Release testing: How to automate with Testsigma?

Testsigma is a popular codeless test automation tool that addresses the challenges encountered by the test automation industry. The tool lets you easily create release tests as you write a test in simple English. It implements artificial intelligence to automatically fix the tests where possible. It is a low-code testing tool that handles repetitive, complex, and time-consuming tasks. Those team members who can’t code can effortlessly and quickly accomplish automation testing using Testsigma.

What is Release Testing?

Release testing is the process of authenticating that a specific release of a software product fulfills the specified requirements. It ensures that the release of a software product is “ready for release” to the end users. It is carried out to detect and eliminate any defects, bugs, or issues that may have been left unattended during the development process.

Why perform Release Testing?

• The key objective of a release test is to authenticate that the software works as per plan and fulfills the stipulated requirements.
• It helps in identifying errors and eliminates the defects leading to failures.
• Release test facilitates the implementation of tests at different levels. Thus, it leads to fewer errors and also fulfills the customer’s needs.
• It guarantees software compatibility with various hardware configurations, operating systems, and other software products.
• It assesses software’s performance under different contexts, including stress testing and peak usage.
• It ensures that the software fulfills stated data privacy and security requirements.
• It makes the software more reliable and stable.
• It curtails the odds of customer complains and enhances customer satisfaction.

        

Should release testing be automated?

Software release tests have to be frequently repeated during development cycles to assure quality. This approach also makes sure that your customers always have something exciting and useful. The release tests must be repeated whenever the source code is modified.

During each release of the software, it can be tested on all compatible hardware configurations and operating systems. Manually iterating these tests is time-consuming and expensive. On the other hand, you only need to develop automated tests once for your software product release. Consequently, it will run repeatedly at no extra cost. So, automating release tests saves time and money.

When the release test is automated, the same steps are accurately carried out whenever they are executed. So, it always accurately shows detailed results. We will discuss more about this in the next sections

Benefits of Release Test

• Improves software product quality and performance:

Release tests helps to detect and solve any defects or issues in the software prior to its release. Hence, it always ensures high-quality software products. Moreover, it assures that the software functions as intended under different conditions. So, it leads to overall better performance and user experience.

• Increases teamwork efficiency:

Release tests frequently entail collaboration between different departments and teams. Consequently, it leads to improved teamwork and communication. This helps the team members work more efficiently.

• Decreases risks:

The ability to find and fix bugs in the testing process allows release tests to minimise the risk of lost business, user complaints, and deterioration of the organisation’s prestige in the market.

• Cost-effective:

It is less expensive to fix bugs in the testing phase compared to fixing them after the software has been released.

• Increases customer satisfaction:

Effective release testing of a software product suggests that it will have fewer issues. Therefore, it increases the likelihood of fulfilling the users’ requirements and expectations and thus increases customer satisfaction.

• Better project management:

With the help of release tests, you can determine the required resources, tasks, and schedules contributing to an effective software release. So, it lets you better plan and manage the project.

Types of Release Testing

You can choose from different types of release tests to authorise the release of a software product. Here are the details of these types:

• Functional testing:

This type of release testing validates the software system against the functional specifications. It involves testing individual functionalities and features and testing the software product overall.

• Performance testing:

It evaluates the software product’s reliability, performance, speed, scalability, stability, resource consumption, and responsiveness of an application under load.

• Security testing:

It evaluates threats, vulnerabilities, and risks in a software application. It prevents hackers from accessing crucial data before the software product is released. Moreover, it avoids malicious attacks from intruders. It aims to recognize all potential weaknesses and loopholes of the software system that may lead to loss of revenue and data.

• Compatibility testing:

This type of release testing checks whether software can operate on various hardware, applications, browsers, mobile devices, network environments, or operating systems.

• Usability testing:

It evaluates the software product’s utility and user experience. It tests the software product’s ease of use, navigation, and user experience. Moreover, it aims to detect any utility issues, gather quantitative and qualitative data, and understand the user’s satisfaction with the software product.

• Regression testing:

It helps validate that a code change in the software doesn’t influence the existing utility of the software product. It ascertains that the software product works well with the newly implemented features, any modifications in the existing features, or bug fixes.

• Automated testing:

This type of release testing technique automatically performs testing using software tools and scripts. It involves different testing activities like functional testing, security testing, performance testing, and others. Its key benefit is that it can be performed more consistently and quickly than manual testing. So, it lets you detect issues earlier during software development.

• Unit testing:

Unit testing focuses on individual components or units of a software system. It aims to validate that each component/unit of the software functions as intended and fulfils the requirements. The unit tests are automated and executed every time the code is modified. So, they ensure that the new code doesn’t breach the existing functionality.

• End-to-end testing:

End-to-end (E2E) testing verifies the working structure of a software product in a start-to-finish process. It authenticates that all units of a system can execute under real-life situations.

When should you do Release Testing?

• The release testing ensures the delivery of superior-quality software. Hence, it must be performed at the completion of the software development cycle, shortly before the software is released into the market. 
• Performing release testing just before the software release helps release tests resolve detected issues and defects. Consequently, it leads to high customer satisfaction and minimises the odds of customer complaints.
• Apart from undertaking release tests shortly before the final release, it is also advisable to undertake regular testing during the software development process. Hence, it detects issues early and curtails the risk of expensive bugs.

Why is test automation important for release testing?

• Test automation simplifies the feedback cycle and quickly validates the software product.
• It identifies issues and bugs during the software development phase to boost the team’s efficiency.
• After writing automation test scripts for release testing, minimal effort is required to frequently monitor and troubleshoot such test cases.  So, test automation makes sure release testing boasts a high quality and reduces the odds of solving bugs after the product release. This suggests that one of the prime benefits of automation testing is a scaled-down business expense.
• It saves time to ensure that your product stays bug-free even after the changes are implemented.

How to choose a tool to automate your release tests?

A test manager can follow the below steps to choose the most appropriate tool to automate release testing.

• Determine the requirement for the tool:

The first step is to accurately discern the requirements of your test tool. Make sure to document all the requirements. Subsequently, the management board and project teams must review the requirements.

• Use your current automation tool as a benchmark:

You can consider your current open-source automation tool, for example, Selenium, as a benchmark to assess and choose the most suitable automation tool for your project’s release testing. So, you must understand the pros and cons of using your current automation tool.

• Analyse the tools and vendors’ reputation:

After you have considered your current tool as a benchmark, you must analyse the open-source and commercial tools in the market, according to the project’s requirements. Shortlist a few tools that accurately meet your defined criteria. The next task is to analyse the vendor’s reputation and experience in testing, the tool update frequency, after-sale support, etc.

• Perform cost-benefit analysis:

Make sure to evaluate the cost and benefits before building a tool. It is recommended to discuss with the software vendor about the cost and benefits your preferred tools will offer. For example, you can choose an automated tool for release testing if its software vendor mentions that it will fulfil all your requirements and is cost-effective. The balance between benefits and costs will influence your decision.

• Assess your budget:

 Focusing only on the requirements and not the budget can incur a huge loss to your organisation.  If you have finalised a particular testing tool, make sure to assess its performance through its trial version.  It helps you determine whether it’s worth investing in it or not. Buy a testing tool that meets your budget and your requirements.

• Thoroughly understand the tool:

Although your shortlisted tool meets your requirements and budget, you must assess its strong and weak points. You must try it in a practical working environment before purchasing its licence. Moreover, you can conduct a meeting with consultants and the project team to gain more insights into the tool.

• Make sure your tool fits with your team’s skills

The tool should be easy to use and understand for your team.

Testsigma to automate your release tests

Testsigma is a no-code test automation tool that lets you automate your tests for web, mobile, APIs, and desktop applications 5x faster. Test case creation and maintenance is as simple as writing a sentence in English.

Start automating your release tests for web, mobile, APIs and desktop applications, in minutes, with Testsigma

Summary

Businesses today are releasing applications and software at a fast rate. So, the QA team must test and guarantee software product quality with each release. The release testing guarantees that the release of software products conforms to the stipulated requirements and is bug-free. It aims to provide customer satisfaction by ensuring the high quality of the software product. An ideal release testing approach optimises performance, speed, stability, reliability, and user experience.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who Performs Release testing?

A separate team that hasn’t yet been involved in the system development performs release testing. The mentioned team tests the entire version of the system before it is released. Essentially, the users themselves perform more testing to ascertain that the software delivery fulfills their expectations and business needs.

What is Pre-Release Testing? 

Pre-release testing is performed before the new release of any software product. Typically, it is performed in a release test environment. It entails performance, functional, security, and other types of testing as required.

It makes sure the newly implemented features don’t influence the existing ones. Also, it makes sure the old features continue working. Before every release, you must perform a regression test and validate that the new and old features work collectively to achieve a successful software delivery.

What is Post-Release Testing? 

Post-release testing occurs after a new release of a software product. It supervises the software product’s utility and performance in the practical production environment. Moreover, it detects any bugs or issues that may occur after the release. Usually, this testing covers activities like supervising the software product’s performance metrics and preparing error reports. It also undertakes additional tests to detect and solve any issues.