Have you ever had to ask whether your defect fix was deployed to a particular environment? You shouldn’t need to, because the answer should always be readily available. Having to request information on the status of your defect fix indicates inefficiencies and a lack of maturity within your organization’s process.

Crowdsourced testing is a great way to connect with users and ensure that the product idea, design, implementation, and nonfunctional elements meet their expectations—or, hopefully, even exceed them. But like any other test effort, crowdsourced testing is both a science and an art. Here's how to do it effectively.

Tools are a normal part of testing jobs because they can amplify our ability to learn about product quality. It's a good idea to review new tools for automation, performance, or monitoring to see if some solution will help you test better. Before you even look at tools, though, there are two questions you should ask.