How to Best Measure the Testing Efficiency?
If you ask organizations about the biggest challenge they face in software testing, the answer won’t probably be related to the effectiveness of their operations or staff. Instead, they’re more likely to complain about the complexity of testing processes that pose the biggest obstacle for today’s teams faced with corporate scrutiny and hard deadlines.
That’s why it’s the responsibility of the testing managers to focus on improving the efficiency of their teams’ efforts and provide them sufficient resources to achieve this goal. The following are some of the best practices that testing leaders can adopt to make their testing processes more efficient and streamlined while benefiting the development team overall.
- Set Clear Performance Metrics
You can’t just lay back and relax knowing that the testing strategies are in place and all that you’ve planned will be implemented without a problem. Or even if you think you are monitoring properly by just keeping an eye on testers and what’s being done, you still aren’t seeing the big picture. What you need are metrics. Numbers that can help you reflect key goals and gauge performances to work towards improvements.
Usually, testers focus on data that ties back to defects – finding, reporting, and describing the problems that they encounter as they navigate software. Of course, this approach is more centered around the effectiveness of a testing strategy rather than efficiency. That’s why test managers must also pay equal attention to metrics that emphasize efficiency as much as troubleshooting and defect detection.
- Consider New Testing Technology
Great, so now you’ve decided to put efficiency-centric metrics in place. Pleased to inform you that your work is just less than half done. Yes, metrics won’t test for you, the testers will. And that’s why you need to empower them with test case management tools that help them achieve the objectives. Don’t forget to identify accuracy and speed as project requirements and provide relevant technologies that can be leveraged to achieve the set goals.
Automation, exploratory software, and other popular tools are some of the examples of solutions that foster test efficiency. However, not all variations of these programs offer reliable efficiency measurements which means that specialized solutions are a must.
Test managers need to evaluate the performance of their test case management tools and gauge whether they provide sufficient data on efficiency. If they don’t, it may be the time to look for alternatives or upgrade a reporting platform that highlights and cross-checks with specific metrics.
- Report, Analyze, and Educate
If you’re happy with just implementing the above two guidelines to improve the efficiency measurement in the testing process then you’re missing out on something. To ensure active improvement in strategies, managers are required to pinpoint shortcomings in their operations and metrics rather than just sitting back.
Remember the Ultimate Goal
Deepening efficiency measurements can play an important role in promoting a more streamlined and faster operation when these data points are eventually put into action. Managers must always keep in mind that these new reports, technologies, and metrics are supposed to strengthen the overall testing environment, and these elements can be used to take the path towards the more efficient operation.
Author Bio:
Muhammad Akhtar completed his B.Sc. degree from the IUB University in 2013. He is co-founder of Read Dive. His career in SEO and Digital Marketing kicked off in 2014 when he joined CureMD. Since then, his professional journey has taken him to QualiTest and IQVIS. Currently, he enhances the digital marketing strategies of Kualitatem and its product Kualitee. His portfolio adorns various certifications including Google Analytics, Inbound Marketing, SEO and Social Media Marketing.