New trends in agile test management

Digital transformation has changed the face of all of the industry. The software delivery model has undergone a drastic change with DevOps, agile and continuous delivery, leading these changes. Several businesses are successful in implementing agile processes to improve software delivery. But as the lines between development and operations are blurring, sprints are getting shorter, the difficulty mounts in meeting the higher expectations both for speed and quality of software deliverables.

An important and often missing link in the DevOps loop is testing. DevOps, in reality, is DevTestOps and for various teams and delivery models to be agile, test management is the vital link. Organisations need TestOps to match the pace of DevOps and by testing early and often, they gain the incremental quality benefits that bring true value to the business in terms of cost, efficiency, and continuous delivery.

In fact, the World Quality Report led by Capgemini shows that there is increased investment in the QA and Test function reported by 90% of US and 69% percent of Canadian survey participants in the past four years.

Challenges to DevTestOps
However, going agile and being agile are totally different stories and organisations face several practical challenges when trying to embrace the DevOps and agile way. Shorter sprints require better collaboration and integration, interoperability of tools. There are many gaps between conventional test management and modern Agile dev approach – with outdated tools and practices being a primary roadblock.

There are various other challenges within the software development lifecycle at every stage and communication gaps that slow its pace and weigh it down. Agile as it is practiced now, allows for delays in testing, leaving less time for testing and improvement leading to buggy releases and poor customer satisfaction. But with the Shift Left concept – the focus is on quality from day 1. Testers are part of the sprint right at the outset and prevention rather than detection is the modus operandi.

A Brand-New Approach
For Test Management to follow the Shift Left concept, it needs unified solutions, frequent test runs and more feedback. To accomplish the continuous integration and continuous delivery paradigm, continuous testing is necessary at all points within the development lifecycle and this requires a design thinking mindset and culture change. This means that developers, testers and ops teams need to reset the parameters of a traditional approach, more so when it comes to the testing processes.

The new trends in agile test management demand a fresh approach, a cultural shift and often new tools that speed up the execution.

Agile Test Management Trends Demand New Tools
Continuous integration and development and continuous testing, increased automation, behavior-driven-testing, predictive quality and prescriptive quality analytics – these are some enablers for agile test management. There is an increased focus on leveraging these disciplines and tools that help you implement them. Obviously, there are best practice recommendations for test management and how teams should be testing.

Best Practices Recommend
Focusing on collaboration and an integrated approach for test management amplifies the feedback loops and helps it to be truly agile. These are some of the other criteria:

Visibility
Traceability
Continuous integration
Behavior-driven development
Integrated toolset
Busting siloed workflows
Exploratory testing
Predictive analytics
When setting up your test management tool, it is advisable to assess your choices for a cloud-based solution. Ideally, one that allows you to set up roles and projects inside test management, provides greater visibility to your team, integrates your project management tools like JIRA with test management, lets you sync defects and test results in real time.

Configure your test management solution such that you can plug in your automation, generate API keys allowing your tool to accept automation results. Teams should be able to create or import requirements, with test coverage helping go/no-go decisions, modularity and linkability are again useful features to promote reuse and reduce authoring efforts. Exploratory testing and a comprehensive view of manual and automation testing – enable you to make better quality decisions. Also, creating test suites by release and platforms lets you track if the quality improves build by build.

The fresh approach to agile test management can get your delivery up to speed. It requires a fresh perspective and culture shift, and new tools that enable your agile development and testing efforts.

Source: softwaretestingnews

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Top 10 Popular Mobile Apps In America

Between smartphones and tablets, Americans spend more than half of their digital media consumption time — 57 percent — in apps, according to comScore’s annual U.S. mobile apps report. That’s about the same as a year ago — evidence that the dramatic shift to mobile has now leveled out in the U.S.

These are the winners, according to comScore, as measured by their penetration of the U.S. mobile app audience:

The big winners — surprise, surprise — are Facebook and Google, which own eight of the top 10 apps.

• ·         Facebook took the No. 1 slot with its main Facebook app, which has 81 percent penetration of the app audience, is the top app for all age groups except 18- to 24-year-olds, and is the most likely app to be on a smartphone user’s homescreen (46 percent of homescreens). It also took No. 3 for Facebook Messenger and No. 6 for Instagram, which is tied with Snapchat at 50 percent penetration.
• ·         Google’s top app is YouTube, which is the No. 2 app overall and the No. 1 app for 18- to 24-year-olds. It also publishes Google Search (No. 4), Google Maps (No. 5), Google Play (No. 8) and Gmail (No. 9).
• ·         The only non-Google and non-Facebook apps in the top 10 are Snapchat (tied for No. 6 with 50 percent penetration) and Pandora (No. 10, 41 percent penetration).
• ·         Now that Snap has gone public, all of the top 10 U.S. apps are owned by public companies based in California.
• ·         All of these apps are free to use — which is a big factor in their popularity — and most serve advertisements. But YouTube and Pandora now both offer subscription services, and Google Play is largely an app and media store.

Not much changed year over year in the composition of this list — evidence that the biggest winners tend to stay the biggest winners.

Snap was not in the top 10 in last year’s comScore ranking (it was No. 13) and Amazon was (at No. 10). Instagram moved up from No. 9 to a tie for No. 6. The other apps are the same, albeit ranked slightly differently.

It’s still possible for apps to grow in popularity — Uber, Waze, Wish, Lyft and Venmo are some of the large, fast-growing apps not in the top 10, according to a different part of the report. But many of these core top 10 apps seem set, especially as long as Google-owned Android remains the most popular mobile operating system.

Source: Recode

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Get with the times: Insurers embrace big data, fintech to cut cost, improve services

The Insurance Authority is encouraging local providers to embrace fintech while Allianz, Zurich Insurance, FTLife and FWD have invested heavily in new technology

Hong Kong’s newly set up insurance regulator is encouraging insurance companies to develop financial technology, as leading providers embrace the big data revolution to manage risk and lower the cost for their products.

‘We are very keen on promoting fintech in the insurance industry. We are not taking a leading role but we plan to help the industry to use technology to enhance their services and better manage risks,” said Moses Cheng Mo-chi, chairman of the Insurance Authority.

German insurer Allianz is among industry players which are keen on fintech development and using big data to better design products and handle claims.

“The use of big data will benefit not just the insurance companies but also customers as it will drive prices down up to 30 per cent over the following years,” said George Sartorel, regional chief executive of Asia-Pacific for Allianz.

Sartorel said traditionally insurance companies priced their policies on a system that relied on statistical averages which could not reflect an individual’s behaviour.

The usage of big data, which Allianz has adopted in recent years, has changed that.

As an example, Allianz invited drivers to take part in a voluntary monitoring system using GPS tracking for speed, driving routes, frequency and other driving behaviour.

In theory, the data can help determine future policy pricing. Those who drive at high speeds or who frequent accident-prone routes are likely to face higher insurance premiums, Sartorel said.

“There was an old joke that the driver might tell the insurance company that it was his grandmother who used the car. However, with the new technology of big data, we can spot the different behaviour of different drivers who use the same car,” he said.

“The beauty of the usage of big data is that it can allow insurance companies to provide different pricing models to meet with different needs of different customers. Some customers who only drive on weekends could buy motor insurance priced on per kilometre usage,” he said.

He said if drivers know their behaviour is being tracked remotely by insurance companies, they tend to become more carefully and hence reduce accidents on the road.

Zurich Insurance, one of largest general insurers in Hong Kong, is also keen on fintech.

“Our digital app has been available in the market for years for customers to submit claims for car accidents, medical expenses, travel plan interruptions and other circumstances,” said Eric Hui Kam-kwai, chief executive officer of Zurich Insurance (Hong Kong).

“Great companies are keen to innovate. It is important that we re-engineer the customer experience and strengthen internal operations through the initiatives we are now putting into place. Our new online claims portal, eClaim, an expansion of our claims touchpoints, is a result of constantly asking how we could improve for our customers,” Hui said.

FWD Hong Kong, another major Hong Kong life insurer, will invest HK$500 million in the development of proprietary InsurTech solutions in the next five years, more than five times the investment in this area over the past three years, a company spokesman said. The company will invest in three core areas, namely mobile services, internet of things (IoT) and big data analytics.

Life insurer FTLife, which was bought by mainland investment firm JD Group in 2015, also plans to expand further in technology in the next few years, according to regional chief executive Lennard Yong.

Likewise, Allianz also applies big data on some health products such that people who have more heathy life styles would enjoy lower premiums.

Raymond Au, regional head of data science of Allianz, said Asia is moving faster in insurance technology than Europe.

“Asia particularly China is developing big data very quickly,” Au said.

The changing data landscape has led to technology firms such as Tencent and Alibaba, which owns the Post, to enter the insurance sector.

“Traditional insurance companies are facing challenges from technology firms which have expanded into the insurance sector with new technology. This is why Allianz has placed high importance on digitalising our business model across Asia. We have to change ourselves very quickly to meet with the technology changes,” Sartorel said.

Source: SCMP

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Importance of Testing Application for Compatibility Issues

With the constant increase in the demand for quality Operating Systems and versions, companies frequently release enhanced Operating Systems and versions. The platforms with new features and improved performance always attract customers. Since most of the customers are already using mobile, the customers would want to access the preferred application in a specific platform. In order to offer a fully compatible application that fits with different platforms, compatibility testing is imperative. Developers are always skeptical about their application compatibility with new platforms, whenever any new version of the platform is available for use. Identifying which application can fit with new platforms significantly reduces the delays and user disruption Companies that relied on custom applications always look forward to simplify their operations and improve productivity.

At the same time, these companies would like to have better platforms to address their activities. Because, increased productivity and effective operation is being the main business intention, and adapting to the changing technologies is becoming very difficult. Easily adapting to changing platforms would help companies to deal with huge business demands and drive results that provide improved business value. This suggests, companies need to deeply analyze compatibility issues and make reliable decisions which helps to make necessary changes to make the application compatible with the desired platform. Companies might need to prepare an effective test strategy and gather appropriate testing tools to test the application. Companies might also need to have an experienced and technically expert testing team to rigorously test the application on different platforms to find defects. All these things might be time consuming and expensive if companies want to initiate at their places. Companies that outsource all their testing activities also should look out testing on all available platforms and versions for compatibility.

The major problem is that many applications might not readily work well in new platforms. Identifying a platform on which an application will work easily, identifying an application needs to be improved in order to make it work, on which platforms the application cannot work at all will not only helps to save time and money. An effective testing can help you know upfront what all changes you need to make. Testing provides an insight on whether an application works on a new platform. Companies need to identify a right testing vendor who can help in determining which of your current applications can fit with the new platform, which ones need to be enhanced further to be able to work on the new platform and which ones cannot work with the new platform. Identifying application function on different platforms would help in improving it.

One can automate the process of application compatibility testing to determine any problem that may evolve from upgrading to a newer version in a short time. A rigorous platform compatibility testing will help you identify how your application will look and behave in a range of platforms. Cross platform testing might be time consuming. Identifying a cloud-based cross platform testing provider can help in assuring the compatibility of the application in a wide range of platforms. It enables a company to start testing within a short notice. They might also provide “pay for what you test model”. A cloud based cross platform compatibility testing can help in reducing a large amount of time and money.

Source: https://www.clictest.com/2015/12/

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How to Write Test Documents

When beginning a Software Testing project, several documents must be prepared as part of the process. These documents include a Test Plan, Test Scenarios and Test Cases.
It can be difficult to start these documents from scratch each time that you begin a new software testing project. Knowing where to begin is one of the greatest challenges in writing these plans. Using a template that has a detailed outline of required information can assist in this process.

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Creating a Test Plan

A Software Test Plan (STP) documents the requirements that will be used to verify that a product or system meets its design specifications and other requirements.
The STP prescribes the objectives, approach, resources and schedule of all testing activities. The plan must identify the items to be tested, the features to be tested, the types of testing to be performed, the personnel responsible for testing, the resources and schedule required to complete testing, and the risks associated with the plan. The Test Plan should also discuss any deliverables for testing, including references to test scenarios.
A test plan is usually prepared by a team lead or test engineer, with significant input from developers.
For an example of a Test Plan template that has been assembled by QualiTest, please refer to the link above.

Creating a Test Scenario

A Scenario, also known as a Test Condition or Test Possibility, identifies the functionality to be tested. A Scenario includes a set of test cases to ensure that the business process flows are tested from end to end. They may be independent tests, or a series of succeeding tests, each dependent on the output of the previous one. Any connection to the test plan should be referenced in the test scenario.
For an example of a Test Scenario template that has been assembled by QualiTest, please refer to the link above.

Creating a Test Case

A test case is a set of conditions or variables from which a software tester will determine whether an application, software system or a feature is working as it was intended. It may take many test cases to determine that a software program or system has been sufficiently scrutinized before released. Test cases are often referred to as test scripts after being written and collected into test suites.
The characteristics of a good test case are:

• Accurate: Expressly articulates the purpose.
• Economical: No unnecessary steps or words.
• Traceable: Capable of being traced to requirements.
• Repeatable: Can be used to perform the test as many times as necessary.
• Reusable: Can be reused if necessary.
• Independent: Each test case should be executable in any order, without any dependency on other test cases.
• Concise: The description of a test case should be simple and clear. A tester should be able to understand it by reading it once.

For an example of a Test Case template that has been assembled by QualiTest, please refer to the link above.

Tips For Templates

• Before writing any test cases, one should concentrate on the various scenarios which the product will face at a customer’s site.
• Because plans, scenarios and cases form the base for future test cases and testing, you should designate sufficient writing time, followed by a thorough review process.
• Scenarios should be brief and succinct. The purpose of a test scenario is not to provide details, but to convey a specific idea about testing a particular case.

Source: http://www.qualitestgroup.com/blog/testing-tools/write-test-documents/

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Visual Testing: A Necessary Component to DevOps

As we all know, continuous integration and agile methodologies are on the rise, meaning that companies are releasing tons of software releases – not just in a month, not just in a week, but on a daily basis. With this increase in releases, it can be extremely difficult to ensure that you are thoroughly testing every webpage, every visual element, every User Interface (UI), with every release, and knowing with certainty that any new code hasn’t broken the appearance and layout of your application.

So what is the answer to this conundrum?

That’s exactly the question that our friends at Applitools are trying to answer, and they may have cracked the code with their foray into Visual Software Testing.

Visual Software Testing is the process of validating the visual aspects of an application’s UI. Visual Testing focuses on validating the layout and appearance of each visual element of the UI and of the UI as a whole, as well as ensuring that the correct content is displayed. Layout correctness means that each visual element of the UI is properly positioned on the screen, that it is of the right shape and size, and that it does not overlap or hide other visual elements. Appearance correctness means that the visual elements are of the correct font, color, or image.

Adam Carmi, one of Applitools’ Co-Founders, conducted research of image processing algorithms that can imitate a human tester’s eyes and brain and has come up with a set of algorithms that finally did the work! Based on those algorithms, they built their tool around the premise that it must inspect the application’s UI just like a human does. This means processing entire UI screen images rather than isolated image fragments or opaque UI objects within the application. Advanced image analysis is required to reduce false defect detection and to pinpoint the root cause of detected changes. For example, the tool automatically categorizes the difference as a content, layout or appearance defect, and pinpoints the specific UI elements that caused the defect. Another aspect of a successful visual testing tool is ensuring that the tool is smart enough to highlight and resolve each detected change only once – even if it appears in multiple screens of the application.

The motivation for performing visual testing has grown dramatically in recent years. Software vendors invest huge amounts of effort, time and money to design and develop user interfaces that stand out from the crowd and meet ever increasing customer expectations. Vendors must verify that their UI correctly displays on an ever-growing variety of web-browsers, screen resolutions, devices, and form-factors, as even the smallest UI corruption can result in loss of business. To keep up with the stresses and agility of continuous integration environments, software vendors are either going to have to keep performing the drudgery of manual testing, or move on to the thrills of visual testing!

Source: http://www.qualitestgroup.com/blog/testing-tools/visual-testing-a-necessary-component-to-devops/

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The Perks Of Cloud based Test Automation Tools

The future belongs to everything ‘Cloud’. Take the example of the Hybrid Cloud Model, which is gaining traction in many enterprises. The same can be said for cloud-based software testing tools, which are making their presence felt on the development scene.
Let us find out more about what advantages mobile app developers can avail by using such tools.

Multiple uses
Cloud-based versions of the tools can be used for functional testing, performance testing, and many other testing types. In short, they can be used as a complete test management tools. This means that for all these kinds of testing, you don’t need to procure different kinds of testing tools, but rather one that fits all of your requirements.

Start using almost instantly
Cloud-based test automation tools are ready for use the very moment you buy them. No more installation woes, setup requirements, hunting for servers, or prepping of hardware to start using them. This means that it reduces a lot of effort required from the IT management teams and puts the focus back on the core functionalities of an enterprise.


A user-friendly interface
More often than not, cloud-based automation tools have an incredibly user-friendly interface. This makes them quite easy to use, even for novice developers, as there is hardly any special training required for the software.

Speeds up the testing process
While automation tools are known for increasing productivity in general and shortening test cycles, the cloud-based version of these tools brings forth even more advantages. They not only speed up the entire testing process by being independent of browsers and devices, and getting rid of installation hassles, but they also come with seamless upgrades (leading to a reduced downtime).
All of these features allow you complete the testing process within the stipulated time frame, or possibly even before that. The additional time on hand can be spent on targeting other steps of the app development process, for instance various marketing and promotional activities.

Competitive price range
When you compare them to the regular test automation tools, you will find that the cloud-based ones are available at a competitive price. This is obvious from the fact that you need not spend a considerable amount of money to upgrade the hardware of your device(s).
There is practically zero expenditure for expensive licenses and most importantly, you save up by not having to pay for a manual testing team. This works for most companies, especially the ones who are looking to cut down on their expenses.
Moreover, the option of ‘pay as you use’ lets you use the tools only when it is necessary, and therefore, saves on the costs later when you are not using them.

Ease of collaboration
Since cloud-based automation tools provide the option to work anywhere and using any device, it makes it easy for teams in different locations to go through test reports, make modifications, or ask queries without any hassle. This significantly reduces the steps in completing testing, saving yet another valuable resource for companies – time.
This gives numerous companies, especially startups, a competitive edge. For instance, if they have a globally dispersed team located at the opposite ends of the world, they can still collaborate on the most complex projects using cloud-based tools to test their applications.
Think of it this way – there is going to be less paperwork (albeit virtually) when you don’t need to constantly send or receive and go through endless test reports regarding your project. All in all, this speeds up decision-making, and hence helps in speedy delivery of the project.

Greater control to development teams
There is no doubt about the fact that cloud-based testing systems give you more control to schedule and execute tests in the best possible way. You can use them to conduct a thorough analysis of applications and check them for possible bottlenecks. This is good news for development teams, who appreciate tools that offer them greater control over their projects and allow them to handle them in the way they want.

Immense flexibility
One of the benefits of cloud-based test automation tools is that they can operate without depending on a specific browser or an operating system. This gives you the freedom to test your software anywhere and everywhere, using just about any device.
Through using these tools, you can easily run all your test cases and report them in the cloud, which can be an enterprise’s private cloud or a hosted one. Such flexibility is rarely offered by any other test automation tool on the market.

Scalability
Another important benefit is that the use of such tools never depends on the scale of the project, or even the complexity of the project for that matter. This makes it easy for you to test complex mobile apps as well as the simple ones. There is no end to the testing scenarios that you can explore, owing to the scalability offered by these tools.

Enhanced security
One of the biggest concerns that hover around all topics ‘cloud’ is security! It is true that cloud computing does have security issues, especially when it comes to larger enterprises, however most of them are nothing but general misconceptions. You can be assured that security concerns are being addressed by the higher-ups in the technology industry, which makes these tools secure for usage.

Conclusion
Although the combination of cloud with tried-and-tested approaches does work in the favor of enterprises and developers, it does come with a red flag. While it can cut down on costs, resources, and time expenditures, improper use of such testing environments can do just the opposite. The solution is to analyze your requirements, and complete a thorough round of research about the tools on the market before making a decision.

Source: http://blog.utest.com/2015/09/24/the-perks-of-cloud-based-test-automation-tools/

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