technology for upcoming project. Our team members are new to the technology. So for that we need to create a plan for training the team members in the new technology. Based on our knowledge we need to collect pre-requisites like understanding documents, design of the product along with the documents etc. and share with the team, which would be helpful while working on the new technology and even would be useful for any new comer in the team. This is QA.

QC Example:

Once the training is done how we can make sure that the training was successfully done for all the team members? For this purpose we will have to collect statistics e.g. number of marks the trainees got in each subject and minimum number of marks expected after completing the training. Also we can make sure that everybody has taken training in full by verifying the attendance record of candidates. If the number of marks of candidates are up to the expectations of the trainer/evaluators then we can say that the training is successful otherwise we will have to improve our process in order to deliver high quality training.

Hope this explains the difference between QA and QC.

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About Author: Meenal is Team Lead specialized in overall QA process for performing functional, data testing, performance testing and security testing for various projects. She is also worked on Waterfall and Agile models.

I would like all of you to please join this discussion and add more valuable points to it. Thanks.

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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.

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Why Need of Innovations in the Age of Agile Testing?

Global Recession/Economic downtime effect
Current Events are not Current Trends –

When global downturns hit, there is certain inevitability to their impact on information technology and Finance Sectors. Customers become more reluctant in giving software business. Some customers are withdrawing their long term projects and some customers using the opportunities in quoting low price. Many projects that dragged much longer than expected and cost more than planned. So, Companies started to explore how “Agile with different flavors” can help their Enterprises more reliably deliver software quickly and iteratively. The roles and responsibilities of Test Managers/Test Architects become more important in implementing Agile Projects. Innovations are increasingly being fueled by the needs of the testing society at large.

The Challenges in Agile Testing

Agile Testers face lot of challenges when they are working with Agile development team. A tester should be able to apply Root-Cause Analysis when finding severe bugs so that they unlikely to reoccur. While Agile has different flavors, Scrum is one process for implementing Agile. Some of the challenging scrum rules to be followed by every individual are

•  Obtain Number of Hours Commitment Up Front
•  Gather Requirements / Estimates Up Front
•  Entering the actual hours and estimated hours daily.
•  Daily Builds
•  Keep the Daily Scrum meetings short
•  Code Inspections are Paramount

So, in order to meet the above challenges, an agile tester needs to be innovative with the tools that they have. A great idea happens when what you have (tangible and intangible) meets the world’s deepest hunger

How Testers Can be More Innovative in the Age of Agile Testing?

Here are Important Keys to Innovation:

1. Creative

A good Agile Tester needs to be extremely creative when trying to cope up with speed of development/release.  For a tester, being creative is more important than being critical.

2. Talented

He must be highly talented and strives for more learning and innovating new ideas. Talented Testers are never satisfied with what they have achieved and always strives to find unimaginable bugs of high value and priority.

3. Fearless

An Agile Tester should not be afraid to look at a developer’s code and if need be, hopefully in extreme cases, go in and correct it.

4. Visionary

He must have a comprehensive vision, which includes client’s expectations and delivery of the good product.

5. Empowered

He must be empowered to work in Pairs.  He will be involving in Pair Programming to bring shorter scripts, better designs and finding more bugs.

6. Passionate

Passionate Testers always have something unique to contribute that may be in terms of their innovative ideas, the way they carry day-to-day work, their outputs and improve things around them tirelessly.

7. Multiple Disciplines

Agile Tester must have multiple skills like, Manual, Functional, Performance testing skills and soft skills like Leadership skills, Communication skills, EI, etc. so that agile testing will become a cake walk.

“Innovation is the process of turning ideas into manufacturable and marketable form”        -  Watts Humpry

This is a guest post from J.B.Rajkumar. About Author: J.B. Rajkumar has extensive experience in both Academics and Software Testing.  He was a Trainer, QA Manager,  frequent Speaker for Colleges, Universities and International Conferences and currently  working with a top MNC

Note from Vijay: If you have ANY queries on “Agile Testing and its methods”, please do comment below. We will address each and every comment in separate post.

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Boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning both are test case design strategies in black box testing.

Equivalence Partitioning:

In this method the input domain data is divided into different equivalence data classes. This method is typically used to reduce the total number of test cases to a finite set of testable test cases, still covering maximum requirements.

In short it is the process of taking all possible test cases and placing them into classes. One test value is picked from each class while testing.

E.g.: If you are testing for an input box accepting numbers from 1 to 1000 then there is no use in writing thousand test cases for all 1000 valid input numbers plus other test cases for invalid data.

Using equivalence partitioning method above test cases can be divided into three sets of input data called as classes. Each test case is a representative of respective class.

So in above example we can divide our test cases into three equivalence classes of some valid and invalid inputs.

Test cases for input box accepting numbers between 1 and 1000 using Equivalence Partitioning:
1) One input data class with all valid inputs. Pick a single value from range 1 to 1000 as a valid test case. If you select other values between 1 and 1000 then result is going to be same. So one test case for valid input data should be sufficient.

2) Input data class with all values below lower limit. I.e. any value below 1, as a invalid input data test case.

3) Input data with any value greater than 1000 to represent third invalid input class.

So using equivalence partitioning you have categorized all possible test cases into three classes. Test cases with other values from any class should give you the same result.

We have selected one representative from every input class to design our test cases. Test case values are selected in such a way that largest number of attributes of equivalence class can be exercised.

Equivalence partitioning uses fewest test cases to cover maximum requirements.

Boundary value analysis:

It’s widely recognized that input values at the extreme ends of input domain cause more errors in system. More application errors occur at the boundaries of input domain. ‘Boundary value analysis’ testing technique is used to identify errors at boundaries rather than finding those exist in center of input domain.

Boundary value analysis is a next part of Equivalence partitioning for designing test cases where test cases are selected at the edges of the equivalence classes.

Test cases for input box accepting numbers between 1 and 1000 using Boundary value analysis:
1) Test cases with test data exactly as the input boundaries of input domain i.e. values 1 and 1000 in our case.

2) Test data with values just below the extreme edges of input domains i.e. values 0 and 999.

3) Test data with values just above the extreme edges of input domain i.e. values 2 and 1001.

Boundary value analysis is often called as a part of stress and negative testing.

Note: There is no hard-and-fast rule to test only one value from each equivalence class you created for input domains. You can select multiple valid and invalid values from each equivalence class according to your needs and previous judgments.

E.g. if you divided 1 to 1000 input values in valid data equivalence class, then you can select test case values like: 1, 11, 100, 950 etc. Same case for other test cases having invalid data classes.

This should be a very basic and simple example to understand the Boundary value analysis and Equivalence partitioning concept.

Share your examples below.

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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.

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Build Verification test is a set of tests run on every new build to verify that build is testable before it is released to test team for further testing. These test cases are core functionality test cases that ensure application is stable and can be tested thoroughly. Typically BVT process is automated. If BVT fails that build is again get assigned to developer for fix.

BVT is also called smoke testing or build acceptance testing (BAT)

New Build is checked mainly for two things:

• Build validation
• Build acceptance

Some BVT basics:

• It is a subset of tests that verify main functionalities.
• The BVT’s are typically run on daily builds and if the BVT fails the build is rejected and a new build is released after the fixes are done.
• The advantage of BVT is it saves the efforts of a test team to setup and test a build when major functionality is broken.
• Design BVTs carefully enough to cover basic functionality.
• Typically BVT should not run more than 30 minutes.
• BVT is a type of regression testing, done on each and every new build.

BVT primarily checks for the project integrity and checks whether all the modules are integrated properly or not. Module integration testing is very important when different teams develop project modules. I heard many cases of application failure due to improper module integration. Even in worst cases complete project gets scraped due to failure in module integration.

What is the main task in build release? Obviously file ‘check in’ i.e. to include all the new and modified project files associated with respective builds. BVT was primarily introduced to check initial build health i.e. to check whether – all the new and modified files are included in release, all file formats are correct, every file version and language, flags associated with each file.
These basic checks are worth before build release to test team for testing. You will save time and money by discovering the build flaws at the very beginning using BVT.

Which test cases should be included in BVT?

This is very tricky decision to take before automating the BVT task. Keep in mind that success of BVT depends on which test cases you include in BVT.

Here are some simple tips to include test cases in your BVT automation suite:

• Include only critical test cases in BVT.
• All test cases included in BVT should be stable.
• All the test cases should have known expected result.
• Make sure all included critical functionality test cases are sufficient for application test coverage.

Also do not includes modules in BVT, which are not yet stable. For some under-development features you can’t predict expected behavior as these modules are unstable and you might know some known failures before testing for these incomplete modules. There is no point using such modules or test cases in BVT.

You can make this critical functionality test cases inclusion task simple by communicating with all those involved in project development and testing life cycle. Such process should negotiate BVT test cases, which ultimately ensure BVT success. Set some BVT quality standards and these standards can be met only by analyzing major project features and scenarios.

Example: Test cases to be included in BVT for Text editor application (Some sample tests only):
1) Test case for creating text file.
2) Test cases for writing something into text editor
3) Test case for copy, cut, paste functionality of text editor
4) Test case for opening, saving, deleting text file.

These are some sample test cases, which can be marked as ‘critical’ and for every minor or major changes in application these basic critical test cases should be executed. This task can be easily accomplished by BVT.

BVT automation suits needs to be maintained and modified time-to-time. E.g. include test cases in BVT when there are new stable project modules available.

What happens when BVT suite run:
Say Build verification automation test suite executed after any new build.
1) The result of BVT execution is sent to all the email ID’s associated with that project.
2) The BVT owner (person executing and maintaining the BVT suite) inspects the result of BVT.
3) If BVT fails then BVT owner diagnose the cause of failure.
4) If the failure cause is defect in build, all the relevant information with failure logs is sent to respective developers.
5) Developer on his initial diagnostic replies to team about the failure cause. Whether this is really a bug? And if it’s a bug then what will be his bug-fixing scenario.
6) On bug fix once again BVT test suite is executed and if build passes BVT, the build is passed to test team for further detail functionality, performance and other testes.

This process gets repeated for every new build.

Why BVT or build fails?
BVT breaks sometimes. This doesn’t mean that there is always bug in the build. There are some other reasons to build fail like test case coding error, automation suite error, infrastructure error, hardware failures etc.
You need to troubleshoot the cause for the BVT break and need to take proper action after diagnosis.

Tips for BVT success:
1) Spend considerable time writing BVT test cases scripts.
2) Log as much detailed info as possible to diagnose the BVT pass or fail result. This will help developer team to debug and quickly know the failure cause.
3) Select stable test cases to include in BVT. For new features if new critical test case passes consistently on different configuration then promote this test case in your BVT suite. This will reduce the probability of frequent build failure due to new unstable modules and test cases.
4) Automate BVT process as much as possible. Right from build release process to BVT result – automate everything.
5) Have some penalties for breaking the build Some chocolates or team coffee party from developer who breaks the build will do.

Conclusion:
BVT is nothing but a set of regression test cases that are executed each time for new build. This is also called as smoke test. Build is not assigned to test team unless and until the BVT passes. BVT can be run by developer or tester and BVT result is communicated throughout the team and immediate action is taken to fix the bug if BVT fails. BVT process is typically automated by writing scripts for test cases. Only critical test cases are included in BVT. These test cases should ensure application test coverage. BVT is very effective for daily as well as long term builds. This saves significant time, cost, resources and after all no frustration of test team for incomplete build.

If you have some experience in BVT process then please share it with our readers in comments below.

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What you need to know about BVT (Build Verification Testing)

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