<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Introduction">1 Introduction</a></li><li><a href="#Common_Challenges_in_Continuous_Testing">2 Common Challenges in Continuous Testing</a></li><li><a href="#Suggestions_for_Resolving_Some_Common_Challenges">3 Suggestions for Resolving Some Common Challenges</a></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">4 Conclusion</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>



Continuous Testing is the process of testing at all stages of software development – one after the another- without any human intervention. <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Continuous Testing</a> is key to faster delivery of Agile products to the market. 



Continuous Testing makes it possible to eliminate testing as a bottleneck for faster software development and delivery. But the path to achieving Continuous Testing has its own challenges, most common of which are mentioned below.



<h2 id="common-challenges-in-continuous-testing">Common Challenges in Continuous Testing</h2>



1. Lack of Testability Support in Products: A test automation system is a very basic requirement for Continuous Testing. To achieve strong automated testing for a product, you need to have almost all of your test cases automated. But does the product have the testability support required to automate all test cases? Not always! If products are not designed, keeping testability in mind, achieving continuous testing may become a distant dream.



Achieving continuous testing for new feature work done in legacy products becomes more difficult if the product didn’t have testability support initially. Adding testability support to such products is expensive and may not always get prioritized as compared to other items on the product roadmap, draining down the efforts for Continuous Testing.



2. Lack of Standard Tools: For a variety of products, standard tools to achieve continuous testing don’t exist. Teams often resort to using in-house test automation tools or frameworks which are neither well-documented nor well-maintained. This adds to the woes of the testing team as they now have to struggle with the issues of the tool/framework also.



With in-house tools/frameworks, you have the benefit of code-ownership. You can make changes to the tool/framework to get desired behaviour, but that is a costly affair in terms of resources. You are now investing your resources to evolve the tool/framework rather than the product. Practically, teams don’t have the luxury to customize the testing tool/framework for their needs when they need to deliver a quality product on an impending timeline.



3. Lack of Faster Feedback Loops: To leverage Continuous Testing, it is important to incorporate feedback on an on-going basis. To incorporate feedback on a continuous basis, you need feedback loops in the system that can help you gather feedback in real-time. Lack of such feedback loops introduce a delay in action, later affecting the quality of the product.



For example, if one of the test environments used to run automation tests is down, an alert message for the same helps you act timely to rectify it rather than digging into the cause of the non-arrival of the test report for scheduled test automation run.&nbsp;



Similarly, it helps to have a real-time dashboard for performance which depicts the performance metrics over a period of time rather than digging into logs and code-profiler reports every time you want to check on a product&#8217;s performance. When such dashboards are accessible to everyone on the team, it helps in bringing critical issues to the table and gets them prioritized.&nbsp;



4. Lack of Testing Infrastructure: Often, organizations embark on the path of embracing Continuous Testing, without realizing the budgetary needs for it.



To implement Continuous Testing, you might need additional test environments that need to be maintained and kept up and running round the clock. You might also need advanced tools to incorporate faster feedback loops.&nbsp;



Although these costs aren’t significant as compared to the cost incurred due to the poor quality of the product, there is a need for organizational commitment. A half-way journey to continuous testing without adequate infrastructure only adds to the woes of the testing team and doesn’t help anyone.&nbsp;&nbsp;



5. Lack of Enough Testers: Most product teams don’t have enough testers, which sometimes creates bottlenecks for achieving continuous testing. Continuous testing is an on-going journey and requires high initial investments in terms of setup, which may create extra workload for testers.



Until continuous testing reaches the stage where it can replace the need for traditional testing, testers are often caught in balancing the efforts required for switching to continuous testing and their regular testing tasks that usually have a high priority w.r.t product needs. This adds to the pending backlogs for achieving continuous testing, creating a chicken-and-egg situation, where continuous testing can reduce the testing time but there is no time to set up continuous testing.



6. <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/why-test-data-management-is-more-important-than-you-think/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Test Data Management</a>: Depending on the product and its testing needs, test data management sometimes becomes a bottleneck for continuous testing.



Test data when stored locally for testing environments may result in different versions of test data which may be difficult to maintain. Maintaining test data in a central repository and then accessing it from different test environments may ease this problem but may introduce other issues like network latency in tests.



7. Increased Complexity: As the scope for the product grows, so does the scope for continuous testing.



With a large number of tests added to the system, it becomes a challenge to make the tests execute quickly. If tests take too long to run, it defeats the whole purpose of continuous testing as quick feedback is not available. If not all tests are run, it seems like a compromise on the quality of the product. Also, if not all tests are run, it makes the effort of adding all those tests to the system go in vain.



8. Scalability Issues: Not all testing frameworks/tools may be suitable for scaling purposes.



Lack of support for large concurrent test sessions and slow test executions can become serious bottlenecks for your dream of achieving Continuous Testing.



Such scalability issues aren’t always noticeable in the beginning. They become clearly visible only after a significant amount of tests have been added to the system and the test system starts to get highly loaded. This makes the situation worse as at such a stage, it’s even more difficult to switch to a different tool/framework.



9. Inefficient Processes: Sometimes, the processes followed in the team/organization are not conducive for achieving Continuous Testing. Let&#8217;s check:i. Change in Requirements: If requirement specifications keep on changing frequently, it creates a lot of rework for the team, especially the testing team as tests may need to be updated every time there is a change in the requirements. This may adversely impact the efforts for continuous testing.ii. Unclear Roles and Responsibilities of Team Members: If the roles and responsibilities of team members are not clearly defined, it may result in ambiguous ownership of tasks. Such ambiguity can lead to redundant efforts on some tasks and some tasks getting totally ignored. Clear ownership of tasks is important in achieving Continuous Testing.iii. Excluding Testing Team in Initial Discussions: If the testing team is not included in all product-related discussions from the beginning, it would create gaps in the understanding which may impact continuous testing. Also, it would require additional processes such as hand-offs from Developers to Testers from time to time, adding inefficiency to the whole system.&nbsp;iv. Bureaucratic Approvals: If your team/organization functions with heavy bureaucracy and approvals are needed for every small thing, it can add inefficiency to the whole system which can make it hard to achieve continuous testing.&nbsp;



For example, if a test environment has gone down and you don’t have the required access privileges to bring it back up and need to wait on some other team/person for this, it can lead to inefficiency in the continuous testing pipeline.&nbsp;



<h2 id="suggestions-for-resolving-some-common-challenges">Suggestions for Resolving Some Common Challenges</h2>



Most of the common challenges discussed above can be worked around with the help of some suggestions discussed below.



1. Include Testability from Beginning:i. Testability should be part of the low-level design for the product.ii. Any feature developed for the product should not be considered complete unless it has the required testability support for Continuous Testing.



2. Evaluate Tools/Frameworks before Including them in the System:i. It&#8217;s good to evaluate any testing tool/framework for required support before getting bound to it by making it part of the system.ii. The right combination of open source and paid test frameworks/tools can be used rather than relying solely on open-source test frameworks/tools.iii. Having a defined set of parameters to capture results of experiments with new tools can help in a better evaluation of tools/frameworks in a much-organized way.



3. Evaluate Budget Requirements before Embracing Continuous Testing: Implementing Continuous Testing may need a significant budget for test environments and tools/frameworks.



Evaluating budget requirements before starting on the path of Continuous Testing helps in making informed decisions early rather than being stuck in the middle of the path due to budgetary constraints.



4. Leveraging Cloud-based Virtual Infrastructure: Cloud-based test environments can be made accessible instantaneously on demand. They also save testing teams from most of the headache associated with managing and maintaining traditional test environments. Leveraging cloud-based virtual environments can help resolve a lot of issues related to the availability of test environments for Continuous Testing.&nbsp;&nbsp;



 Using test automation tools that support test automation workflows on the cloud can further add to these benefits. Testsigma is one such tool.



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5. Have Enough Testers: Continuous Testing is an on-going journey and testers are the major contributors to make this journey successful. It’s good to have sufficient testers in the team to share the load, at least during the initial period of switching to continuous testing. Once your Continuous Testing pipeline is well established and you have completely done away with the need for traditional testing, you can then try to reduce the number of testers on the team as per the new need.



6. Efficient Test Data Management: Test Data Management can vary from product to product. Maintaining a central repository of test data helps to avoid fragmentation issues and facilitates easy updation.



To workaround, the latency issues in accessing central test data repository from test environments, the network topology of the environments can be customized to get the optimum experience.&nbsp;



7. Leveraging Distributed Systems: To combat issues related to complexity and scalability, the continuous testing pipeline can be designed as a distributed system. Most modern tools and frameworks support distributed architecture and can be used for scalability.



 Also, if you use a tool hosted on the cloud-like Testsigma. It gives you the ability to <a href="https://middleware.io/whitepaper/the-ultimate-guide-to-auto-scaling-your-application-infrastructure/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">scale up and down your infrastructure</a> needs according to your testing needs.&nbsp;



8. Resolve Inefficient Processes: Processes that are inefficient and not well designed are bound to create bottlenecks in the overall effort of achieving continuous testing. Such processes should be resolved before they become part of the continuous testing initiative.



Read here about <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/continuous-testing-strategy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Continuous Testing Strategy</a>



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<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



Continuous testing is an important component of the <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-integration">continuous integration</a> and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. To make CI/CD effective, it is necessary to make continuous testing effective. Continuous testing needs to have organizational and infrastructural support to achieve the speed and reliability that can enable quicker delivery of Agile products to the market.&nbsp;

Common Challenges in Continuous Testing

Gartner did predict that <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3975352/2020-future-of-work-hidden-trends-rising-demand-for-remo" target="_blank">remote working will be a trend in 2020</a>. But no one imagined that it would emerge as the biggest trend this year. For obvious reasons of course &#8211; companies that are able to adapt to remote working are being applauded and other companies that had not thought about remote working ever are now taking measures to adjust to it.&nbsp;



Companies are trying to actively recognize any challenges that their employees are facing. A major challenge that software testing teams across the globe face today are the dependence on physical machines. Other reasons include dependency on infrastructure and internet for the execution of tasks.



Automation, in various ways, can help testing teams work better in the remote working environment. Some such ways are discussed below:



1. Automate your regression testing: <a href="https://testsigma.com/regression-testing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Regression testing</a> may require significant effort if done manually by QE team and multiple iterations can make it more tedious and error-prone.



On the other hand, if the product has test automation in place, it can help a lot in quickly executing the regression tests after any code changes made by developers. This helps a lot in improving the team’s productivity by providing quick feedback on the code changes and catching bugs early on. Also, QE team can continue working on their assigned tasks, meanwhile, test automation is running, thus improving productivity.&nbsp;



Having reliable test automation goes a long way in improving product’s quality and providing the DEV and QE team with the flexibility to work on their own time.&nbsp;



From the perspective of remote work, it becomes all the more important. During remote work, when every person is juggling a number of tasks during the day. Having things automated reduces the burden of regression testing and makes it more efficient.&nbsp;



With <a href="https://testsigma.com/regression-testing/automated-regression-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">automated regression testing</a> in place, developers don’t need to wait for QE to perform the regression testing and provide feedback on the code changes. QEs don’t need to be available at ad-hoc times to test changes done by developers and provide feedback. 



Developers can get immediate feedback on their code changes through test automation results and rectify problems if any. Thus, independent work in a remote setting becomes easy and manageable.&nbsp;



2. <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-driven-development-testsigma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Test-Driven Development(TDD)</a>: In test-driven development, tests are created before the feature is developed. QE team automates the test cases for the feature to be developed and integrates them into the system. These tests would fail until the feature is developed and exhibits expected behaviour. Once the feature starts exhibiting expected behaviour, the tests should pass.



Similar to regression testing, test-driven development will ensure that developers don’t need to wait on the QE team for feedback. They get real-time feedback for their progress on feature development by running their code through the already existing test cases and analyzing test results.&nbsp;



When TDD is in place, QE and Dev tasks need not be tightly coupled. Thus, it helps in ensuring a flexible work schedule for everyone in the team in a remote work setting.&nbsp;



3. Continuous Integration and Continuous Testing: Continuous Testing is the process of testing at all stages of software development – one after the other – without any human intervention. These different stages could be stages of tests: unit tests, integration tests, acceptance tests and performance tests as well as stages of environments such as Dev, QA, Staging and Production.



A CI/CD pipeline ensures that any code changes are tested as soon as they are integrated into the central code repository. For example, when a code change is integrated into the centralized source code repository, unit tests can be automatically executed followed by integration tests and acceptance tests.



Having a CI/CD pipeline not only helps developers get immediate feedback on their work but also empowers everyone in the team to work as per their own schedule.&nbsp;



4. Schedule your automated tests to run in the off hours: To avoid being delayed because of the internet connectivity woes, it is better to schedule the test runs for the time when the internet usage is not at its peak. These will be your night hours usually.You can schedule the test runs overnight and analyse the reports in the morning. Use a tool that lets you send the reports to your emails as soon as the test run ends. Also, it should allow you to analyse the testing status from wherever you are.



5. Start implementing in-sprint test automation to avoid any spillage of automation activities beyond a sprint:If your organization is implementing scrum, it is better to follow in-sprint test automation for its success. When a story is considered done only after its test cases are automated too &#8211; it helps the testing team keeping up with regression testing and development every sprint. This also helps in getting better results from continuous testing and integration. 6. Last but not the least, If you have not already &#8211; choose a test automation tool that fits your project requirements:



If a team has not started on automation yet, this time is good to start looking for a good tool. The tool should fit your project requirements and should help enable remote work. Having a cloud-based tool at this time would remove any dependency on infrastructure hosting. Also, it can be accessed by the whole team from anywhere anytime helping distributed teams collaborate better.



<a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma is a completely cloud-hosted solution</a> that solves all your web, mobile and API automation needs in the same place. Also, it is completely cloud-hosted.



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Other benefits of Testsigma as the tool to enable your remote work include:



1. Just sign up to start automating2. Quick and easy test creation in simple English, thus easy learning curve for anyone.3. Test cases are executed on the cloud that helps in quick feedback for every test run.4. Highly customizable test execution. Tests can be created and executed as needed. You can run the whole suite, run on the cloud, run on the device, run a subset of test cases.5. Run the test cases in parallel without any additional setup6. Easy debugging and maintenance. If there are some resources that are impacted due to another unrelated change, Testsigma compiles and reports them in one place for an easy fix.7. Test cases for web, mobile and API &#8211; all can be automated at one place.8. Seamless integration with any CI/CD tools you are already using in your organization.9. End to End test execution and reporting on the cloud &#8211; including cross-browser testing.10. Detailed and customized reporting that can be accessed anytime anywhere.11. Easily include non-technical members in the test automation workflow for reviews and feedback.



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Tips To Overcome Remote Testing Challenges

<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Introduction">1 Introduction</a></li><li><a href="#Types_of_Software_Bugs">2 Types of Software Bugs</a><ul><li><a href="#1_Implementation_Bugs">2.1 1. Implementation Bugs:</a></li><li><a href="#2_Specification_Bugs">2.2 2. Specification Bugs:</a></li><li><a href="#3_Absent_Specification_Bugs">2.3 3. Absent Specification Bugs: </a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#What_Causes_Bugs_in_Software">3 What Causes Bugs in Software?</a><ul><li><a href="#1_RegressionInjection">3.1 1. Regression/Injection: </a></li><li><a href="#2_Inadequate_Testing">3.2 2. Inadequate Testing:</a></li><li><a href="#3_Communication_Gap">3.3 3. Communication Gap:</a></li><li><a href="#4_Improper_Planning">3.4 4. Improper Planning:</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#How_can_Software_Bugs_be_Prevented">4 How can Software Bugs be Prevented?</a><ul><li><a href="#1_Test-Driven_Development_TDD">4.1 1. Test-Driven Development (TDD):</a></li><li><a href="#2_Continuous_Integration_Continuous_Testing_CICT">4.2 2. Continuous Integration Continuous Testing (CICT):</a></li><li><a href="#3_Behaviour_Driven_DevelopmentBDD">4.3 3. Behaviour Driven Development(BDD):</a></li><li><a href="#4_Specification_Review_and_Management">4.4 4. Specification Review and Management:</a></li><li><a href="#5_Clear_Communication">4.5 5. Clear Communication:</a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Why_are_not_all_Software_Bugs_Preventable">5 Why are not all Software Bugs Preventable?</a><ul><li><a href="#1_Effort_Tradeoff">5.1 1. Effort Tradeoff: </a></li><li><a href="#2_User_Immunity_to_Bugs">5.2 2. User Immunity to Bugs: </a></li><li><a href="#3_Team_Structure_and_Dynamics">5.3 3. Team Structure and Dynamics: </a></li><li><a href="#4_Software_Patch_Releases">5.4 4. Software Patch Releases: </a></li></ul></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">6 Conclusion</a></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="introduction">Introduction</h2>



Creating a bug-free software is hard, to the extent that it seems like a myth. Bugs in software represent the discrepancy between the expected and actual behaviour of the software. Although it&#8217;s unrealistic to make software bug-free, efforts can surely be made to minimize the number of bugs in software through various prevention and detection techniques.&nbsp;



Prevention techniques are the ones that can be used to prevent bugs from occurring in the software. Detection techniques are the ones that can be used to detect the bugs that exist in the software. As bug detection can happen only after the bugs begin to appear in the software, detection is a costlier technique than prevention to minimize the bugs in software.



Let us discuss the major types of software bugs, factors causing them, and how to prevent them.



<h2 id="types-of-software-bugs">Types of Software Bugs</h2>



Software bugs can be broadly classified into 3 major categories:



<h3>1. Implementation Bugs:</h3> Bugs introduced during the implementation of software can be classified as implementation bugs. These bugs don’t exist in the requirements and design phases of the software but get introduced when the corresponding specifications are implemented in the code. Therefore, these can also be termed as coding bugs.



For example, consider the login page for an application. According to the specification, a valid username may contain alphabets and numerals. During implementation, the developer allows the use of symbols in the username along with alphabets and numerals.&nbsp;



These are the most common types of bugs prevailing in software and can be prevented to a large extent. 



<h3>2. Specification Bugs:</h3>Bugs introduced at the time of creating specifications for software can be classified as specification bugs. These are the bugs that get introduced when technical specifications for requirements and design are created.&nbsp;



For example, according to the specification, if a user enters an incorrect password, the error message “Incorrect Password!” should be shown to the user. As per the standard security guidelines, the error message in this scenario should be “Incorrect Username or Password!”.



 If a naive developer, who doesn’t know about standard security guidelines and practices followed in software products, is tasked with implementing the specification and he/she unknowingly goes ahead and implements the behaviour as mentioned in the specification, then the bug occurring here is a specification bug.



Such bugs, if not caught early, can impact the product development cycle. 



<h3>3. Absent Specification Bugs: </h3>Bugs that get introduced in the software because workflows and use-cases related to them were not considered during the creation of specifications can be termed absent specification bugs. These are the bugs that arise because nobody thought they could happen or would be needed when the specifications were created. </li></ol>



For example, the specification for a website doesn’t talk about supporting HTTPS. Therefore, it is assumed that HTTPS support is not needed for the website.



Security vulnerabilities in products are a classic example of such bugs. The security aspect is generally not considered during the initial phases of product specifications and may get missed in later phases until someone starts seeing the associated risks and raises alarm.&nbsp; 



<h2 id="what-causes-bugs-in-software">What Causes Bugs in Software?</h2>



Following are some of the common factors which cause software bugs:&nbsp;



<h3>1. Regression/Injection: </h3>A regression/injection is known to have happened when a new code change impacts the existing code in an undesirable manner, like a side-effect. This means that until the new code change was made, the software was working as expected but after the new code change, a bug has been introduced in the software.&nbsp;



Regressions/Injections are common when:



i. Teams are working with large and complex codebases of legacy products.ii. Teams are working in a disjoint manner such that they are not aware of how the modules they are working on may impact each otheriii. Product design is not clean enough to avoid side-effects in the code.



Whatever be the reason, regressions/injections pose serious challenges to the quality of a product and surely need to be prevented.



<h3>2. Inadequate Testing:</h3> If the software has not been thoroughly tested during its development cycle, there is an increased likelihood of bugs being left undiscovered in the product. These bugs would eventually be discovered by the end-users, raising concerns about the quality of the product.



This lapse in testing could be due to various reasons such as:



i. Lack of appropriate testing procedures for the product.ii. Shortage of experienced testers in the team.iii. Lack of time and resources needed for testing.



These bugs can surely be prevented from reaching the end-users by addressing the factors leading to inadequate testing.



<h3> 3. Communication Gap:</h3> Specifications depict the thoughts and vision of the people creating them. Any gaps in communication among people creating the specifications would eventually find their way in the specifications created by them.



These gaps in specifications can give way to miscommunication, assumptions, and conflicts leading to bugs. If some scenarios were not considered during creating a specification, expected behaviours for these scenarios would also be missing in the specification. 



This lack of information in the specification creates the opportunity for the development team to make assumptions regarding the expected behaviour for these scenarios. 



As assumptions are the first step on the path that leads to the difference between the expected and actual behaviour of a product, new bugs can get introduced in the product.



Sometimes, it may happen that different specifications or different sections in the same specification have conflicting expectations for the same use-case or scenario. 



Since development teams working on implementing these specifications may only refer to the sections relevant to them, such conflicts may be hard to catch early paving the way for bugs.&nbsp;



<h3>4. Improper Planning:</h3>Not considering scenarios that can impact the product later reflect poor planning. Such lapse in planning could also be due to a lack of relevant expertise in the team.



For example, if there is no security expertise in the team, it’s easy to miss on the planning of security-related efforts.&nbsp;



Improper planning may result in a lack of crucial components/modules in a&nbsp; product which may put the whole product at risk later.



<h2 id="how-can-software-bugs-be-prevented">How can Software Bugs be Prevented?</h2>



Following are a few techniques that can help in preventing software bugs:



<h3>1. Test-Driven Development (TDD):</h3> TDD encourages creating failing tests for the feature/product before developing the feature/product. As the development for the feature/product reaches completion, the test cases begin to pass, validating the expected behaviour for the feature/product.



If tests are created before the feature/product, the likelihood of a feature/product reaching its end-users untested is greatly reduced. TDD can serve as a powerful technique to prevent bugs arising due to inadequate testing.



<h3 id="2-continuous-integration-continuous-testing-cict">2. Continuous Integration Continuous Testing (CICT):</h3>



CICT emphasizes that every code change integrated into the central code repository should be automatically tested with predefined test cases. Thus, continuous testing is possible only when <a href="https://testsigma.com/automated-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="automated testing (opens in a new tab)">automated testing</a> is implemented and integrated with CI/CD system. 



To achieve CICT for a product, it is crucial that the test automation system is integrated with the build system of the product.



Having a CICT pipeline for the product makes sure that any regressions/injections in the product are caught as soon as they are introduced. This saves a lot of time and effort that is otherwise spent in tracking down the changes that caused the regression/injection.&nbsp;



<h3>3. Behaviour Driven Development(BDD):</h3>BDD encourages the use of a Domain Specific Language (DSL) for communication between and within teams. Using DSL helps in reducing miscommunication among stakeholders.



When BDD is used, tests can be created in a simple text language like English which makes it easy for everyone in the team to participate in creating and reviewing tests without getting into the nitty-gritty of code syntax. 



This flexibility and transparency in creating and reviewing test cases can help a lot in reducing bugs occurring due to communication gaps between and within teams.



Testsigma is a unified test automation tool that has taken test automation to a new level by allowing automation in simple English. To know more about <a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Testsigma click here</a>.



<h3>4. Specification Review and Management:</h3> As the scope for the product evolves, so do specifications related to it. The dedicated effort may be required to review and track the updates happening in specifications. Early catching of any updates in the specifications which may lead to a potential conflict, can help in preventing bugs later in the implementation of the product.



<h3>5. Clear Communication:</h3> Open and clear communication among teams and team members can help a lot in highlighting absent/conflicting scenarios in specifications. If every team member is encouraged to communicate about use-cases or scenarios that they think are missing/conflicting in the specification then, such issues can be identified much quickly and early.



Encouraging teams to seek inputs from relevant stakeholders and brainstorm for the possible expected behaviours in cases of missing/conflicting specifications can help in reducing bugs arising out of assumptions made for implementation.



<h2 id="why-are-not-all-software-bugs-preventable">Why are not all Software Bugs Preventable?</h2>



Despite various prevention techniques available, bugs still find their way in products. There can be multiple factors for this, such as:



<h3>1. Effort Tradeoff: </h3>At times, you might need to choose between preventing bugs and evolving the product for new user groups, technologies and business domains.
With limited resources at hand, prioritizing bug prevention over new product features and updates may not always be a good business decision.



<h3>2. User Immunity to Bugs: </h3>Unless the bugs in the product make it really hard to use from a performance and stability perspective, users understand that bugs do exist in software and a bug-free software is not a realistic expectation.



<h3>3. Team Structure and Dynamics: </h3> Some of the bug prevention techniques might not work for you depending on your team structure and dynamics.



<h3>4. Software Patch Releases: </h3> If a critical bug in the product has made its way to the end-user, you know it’s not the end of the world and there is an option to provide a patch release or an early next release.



<h2 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h2>



It is always good to prevent bugs whenever possible. It saves a lot of time and effort later. But as discussed above, despite best efforts, some bugs might still find their way in the product. And it&#8217;s alright as long as these bugs don’t threaten user loyalty of the product.&nbsp;



A software with lots of features but poor stability and performance is as useless as a stable and highly performant software that doesn’t have enough features to achieve user workflows. To choose between preventing bugs and adding more features to the product, you need to find the right balance between the two.&nbsp;

Techniques To Prevent Software Bugs

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<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#What_is_Testing">1 What is Testing?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_a_Testing_Framework">2 What is a Testing Framework?</a></li><li><a href="#What_is_an_Agile_Testing_Framework">3 What is an Agile Testing Framework?</a></li><li><a href="#Does_an_Agile_Testing_Framework_need_to_be_agile_itself">4 Does an Agile Testing Framework need to be agile itself?</a></li><li><a href="#What_makes_a_good_Agile_Testing_Framework">5 What makes a good Agile Testing Framework?</a><ul><li><a href="#Common_vocabulary">5.1 Common vocabulary</a></li><li><a href="#Test-driven_development">5.2 Test-driven development</a></li><li><a href="#Different_tests_for_different_teams">5.3 Different tests for different teams</a></li><li><a href="#Domain_experts">5.4 Domain experts</a></li><li><a href="#Exploratory_testing_and_Extreme_Roleplays">5.5 Exploratory testing and Extreme Roleplays</a></li><li><a href="#Tests_Organization">5.6 Tests Organization</a></li><li><a href="#Sprint_demos">5.7 Sprint demos</a></li><li><a href="#User_facing_documentation">5.8 User facing documentation</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="what-is-testing">What is Testing?</h2>



Testing is the process of finding defects in a product/process to notify behaviour that isn’t acceptable for a user, to highlight how much of the product conforms to the expectations and what are the deviations. Testing ensures the quality of a product and forms a major component of the Software Development Life Cycle.&nbsp;



<h2 id="what-is-a-testing-framework">What is a Testing Framework?</h2>



A testing framework is a set of rules that define how to do the testing. It incorporates tools and practices that can make testing easier, effective and efficient. Broadly, it provides the pillars on which testing can be planned and executed.



<h2 id="what-is-an-agile-testing-framework">What is an Agile Testing Framework?</h2>



Agile is all about embracing the fact that change is constant. Software products that follow Agile Methodology are always on the roller coaster ride of constantly changing requirements, technical stack, timelines, deliverables, etc.



For software developed using Agile methodology, small iterations of the product are built and evolved at regular intervals(called sprints). These small iterations of the product also need to be tested to ensure that quality issues are identified and resolved timely.



A framework that enables testing of these small iterations of the product makes for an Agile Testing Framework.



<h2 id="does-an-agile-testing-framework-need-to-be-agile-itself">Does an Agile Testing Framework need to be agile itself?</h2>



Yes. As the product adapts to the changes getting introduced, the same needs to be done for its testing framework. The testing framework for an agile product needs to be constantly revisited to weed out obsolete tasks and practices and incorporate new ones. Also, not all components of the framework are needed from the start. You have to add and remove from the framework as per the need.&nbsp;



Also, you should start thinking about testing from the beginning. Not only in the Development Phase, testing should be incorporated in the Requirements and Design Phase also. More about this on &#8216;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Also, you should start thinking about testing from the beginning. Not only in the Development Phase, testing should be incorporated in the Requirements and Design Phase also. More about this on 'Is your automation testing tool ready for Shift Left testing?' The nature of testing performed in these phases could be a bit different. For example, in the Requirements Phase, testing could be related to business analysis. (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com/blog/test-automation-tool-ready-for-shift-left/" target="_blank">Is your automation testing tool ready for Shift Left testing?</a>&#8216;



The nature of testing performed in these phases could be a bit different. For example, in the Requirements Phase, testing could be related to business analysis.



In the Feasibility Analysis phase, testing could be related to legal and technical analysis. In the Design phase, testing could be related to user acceptance and security. In the Development phase, testing could be actual unit testing, smoke testing, acceptance testing, performance testing, stress testing, etc.&nbsp;



<h2 id="what-makes-a-good-agile-testing-framework">What makes a good Agile Testing Framework?</h2>



An Agile Testing Framework should be good enough to cover the breadth and depth of a product. Following are some of the features that are crucial for a good Agile Testing Framework:



<h3 id="common-vocabulary">Common vocabulary</h3>



The business and technical teams must share the same vocabulary for terms and concepts related to the product even if it means developing a few new words. Using a common vocabulary eases communication among different teams and even within the same team.



<h3 id="test-driven-development">Test-driven development</h3>



Having a test case that defines the expected behaviour even before the behaviour is implemented helps in clear understanding. You precisely know what should be implemented and are not biased by the implementation details. As long as the test fails, you know the behaviour is not correct. As soon as the test passes, you know you are on the right track. Here the preciseness of the test becomes very important. Identifying what all should be verified as a part of the test to ensure correct implementation of the behaviour is critical. At the same time, care needs to be taken to keep the test easily maintainable, loosely-coupled with the system and finite scope so that it doesn’t end up testing everything or nothing useful.



<h3 id="different-tests-for-different-teams">Different tests for different teams</h3>



Different teams on the product should have different testing criteria for the product. The way business teams test the product is and should be different from the way technical teams test the product. Business teams are better aware of the user scenarios and can better judge the product for user acceptance. Similarly, technical teams are better aware of the implementation details of the product and can better test the code quality through unit tests.



<h3 id="domain-experts">Domain experts</h3>



It is good to have domain experts, as needed, on the team. Domain experts, be it business experts or security experts can provide a different viewpoint for the product. The way business experts aren’t good with technical details, the technical team is not good with the business domain. Having business experts regularly review the product deliverables helps to bring in crucial feedback for the product that could be hard to incorporate towards the end of the product development. Also, business experts are more likely to take the product iterations to customers and gather feedback that can prove crucial in shaping the product further. Similarly, security experts on the team can help close security loopholes in the product early on. Keeping security in mind from the start is important. Following security guidelines while designing the product can help in avoiding flaws that can prove fatal later.&nbsp;



<h3 id="exploratory-testing-and-extreme-roleplays">Exploratory testing and Extreme Roleplays</h3>



Testing is more about mindset, less about a job. As you become familiar with a product, your testing skills start getting influenced by the knowledge of the product. You start making assumptions on how it should be used, which means that you won’t try to use the product differently. This leaves out the scope for testing the product with a different user’s perspective.



 A user who is a novice (like Charlie Chaplin) may have a different approach for using the product than a user who is fond of pushing the product to extreme limits while using it (like Big Bunny who is known for breaking the products).



 Users from different levels or background may approach and expect the product to behave in different ways. Performing such extreme role-plays during testing can help in identifying issues with the product that cannot be noticed otherwise.



<h3 id="tests-organization">Tests Organization</h3>



When you are dealing with a large number of test cases, that span across teams and domains, daily, it becomes crucial to organize them in a trackable manner. <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/the-unpleasant-phenomenon-in-agile-testing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Agile Testing</a> Matrix could be of help here as it not only provides a skeleton to organize the test cases but also becomes the guide to understand the purpose and objective of the test cases.



This is how a basic Agile Testing Matrix looks like:



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/PbgwQjB2xsrY22Ls_FahSnrw-6o-HiVWn0ZAcEKcaoGMqeK-nKScOY3fkmdL8ezsnhuPFfFs3ms9EhhRsFnNn2l4JluFFOvWbtegTb9UzKaeyIhNuRHPhnZdeHsbUpPSFZVJUdNH" alt="Testsigma - Tests Organization" /></figure></div>



<figcaption>Source:&nbsp;<a href="http://www.exampler.com/old-blog/2003/08/21.1.html#agile-testing-project-1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.exampler.com/old-blog/2003/08/21.1.html#agile-testing-project-1</a></figcaption>



When you try to fill in this matrix with your test cases classified as unit tests, functional tests, acceptance tests, security tests, etc. you tend to realize what purpose each test case is serving for the product and how strongly your test cases are covering the product quality.



With the help of this matrix you can eventually also see which areas of the product have the least focus from a quality perspective and that can give you guidance on where to channelize your testing efforts.



<h3 id="sprint-demos">Sprint demos</h3>



Small iterations of the product built every sprint should be regularly demonstrated to the technical and business teams to check the gaps between what is expected and what is coming out. This helps in catching and correcting any differences in expectations and deliverables early on. Sprint demos also help in building confidence in the team for what they are building. It becomes easier to look at the overall picture when things translate from imagination to real-world and you start seeing some essential pieces of the structure. Sprint demos help achieve that.



<h3 id="user-facing-documentation">User facing documentation</h3>



Although it can be argued that user-facing documentation is/should not be the responsibility of the technical team, the truth is that documentation plays an important role in user experience. Documentation is the go-to place for a user with doubts/queries. When you write and/or review the documentation from a user’s perspective who is not aware of the internal details of the product, you can often see the missing pieces and problems.When you are making someone else understand, your understanding becomes better at what should be, why it should be and where it should be. This helps in identifying a different set of issues with the product, which could then be categorized as bugs or feature enhancements



Agile methodology helps in building products faster but a velocity without quality has no significance.&nbsp; Quality should be held as most important. To achieve velocity with quality, every team member should be concerned about quality. Be it design discussions or actual development of the product, every team member should wear the testing hat and notify issues early. The objective of a product is to serve quality and quality should be everyone’s responsibility.



Further Reading:<a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/agile-scrum-methodology-best-practices-agile-teams/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Further Reading: Top 13 Best Practices For Agile Teams (opens in a new tab)"> Top 13 Best Practices For Agile Teams</a>



References



<a href="https://agilealliance.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://agilealliance.org/</a>



<a href="https://agilemanifesto.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://agilemanifesto.org/</a>



<a href="http://www.exampler.com/old-blog/2003/08/21.1.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">http://www.exampler.com/old-blog/2003/08/21.1.html</a>

Understanding the Agile Testing Framework