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Common Software Testing Mistakes Beginners Make & How To Avoid

Remote work has been steadily gaining popularity for some years now. According to an article published by <a href="https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/remote-work-statistics/#gref" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">smallbizgenius</a>, in 2019, the number of people who work from home has increased by 140% since 2005.



Now, most of the population is working from home. For most of the companies that had not adapted work from home before, this time has been an eye-opener. Many companies including the big ones like Twitter, Barclays, Mondelez are allowing employees to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/01/major-companies-talking-about-permanent-work-from-home-positions.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continue work from home</a> indefinitely. as there is a wide range of tools that support organizational productivity, allowing employees to work remotely. From employee onboarding software to training tools, everything is geared to <a href="https://snacknation.com/blog/human-resources-management-software/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">make workforce manageable</a>.



Here, I am sharing a some remote working tips that I have learnt in my five years of remote working experience that could help you make your work effective personally and professionally.







<ul class="list_style_disc"><li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Follow a routine: When we go to the office, the routine comes naturally to us. While in the comforts of home, it can become a tough task. Having a routine in place will not only <a rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank" href="https://thoughtcatalog.com/brianna-wiest/2015/10/the-psychology-of-daily-routine-7-reasons-why-people-who-do-the-same-things-each-day-tend-to-be-happier-than-those-who-chase-adventure/">keep you in a better mood</a> but your teammates will also know the right time to contact you.



You may have to put in conscious efforts to keep up a routine till the time it becomes a habit for you. Read here to know <a href="https://www.lifehack.org/articles/featured/18-tricks-to-make-new-habits-stick.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">how to make new habits stick</a>. A general rule of thumb to make a habit stick is to repeat it for 21 days without fail.



For me, personally, having a fixed sleep time and wake up time helped to schedule other tasks better.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Work when you are the most productive: If you have been working for some time, you would know what hours of the day are most productive for you.Some people feel most productive in the silence of the night while some feel most productive in the early morning hours. Any time when you are able to <a href="https://www.timedoctor.com/feature-employee-monitoring" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> get your work done </a> without distractions is the best time. Try to get the most important tasks of the day done during these hours.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Take breaks: <a href="https://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/10-reasons-you-should-stop-working-long-hours-today.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Working continuously for a long duration</a> is actually known to reduce productivity. So, instead of trying to do all the tasks in one go, try to break your work time into chunks of smaller duration.For eg., you can work for an hour on one task then take a break for 10 minutes, check your <a href="https://napoleoncat.com/blog/instagram-dms/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> Instagram DMs </a> or listen to music, and then work on another. Or you can pick some other duration depending on your tasks and personal suitability.</li>



Taking regular breaks lets your brain and body relax and also gives you the opportunity to spend some time with family at home or friends on a call.



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Every day, have a plan of what tasks you will accomplish. Before you go to sleep, jot down the tasks for the next day, so when you wake up the next day, you know where to start. This way, you will be able to be productive as soon as you start your day. Also, you can use the RescueTime time management tool or check out some <a href="https://timingapp.com/blog/rescuetime-alternatives/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">RescueTime alternatives</a> to plan your work ahead and keep track of your working time.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 30px">Do other tasks when you are not at your productive best: Checking emails is one task you can do at this time. You can schedule reading them at the end of your workday or just before you take a break or do some household chores.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Take up only what you can manage: This point is especially for those who try to juggle many things at once. We are humans and even if we work 24 hours a day, the number of things we could accomplish is limited.



The best solution is to keep a list of tasks you need to do with priority assigned to all of them. Do the most important tasks first, including the tasks you need to take care of at home.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Don’t hesitate to delegate: There will be some tasks that you must do but there will be some that you can easily delegate to others. Delegating tasks also helps you focus on the important tasks.</li>







<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Have a place where you can work without disturbance: After routine and task management, the workplace plays the most important part of your work life. When you are in your workplace, you know you are supposed to work and, there are fewer chances of you getting distracted. Thus it becomes important that you plan on investing in setting up a workplace at home.To begin with, you can <a href="https://www.thespruce.com/small-desks-4155171" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">set up a mini DIY work station</a>.Checkout <a href="https://www.bobvila.com/slideshow/get-to-work-13-diy-workbenches-craft-counters-and-potting-tables-47343#diy-bookcase-bench" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">some unique DIY workbenches ideas here as well</a>.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Minimize distractions: For me, the biggest distractions are social media websites and apps. I open the phone to check one notification and then get stuck going through all the updates. This could also mean that while I was sitting in my workplace, I was not being productive and I end up spending a longer duration for the same task.



To keep myself away from any distraction and to be my productive best when it matters, I try to keep my phone away from me whenever I am working. Eventually, I stopped feeling the urge to check the phone now and then.



For some people, this distraction could be Netflix. A solution could be to plan for your work to be completed at a fixed time every day. At that time, you can switch on your Netflix and go binging without any guilt of not giving your 100% to your work. Know what distracts you from your work and keep away from it during work hours.</li>



Communicate: Being remote, communication is what suffers the most. So, you will have to be proactive to chase away any delays due to a shortage of communication. The best way is to communicate with the risk of over communication. One solution to enhance communication when working remotely is using&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ringcentral.com/us/en/blog/what-is-ringcentral/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">RingCentral</a>, a communication platform that provides messaging, <a href="https://trueconf.com/blog/reviews-comparisons/video-conferencing-software.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">video conferencing</a>, and phone systems, among other features. When you are working remotely, people cannot see you working. They also won’t know if you are available or not. Communicate this beforehand.



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Communicate: Being remote, communication is what suffers the most. So, you will have to be proactive to chase away any delays due to a shortage of communication. The best way is to communicate with the risk of over communication.</li>



When you are working remotely, people cannot see you working. They also won’t know if you are available or not. Communicate this beforehand.



If you have a doubt, ask. If you find some valuable information, share. If you feel like talking, ping someone. This way, you will also be able to bring your water cooler conversations to your home.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Never guess or leave anyone guessing: If there is someone who needs to know the status of your task, don’t wait for them to ask. Ping them and let them know the status. If you are dependent on someone’s tasks, don’t assume their status. Just ask them.



This is also a perfect time to start using a collaboration tool like Slack, Asana, Trello etc to avoid any gaps in communication</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Have patience: With remote work, also comes work time flexibility. People work according to their own schedules. What could be a suitable time for you to work might be someone else’s time to feed their kids.



So, If you ask someone a question, give them time to return back to you. Meanwhile, you can work on some other tasks.</li>







<li style="padding-bottom: 30px">Stay visible: If there are group conversation, participate in them. And, always communicate your work status to your manager.</li>







<li style="padding-bottom: 20px">Talk to people: Even though you are working remote, you are part of a team. Being part of the team, you should know your team members and your team members should know you. So, whenever a situation comes where you can talk about yourself or ask about someone, act on it swiftly.Strengthen your <a href="https://krisp.ai/blog/virtual-team-communication/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">remote team communication </a> to ensure productivity.You should also ping your team members individually sometimes to just build up on those friendships that you might be otherwise missing by not going to the office.</li>



<li style="padding-bottom: 50px">Take care of yourself: To end the article on the most important note, all the remote working tips above would work for you only if you take care of yourself too. So, take out time for your hobbies, spend time with your family and friends. Have an ergonomic chair for a good posture. And do something to be happy every day.</li></ul>



If you are a tester, we also compiled some tips for <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/make-testing-remote-friendly/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="making testing remote-friendly (opens in a new tab)">making testing remote-friendly</a>.

15 Remote Working Tips From Experience

Here&#8217;s a quick QnA session with the one and only witty and sharp, Ajay Balamurugadas.



Ajay is an esteemed speaker, conducts multiple training sessions, learning activities, and testing initiatives. He is always ready to help and suggest thoughtful ideas(no doubt why people call him the &#8220;idea guy&#8221;!) 



Ajay leads delivery at Qapitol QA, a QA services&#8217; company that topped the<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" GTR Leaderboard (opens in a new tab)" href="https://gtr.agiletestingalliance.org/leaderboard/" target="_blank"> GTR Leaderboard</a>.



Here&#8217;s what we discussed.



Do you have a different strategy for your automation and your testing? Or one strategy to rule them all?



Automation and testing should not be compared. It is like comparing physics and science, baking, and cooking. Automation is part of testing. You need to check if certain things are as expected and a tool can do that faster. That is where automation will help.



There are certainly other areas and aspects of testing where it helps if you have a tester test, explore the application. You choose automation (tools) or humans based on what would help you achieve your mission, save time and cost (in that order most of the time).



How can manual testers and automation engineers complement each other when testing?



We need to first get rid of the terms &#8211; manual and automation engineers/testers. Maybe, let us call everyone testers &#8211; some specializing in functional testing and some good with automation tools.



We should understand the goals of testing &#8211; discover information related to the quality of the product. I recommend everyone read <a href="https://twitter.com/QualityFrog/status/1225540826916368388" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">this thread</a> by Ben Simo where he highlights how automation can help in testing.



What do you think is important for any team that is already working on automation or planning to start?



All the automation that is done should help everyone in the project. Imagine you have built the best scripts but no one is using it, what is the use? So, use automation not to replace testing as some claim, but to enhance the powers of testers



People say they can only know the maintenance cost once they have put the tool to use for some time, what scenarios should we keep in mind to get to know these sooner?



Discuss internally, use the trial version on the real project, ask people who have already used the tool. Do not think short term. See how you would use the tool for your projects in future.Analyze the costs throughout the cycle.



What factors can help a team decide if they are mature enough to adopt automation?



If you answer No to any of the following four questions, I would say &#8211; wait, maybe you are not ready yet.



<ol style="padding-bottom: 30px"><li>Are you and the product, development teams in sync about the release cycles and the changes?</li><li>Does everyone understand the current pain points and feel that automation can help remove the pain points?</li><li>Do you have the buy-in from the management?</li><li>Do the teams have the freedom to choose the tool for automation?</li></ol>



Are there scenarios when automation is not a solution? Can you give us an example?



Any team where automation is done just to prove that people are working on automation, trying to automate everything, automating the incorrect things are all examples where automation is more harmful.



One scenario where I think automation should be used to execute scenarios but used to help in other activities is when the product is undergoing a lot of changes, frequently.



Please do not automate if all the teams are not in sync about the value of automation else you will waste a lot of time and money.



To reduce learning costs, what would you say is better &#8211; a tool that has a good support team or a tool that has a good forum presence?



The ultimate goal should be achieved. The team should be able to learn the tool quickly. It could be through the support team sometimes and sometimes by a good forum presence. My personal preference is the forum presence for open source. Support is not always available and I would learn quicker from someone who has gone through the struggles similar to mine. 



In cases of commercial tools, you can be confident of a better support system that will guide you from onboarding to first tests to solving any problems and helping achieve your goals. With commercial tools, I prefer the support teams. 



It is a new challenge today. When everyone is remote and maintaining quality, how to stay demonstrably productive at this time?



Staying demonstrably productive is a wrong goal to chase. Be productive. That is enough.



At the start of the day, communicate to your team about the tasks you are targeting for the day. If any change in priority is needed, the team will let you know.



At the end of the day, highlight what was achieved and what is the plan for the rest. Do communicate a lot and agree upon catch up times.



Do you have any tips for effective testing at these testing times?



Anytime, everytime, work on your skills and do justice to the CTC you take home.Do not lie to self.



Now we are in 2020, how far have we come in terms of testing? Also, do you think AI is the future of testing?



Patterns repeat. Those days, people were chasing Selenium. Now they are chasing AI. The chase continues. Very few have dedicated their lives to learning testing in depth. AI is the future? Ha, ha. We will test applications based on AI but AI might not be the future so soon. It will take time. The chase will continue for the next big thing. We are forgetting that we are dealing with people at the end of the day and very few can predict what people want.&nbsp; 



At the same time, this is the time where we have so much data and computing power to analyze and predict with reasonable confidence compared to the past. People are already building applications that are heavily powered by AI and testing them brings out interesting challenges for the software testing community.



Let us enjoy the journey!







Check out Ajay&#8217;s latest book at&nbsp;<a aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://leanpub.com/50mistakes" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.leanpub.com/50mistakes</a>&nbsp;that discusses 50 software testing mistakes of his career and find out more testing resources from him at <a href="http://enjoytesting.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener nofollow">Enjoy Testing</a>.



Ajay is very approachable and always willing to give advice. Hit him up on <a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/ajay184f">Twitter </a>and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajaybalamurugadas/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">LinkedIn</a>.



Thank you Ajay for sharing your thoughts with us 🙂

QnA with Ajay Balamurugadas

Why test data management is so important-Testsigma

What is Test Data Management? | Importance & Best Practices

Time suddenly took a U-turn and did when we least expected it. While just some time ago, millions of people were travelling across the globe, now we are forced to stay at home for our good.



If expert opinion and news analysis are to be believed, remote work is expected to become the new norm at least in the near future.&nbsp;



We need to equip ourselves to better adapt to the situation in the best way possible.



In this article, we have compiled some tips for remote QA testing teams to keep testing effectively.



1. Communicate



With teams working from physically different situations, the aspect of remote working that has the most impact is communication.



Schedule a short meeting daily to plan the work and practice sharing work status with your team. Make sure every team member is involved in it. A good practice is to share a summary of the discussion in case someone misses to join.



It is important that a remote QA testing team provides timely feedback. For testing specific tasks, always communicate the completion status on time when possible. A better way to do it is to update your teams on the progress of your work using a test management tool. Team members can access and check the status of the tasks anytime, anywhere. This will be particularly helpful if their tasks are dependent on yours.



2. Make your testing reports clear and concise



Some part of a tester’s daily activity will always involve reporting. Whenever a bug is found they will be logging bug reports. When executing test cases, they share execution reports. The execution reports will also be of different types &#8211; for eg. functional testing reports, performance testing reports, regression testing reports, release certification reports.



To make the reports useful while working remotely, they must highlight the issues and convey the test behavior. This prevents any to and fro between people to understand what the reports mean. This also helps teams to stay productive while working remote.



3. Automate workflow where possible



Depending on the type of project you are testing, and the role you are in, you would have a lot of workflows already automated or many might be pending.To improve the quality of remote testing work, try to automate the processes that would help other team members perform better.For example, having an automated CI/CD workflow where after every check-in, a regression test suite is executed automatically will save testers and the developers a lot of time.



4. Reduce potential blockers and individual dependencies, where possible



With remote work, all team members cannot be available at the same time. Keeping this in mind, individual dependencies should be removed as much as possible. For eg, if there are test automation scripts or test cases &#8211; they should be hosted at a location that is shared with all. The hosted locations and folder structures should be easy to understand and communicated to all beforehand.



5. Enable selective access to the testing machines on need-basis



There are organizations where testers need access to different machines and servers for testing. These machines could be hosted on the cloud or hosted in the organization’s headquarters within a private network. To keep the security intact, enable access to these testing machines and environments with the people that need to access it. Make sure to not share any potentially sensitive files/data on these machines.



6. Use secured tools



Now when people have no other way than to work remotely, people are also using various tools for making remote work easy. They could be <a href="https://trueconf.com/features/collaboration/instant-messaging.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">messaging apps</a>, meeting apps, task management tools, or collaboration tools.



 Though it&#8217;s good to use such <a href="https://callhippo.com/blog/business/productivity-tools" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tools for better productivity</a> and reduced communication barriers, ensure that your tools are always secure. You need to keep yourself and your internet self safe and secure.



If you have not already, you should think of investing in a test management tool that allows you to host and manage your manual &amp; automated test cases, test execution reports, and analysis.



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<a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Testsigma </a>is a unified test automation platform that allows you to:



1. Automate test cases on the cloud.



Testsigma allows you to automate test cases in simple English via NLP. These test cases are created and hosted on the cloud and can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime.



2. Execute test cases on a cloud-hosted test lab that has 1000+ screen sizes to test on.



Testsigma has an in-built test lab with all the latest devices and browsers that you might need to test on. It can also easily integrate with BrowserStack and Sauce Labs.



3. Get comprehensive execution reports and access them anywhere anytime.



The execution reports are created keeping the most important stuff highlighted and the needed references attached which prove to be useful for testers as well as managers.



4. Easily integrate with other CI/CD tools you might be using.



If you have an already set up continuous integration/DevOps workflow, Testsigma can integrate seamlessly with it.



5. Debug your failed test cases on the cloud.



Testsigma attaches screenshots, video recording of test execution and logs to execution reports. It also supports pause and play of test cases for better debugging experience.



Testsigma offers On-Demand Automation Expert Services &nbsp;to address complex situations and growing requirements. The dedicated expert will work with you remotely and in the time zone you are comfortable with.



We are in tough times. Some of us could seem better than others but the fear of the unknown is worrying us all. So, let&#8217;s understand each other and have empathy for each other too, every moment of the day. If someone is not available, let&#8217;s understand and ask them when they will be available instead. In place of calling for a meeting without any notice, ask for time when they are comfortable and then schedule a meeting. If people don’t turn up, it&#8217;s ok.Make everyone feel inclusive and comfortable. Respect and appreciation might be something that might be needed more frequently in these times.



Know More: <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/tips-to-overcome-remote-testing-challenges/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Tips for Remote Testing</a>

Make Testing Remote Friendly with Testsigma

Make Testing Remote-Friendly

We are in a fast-paced world. Times have changed, and organizations can no longer afford to have separate processes and work in isolation to achieve excellence. Now, DevOps helps companies evolve their software products more quickly than old ways of doing things.&nbsp;



It bridges development with operations, which further enhances overall efficiency by stitching up release and deployment with development and testing, thereby making testing the enabler to drive high quality releases rather than a bottleneck.



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#Why_DevOps_Really_Matters_For_Modern_Businesses">1 Why DevOps Really Matters For Modern Businesses?</a></li><li><a href="#Benefits_of_DevOps_for_Businesses">2 Benefits of DevOps for Businesses</a></li><li><a href="#Challenges_of_DevOps_in_Business">3 Challenges of DevOps in Business</a></li><li><a href="#The_Future_of_DevOps">4 The Future of DevOps</a></li><li><a href="#Reasons_Why_DevOps_is_Important_for_Modern_Businesses">5 Reasons Why DevOps is Important for Modern Businesses</a></li><li><a href="#Conclusion">6 Conclusion</a></li><li><a href="#Frequently_Asked_Questions">7 Frequently Asked Questions</a><ul><li><a href="#What_is_the_main_goal_of_DevOps">7.1 What is the main goal of DevOps?</a></li><li><a href="#Do_you_really_need_DevOps">7.2 Do you really need DevOps?</a></li><li><a href="#When_not_to_use_DevOps">7.3 When not to use DevOps?</a></li></ul></li></ul></div>
<h2 id="why-devops-really-matters-for-modern-businesses">Why DevOps Really Matters For Modern Businesses?</h2>



DevOps is all about automation, and its practice would enable firms to zero in on automation. Automating repetitive tasks such as testing, integration, and deployment accelerates the procedure and reduces human error.&nbsp;



Also, it frees the team to focus on more strategic work: driving innovation and increasing productivity overall.



DevOps Growth Statistics



The Global DevOps Market was estimated to be worth USD 4,311.95 million in 2020 and was expected to reach USD 5,114.57 million in 2021. With a compound annual growth rate of 18.95%, it is projected to reach USD 12,215.54 million by 2026.



<h2 id="benefits-of-devops-for-businesses">Benefits of DevOps for Businesses</h2>



Faster and More Reliable Software Releases:



DevOps practises help businesses achieve quicker and more reliable software releases by automating the software release process with <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-integration" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continuous integration</a> and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. This results in faster development cycles, faster time-to-market, and more efficient delivery of new features and upgrades to consumers. DevOps&#8217; automation and standardised processes also help to increase dependability by reducing the likelihood of human mistake during deployment.



Improved Collaboration and Communication:



DevOps fosters a culture of cooperation and communication across various software development teams, resulting in faster and more efficient software delivery and improved communication, leading to increased productivity and customer satisfaction. It breaks down silos and promotes cross-functional cooperation, leading to quicker and more efficient software delivery.



Enhanced Scalability and Flexibility:



DevOps helps businesses manage workloads and user expectations by automating resource provisioning and deployment. It also helps enterprises adopt cloud computing, resulting in faster resource provisioning and increased application performance. IaC and containerization are used to automate resource provisioning and deployment, making it easier to scale up or down.



Continuous Feedback and Improvement:



Continuous feedback loops and iterative improvement are key to DevOps, allowing businesses to quickly discover bottlenecks, performance difficulties, and other problems. This feedback loop enables faster issue resolution, continual optimisation, and rapid response to changing client demands. Businesses can also discover and resolve issues early in the<a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/software-development-life-cycle-sdlc/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> development cycle</a> using continuous integration and testing, increasing overall software quality and lowering the likelihood of production failures.



<h2 id="challenges-of-devops-in-business">Challenges of DevOps in Business</h2>



Adopting DevOps has a number of challenges, such as:



<ol><li>Cultural Transformation: The shift to DevOps breaks down silos to ensure effective communication across teams that are further located far apart that needs extensive training and change management.</li></ol>



<ol start="2"><li>Toolchain Complexity: It can be very complex to integrate different tools together; this requires that they are carefully selected, integrated and employees trained so that there is compatibility which is also effective.</li></ol>



<ol start="3"><li>Security and Compliance: Rapid releases and automation may bring security risks into the system if proper measures are not taken; this includes the adoption of good secure coding practices in addition to adherence to regulations.</li></ol>



<ol start="4"><li>Legacy Systems: Integrating obsolete systems with new DevOps pipelines is hard; it may need modernization or replacement.</li></ol>



<ol start="5"><li>Skills Gap: Finding skilled professionals and up-skilling teams is important for DevOps implementation.</li></ol>



<h2 id="the-future-of-devops">The Future of DevOps</h2>



The future of DevOps will be driven by improvements in several key areas.&nbsp;



<ul><li>AI and machine learning techniques will help automation and predictive analytics bring about higher levels of efficiency and issue detection.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<ul><li>DevSecOps will ingrain security within the development lifecycle while using automation for testing and compliance.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Serverless and cloud-native technologies: for building scalable, resilient, efficient systems. GitOps plus Infrastructure as Code (IaC) in managing infrastructure, streamlining it through code plus version control.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Besides, NoOps will emerge with intelligent automation which would decrease manual operations efforts and increase system reliability.&nbsp;</li></ul>



To say, DevOps will continue to evolve by focusing more on automation, security, scalability and collaboration.



<h2 id="reasons-why-devops-is-important-for-modern-businesses">Reasons Why DevOps is Important for Modern Businesses</h2>



DevOps with modern businesses has proved long drive innovation and efficiency.&nbsp;



According to several recent research reports, organizations that have adopted DevOps have realized a 46% increase in their time-to-market applications and reduced software failures.



One of the things that is always overlooked in DevOps practices is <a href="https://testsigma.com/continuous-testing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">continuous testing</a> or automated testing. Without complete automation of testing, the pipelines are never fully automated and therefore the objectives of DevOps are not fulfilled.



Though there are several open-source tools and testing frameworks available in the market for continuous testing in DevOps, the right choice of tools will make a huge difference as it not only increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications at a faster rate but also helps in their configuration, integration and delivery management needs.



<a href="https://testsigma.com/">Testsigma </a>is one such cloud-based automation testing tool which paves way for continuous testing in Agile and DevOps. As an early adopter of DevOps and Agile methodologies, It can be easily integrated to function as a part of your <a href="https://testsigma.com/devtestops" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">DevTestOps </a>cycles. With parallel test executions,&nbsp;



Testsigma can help reduce your regression time significantly which leads to faster feedback in Agile and DevOps.



If your organization&#8217;s goal for implementing DevOps is ‘reduced time-to-market’ with ‘improved quality’, Testsigma is the tool you are looking for.&nbsp;





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



DevOps provides enterprises with advantages such as quicker and more reliable software releases, cooperation and communication, increased scalability and flexibility, and constant feedback and improvement. However, it requires overcoming obstacles such as cultural shift, toolchain complexity, security and compliance issues, legacy systems, a skills and expertise mismatch, and establishing appropriate monitoring and feedback mechanisms. Despite these hurdles, DevOps can significantly improve software development and operational efficiency, accelerate innovation, and generate superior business outcomes in the digital market.



<h2 id="frequently-asked-questions">Frequently Asked Questions</h2>



<h3 id="what-is-the-main-goal-of-devops">What is the main goal of DevOps?</h3>



DevOps aims to promote cooperation and integration between development and operations teams to expedite software delivery processes. It seeks to break down silos, automate manual operations, and foster a culture of continuous improvement, allowing organisations to develop high-quality software more quickly.



<h3 id="do-you-really-need-devops">Do you really need DevOps?</h3>



DevOps is a technology-driven approach that encourages effective cooperation, shorter time-to-market, higher software quality, and the ability to adapt quickly to customer input and market needs. It can help organizations remain competitive, drive innovation, and provide greater value to their consumers.



<h3 id="when-not-to-use-devops">When not to use DevOps?</h3>



DevOps may not be appropriate in some situations, such as when the software development process is straightforward and does not involve frequent updates or many teams. Organizations with low resources or in highly regulated industries may have difficulty implementing DevOps practices. However, examining the organization&#8217;s goals and limits is important before selecting whether to use DevOps.



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<ts-link-item>
<ts-linktext-value>DevOps Configuration Management</ts-linktext-value>
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Why DevOps is Important for Modern Businesses

Why DevOps is Important for Business?

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” &#8211;&nbsp; a famous quote by Hellen Keller is very much valid even in current times, especially in the context of teamwork.



The relationship between any two people is considered good when communication between them is healthy. And on the same lines, a team is able to work ‘together’ better when their communication is strong.



The testers in a software development team will be understood better if they are able to convey the software testing information and insights properly. In this article, we will discuss how to improve communication in a team from the perspective of testers.&nbsp;



Below are 7 ways that testers can communicate software testing insights better: 



1. Establishing Channels For Cross-Functional Communication Communication in a small team is usually not a challenge because one-on-one interaction is easy and simple. But as the size of an organization grows, the communication channels become complex in nature. Sometimes team members lack the know-how of sharing their knowledge with the right people and the communication gap widens.



This may lead to multiple people working on the same thing at the same time, which could also lead to a loss in productivity and ultimately revenue.&nbsp;



The solution is to establish proper channels for collaboration. A short meeting daily to plan the work and the practice of sharing work status with everyone proves helpful in avoiding such situations.&nbsp; 



One communication tool that all the team members use to communicate with each other is also useful. Slack and JIRA are some tools that companies use and have proved to be valuable.



2. Well-defined Reports



	Information related tasks and daily status is one aspect of communication. Another aspect is reports. Testers do many big tasks that can only be understood if they are followed up with well-defined reports. Test execution reports for example.



Testers execute a high number of test cases, for multiple features and for multiple releases. Sending reports, to concerned people, for each of these according to the timeline and goal of testing will make the testing process transparent for the team. Other team members can also pitch in their suggestions to improve the processes.



Typically, The test execution reports should include the objective of testing, testing scope, test results metrics, types of testing performed, test environment &amp; tools, and conclusion.



3. Bug Reporting <a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/a-testers-guide-to-deal-with-missed-bugs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bugs are something that testers deal</a> with almost daily. Whenever a bug is encountered, it should be reported for timely action.&nbsp; The purpose of the report is to convey to the developers and the management the bug in short in the title. The test steps are to provide the reproduction steps if needed.&nbsp;



Bug reports should be constructed keeping in mind that the Developer or the Manager does not need to consult the tester to understand the bug or to furnish any other details again. 



An ideal bug report will include details of when it appeared and why.



For intermittent occurrences, the pattern of which it occurs, the different product versions, environment name, etc. It is a good practice to record a possible fix for the error if known, include screenshots, videos, and error logs where possible.



4. Removing Communication Barriers



If organizations really want the information to flow freely, it has to be easy, not just for the members who are working on a computer, but for those as well who are working remotely. By using third-party integrations such as Slack and Jira, all the members of different teams can share information from all corners of your organization and all across the world in an instant. The inclusion of <a href="https://www.appypie.com/integrate/apps/slack/integrations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Slack integration</a> further enhances communication and collaboration capabilities, enabling efficient and effective information exchange.



5. Strengthen Important Messages



When a team grows beyond twenty members, the collaboration between the members decreases significantly, especially in teams that are in different departments, locations, and roles. This says that strengthening the goal of working together can improve team communication and collaboration to a great extent. It is important for the enterprise software teams having people in different departments, roles and regions to reinforce important messages with multiple teams. This could mean that the team managers highlight the important messages for the team or such messages are sent with an important tag.



6. Training of Developers and Testers



Developers and testers should learn from each other. Developers should help testers understand the code base and the testers should help the developers understand the test suite and the logic behind the test techniques used or followed. The training will help both the developers and testers to easily collaborate and share important software testing information and insights related to the testing as well as development more often.



Teams which are using Agile and DevOps workflows should use CI (Continuous Integration) tools such as Jenkins.&nbsp;



7. Effective Integration with CI/CD



&nbsp;The CI/CD pipeline should be implemented in such a way that if a test fails, the report should be sent only to the concerned developers to avoid the bombardment of emails to those member’s inboxes who are not concerned with it. Otherwise, receiving many emails related to CI/CD status multiple times a day might compel people to ignore the mails. Check out some <a href="https://hunter.io/blog/cold-email-software/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">cold email outreach tools</a> which will reduce your security and privacy concerns when it comes to emails. You could also check an <a href="https://snov.io/email-verifier" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">email address checker</a> to verify addresses before sending the emails. 



<a rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)" href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank">Testsigma</a> is an automated testing tool that is built after considering all above-mentioned strategies for improving communication between team members. Let’s see how:



<ul class="list_style_disc"><li>Testsigma generates custom reports with text logs, video recordings, screenshots that can be shared with different members of the team working at different levels according to the information they need. </li><li>Testsigma has a “Report Bug” feature which helps the testers in drilling down the test results to get more information for the root cause of the failure and file a bug into several integrated bug platforms such as JIRA. </li><li>Testsigma allows its users to share test results via email, manually or automatically. </li><li>&nbsp;Testsigma hosts all <a href="https://testsigma.com/reports" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="test execution reports (opens in a new tab)">test execution reports</a> on the cloud. It helps the users to view and analyse the test results for each test environment from anywhere, anytime so you can better identify what areas need focus and determine the reach of your test coverage.</li></ul>



<ul class="list_style_disc"><li>It ensures that the application runs on every OS, device and browser combination that is supported.</li> </ul>



<ul class="list_style_disc"><li>Testsigma also allows its users to share the software testing insights through the communication tool Slack. Slack is an amazing communication tool which is becoming highly popular among companies of all sizes. Screenshot of an issue, text and insights in other forms can be easily shared via Slack. </li><li>Testsigma has a test lab replete with the latest devices and browsers to support cross-browser and cross-device testing. Not only this, schedulers can be used to schedule test plan runs. </li><li>Testsigma is built to address the automated cross-browser testing requirements and allows for easy sharing and integration of actionable feedback instantly with the team. This ensures an uninterrupted user experience across all the browsers.</li> </ul>



Current IT industry is becoming more and more complex with teams being geographically dispersed, organizations moving to the cloud and teams opting for emerging methodologies such as Agile and DevOps. This ecosystem makes it more difficult to communicate and evaluate the software testing insights from the testing activities. 



With powerful reporting and analytics tools, Testsigma helps organize and share data easily and effectively. It allows the testers, stakeholders, and decision-makers to remain updated regarding the progress and results at any given moment.



All in all, Testsigma has put in dedicated efforts to make any result easily shareable with all necessary integrations.



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Top Ways to Communicate Software Testing Insights Better

Top 7 Ways to Communicate Software Testing Insights Better

Behavior Driven DevelopmentBDD With Gherkin

Behavior Driven Development with Gherkin | The Complete Guide for BDD Testing

Though manual testing will always have its place, test automation is a necessary part of an organization’s testing process as it can help the business achieve larger business goals like high-quality products with less cost and reduced investment on resources. Also, there are other benefits such as quick test results, shortened release cycles among many others.&nbsp;



The decision of whether to use an automation testing tool in an organization or not is in the hands of the upper management. It is important for the management to understand that adding automation testing to an organization’s manual testing operations is very important. When automation testing is adopted, increased test coverage can be achieved as resources can be free to do more productive tasks. 



In this article, we will see how Testsigma helps the web and mobile dependent businesses to reduce the cost of&nbsp; software releases and continuously release great quality software products faster. 



<div id="toc_container" class="no_bullets">Table Of Contents<ul class="toc_list"><li><a href="#How_does_Testsigma_help_shorten_release_cycles">1 How does Testsigma help shorten release cycles?</a></li><li><a href="#How_can_Testsigma_reduce_your_business_cost">2 How can Testsigma reduce your business cost?</a></li><li><a href="#How_will_other_teams_benefit_from_the_tool_in_addition_to_the_testing_team">3 How will other teams benefit from the tool in addition to the testing team?</a></li><li><a href="#A_clear_test_automation_strategy_should_be_developed">4 A clear test automation strategy should be developed</a></li></ul></div>
<h2>How does Testsigma help shorten release cycles?</h2>



Businesses and organizations, usually release new features and updates without much delay. Testing is often considered as a bottleneck here because it can take a long time before giving a green signal for release. Automation is the ideal solution in such situations but if a tool takes up a lot of time to create, maintain and execute test cases, the ROI of test automation reduces.



<a href="https://testsigma.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label=" (opens in a new tab)">Testsigma, as a test automation tool</a>, help teams reduce the time taken for creation, maintenance, and execution of test cases as discussed below: 



<ul class="list_style_disc pl-25 pt-1"><li>Quick creation of tests: Testsigma requires near-zero initial setup time and cost to get you started. With the help of a test automation framework, you can get a structure for the test automation tasks such as quick test creation, test execution, and reporting. The tests are simple to understand and write. 



Check out Testsigma&#8217;s <a href="https://testsigma.com/test-development" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="Test Development (opens in a new tab)">Test Development</a> approach.</li> 



<li>Easy maintenance: &nbsp;If the developer makes changes in the application, the existing automated test script also needs to be changed. This may take a lot of time and effort. The self-healing feature of Testsigma automatically fixes minor changes made to the source code and hence prevents the tests from failing. Further, affected resources, test cases can automatically be identified in case of a changed resource. Testsigma&#8217;s new Suggestion Engine feature will diagnose for alternative solutions for a failed step.</li> 



<li>Parallel test execution: Parallel testing can speed up your testing to take it from days to hours. Testsigma allows you to execute tests in parallel. With effective parallelization, you can divide the time spent running tests by simultaneously testing in multiple browsers and devices in its Test Lab or on your local machine, at the same time, instead of waiting for one followed by another.</li></ul> 



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<h2>How can Testsigma reduce your business cost?</h2>



<ul class="list_style_disc pl-25"><li>It helps you detect bugs early in the development cycle, also known as Shift Left testing approach which can have a huge impact on reducing your business costs. The earlier you find bugs in development, the less costly they become for the company to resolve. </li><li>With Testsigma, you can create tests along with the development which saves a lot of time for testers after the development is done.</li> 



<li>With Testsigma, you can make payment according to your usage. You do not have to pay additional money for Users, Test Development and Test Execution on local devices. With the cloud, you can get your own dedicated testing environment resources as per your need and only pay for what you use.</li> 



<li>With Testsigma’s cloud-based infrastructure, there is no need for investment in setting up traditional testing environments. Cloud-based automation testing provides the virtual infrastructure needed for testing and can be accessed from anywhere anytime. </li><li>Automation can not only help you find bugs early in the software development lifecycle, but you can also find them quickly through readily available integrations with needed tools including Slack, Jira, and Github. </li><li>As Testsigma uses simple English to write automated tests without any requirement of tools or programming knowledge, everyone can create and execute automated tests five times faster using natural language and run tests on thousands of devices available on the cloud.</li></ul>



<h2>How will other teams benefit from the tool in addition to the testing team?</h2>



<ul class="list_style_disc pl-25 pt-1"><li>An automation script can help you cover large areas of code to check whether it passes or fails instead of manually executing a basic test case.&nbsp;</li> <li><a href="https://testsigma.com/blog/automating-a-pickerwheel-using-testsigma/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Testsigma uses simple natural language to automate</a> testing for all types of applications and the simple natural language automation allows non-technical team members to create/review the automated test cases, thus enhancing collaboration. This also facilitates the implementation of a DevOps approach and improves the communication between teams.</li></ul>











<h2>A clear test automation strategy should be developed</h2>



Having a clear test automation strategy is critical as it benefits the company as a whole. It not only allows for smoother implementation by maintaining quality during fast release cycles but also helps you set relevant KPIs beforehand. This will help the company achieve higher ROI.



If the management does not understand the importance of adding automation testing in the company’s testing operations or decides to stop test automation in the middle of the implementation process, both ways it can hurt both the testers as well as the company as a whole in the longer run. It is important for you to understand that automation testing bridges the gap between frequent software releases and maintaining a high-quality product.



Management mostly like numbers, graphs, and reports.



Testsigma provides detailed test reports for all the test case executions that consist of a powerful visual feedback system including screenshots and logs for easy understanding. In addition, Testsigma also provides a video of test execution. Suggestion engine in Testsigma helps diagnose and fix a test step failure.&nbsp;



With tools like Testsigma, the future of test automation is bright as it comes as a complete package for a company who is looking to create quality products and also getting to the market in time. It unites all resources together on a single platform to give you faster results with minimal initial time and efforts.



With Testsigma, you can see ROI right from the beginning instead of years later. 



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Why Choose Testsigma as your Automation Testing Tool