test execution

Photo of a person looking through binoculars, by Evan Kirby 6 Skills Needed for Exceptional Exploratory Testing

While anyone can claim to be an exploratory tester, only those with a set of honed skills will discover hard-to-find bugs that could impact your mobile app or website. Exploratory testers must possess these six skills if they are to find the edge cases that could derail a successful software release.

Nicholas Roberts's picture
Nicholas Roberts
Arrow expanding testing Continuous Exploratory Testing: Expanding Critical Testing across the Delivery Cycle

Continuous testing entails executing automated tests to obtain rapid feedback on business risks. Where does that leave exploratory testing? Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to repeat the same exploratory tests across and beyond a sprint, but exploratory testing can be a continuous part of each software delivery cycle.

Ingo Philipp's picture
Ingo Philipp
chess pieces Why Smart Testing Requires Strategy and Flexibility

You can’t expect to achieve successful testing without the proper strategy, but you also can’t create a strategy that doesn’t allow you to adapt along the way. Think about why you’re testing, and be confident enough to change course if you feel it can benefit your team and project.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin
strumming a guitar Why Musicians Can Make for the Best Testers

Testers need to be both creative and analytical, and those are two features that are very common in musicians. Sure, it might not be writing code, but we’re learning more and more that the building blocks and innate qualities that make for good testers can be more important than the testing skills themselves.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin
On-off switch Using Feature Flags to Boost Testing and Deployment

A feature flag is a configuration setting that lets you turn a given feature on or off. There is no need for a feature to be complete before you can start testing—as soon as the first piece of code is merged, you can turn the flag on in your test environment and begin. This also reduces risk. Do you use feature flags?

James Espie's picture
James Espie
person with hand on chin thinking Test Automation Cannot Be an Afterthought

In software testing, automation can be viewed as an editor, of sorts. Previously, manual testers had to be extremely thorough to guarantee quality since they were the final check before products got into the hands of users. Now, testers can lean on automation tools to catch any bugs that might have been missed.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin
ducks in a row What It Takes to Be an Effective Leader in Software Testing

Similar to the discussion of “How much test automation do I need?” the answer often depends on your team’s makeup and what sort of product you’re making. There isn’t a perfect equation, but there are still general, proven qualities that lead to better software and happier software testers.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin
magnifying glass on bug There’s Never Been a Greater Need for Testing

You really can’t find the same types of roles that so many testers have occupied for decades, but according to Janet Gregory, an agile testing coach and process consultant with DragonFire, there’s more testing to be done than ever—even if the additional workload they’re being asked to do can be unfair at times.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin