When you seek software development for navigating your business operations on a digital solution, you can’t ignore the fact that QA testing is of utmost importance. It is, in fact, one of the most noteworthy stages in the lifecycle of software development. And that’s approached in two ways: automated testing and manual testing.
Most of the professional team of developers and testers, prefer combining the best of both worlds for delivering productive software solutions. But, you cannot expect both of these approaches to be interchangeable, as they have their perks and demerits.
In this article, you will get a clear insight into what manual testing is. Alongside that, you will also get an insight into the myths that revolve around the concept, ideal tools for the purpose and the types of manual testing recommended. So, read along with the article till the end!
What is Manual Testing, and What are its Different Types?
To start with, let’s give you a general understanding of what manual testing actually is. As you know, it is an important approach meant for validating the software performance and examining the integrated features from the users’ perspective.
A Manual QA tester is meant to invoke an intensive approach to closely monitor the quality of the code to determine any loopholes or possible weaknesses in it. With this, a tester will then pinpoint all the weak areas of the software and will instruct the developers to fix them.
Some of the types of manual testing include:
- Black Box Testing:
It is one of the manual or mobile testing services that is conducted to determine the proficiency of end-user interactions with your system.
- White Box Testing:
It is a popular technique where the software testing agency experts will review the dataflows and code for detecting all the hidden and possible bugs.
- Grey Box Testing:
It is the combination technique where black and white box testing attributes are balanced, and the test cases are executed superficially.
How is Manual Testing Executed?
As you know, the manual software testing approach is executed in four different stages. The first step is all about allowing the manual QA tester to get used to the requirements and preparations needed for assessing a software project.
In the first step, your manual QA tester will understand the objectives, main features, operating principles and needs of the software. Following that, all potential vulnerabilities that might affect the software will be taken into consideration.
Now, the manual QA tester will be designing various test cases for examining all the possible use cases of your software. Excel sheets will be used for documenting multiple test cases, but in case the project is big, better ways will be used for the process.
There are diverse tools for test case management, ideal for experts offering manual software testing, for documenting test cases. Once the test cases are ready, the actual process begins, where bugs will be reported, and the functionalities will be checked for seamlessness.
A manual software testing expert will then log all the bugs using a dedicated bug-tracking tool in real-time. Then, the final step in the process of manual testing is you analyze the results associated with manual testing.
Upon completion, the manual QA tester will have all the important results or metrics for helping the developers fix bugs and defects.
What are the Right Tools Meant to Improve Manual Testing?
A manual software testing expert leverages the potential of modern-day manual testing tools to speed up the execution of various test cases. Irrespective of whether you are a business owner seeking software development as an outsourced service, or a QA tester willing to level up your proficiency, learning about the tools is important!
So, if you want to know what kind of effective manual testing tools work well, here are the most popular ones for you to count on.
1. Test Case Management
Some of the manual testing tools that are meant for creating, managing, updating or storing the test cases are:
- TestRail
- Zephyr
- TestLink
- Practitest
- Alfresco
- Kissflow
- Appian
2. Bug Tracking
In the world of manual or mobile testing services, bug tracking is an unavoidable factor. Therefore, the right tools are used to create, store, manage and modify the bug reports and derive statistics on them. Some of the best bug-tracking manual testing tools are:
- Jira
- Bugzilla
- Trello
- Mantis
3. Cross-Browser Testing
The cross-browser mobile testing services are also approached with several tools. The purpose of using such devices is to validate whether all UI elements are rendering accurately across the diverse browsers and determine the way code is responding in them all. The tools that every software testing agency prefers for cross-browser validation are:
- BrowserStack
- Browser Shots
- Sauce Labs
4. Screen Capture
Screen Capture is the approach made by every software testing agency for attaching media content such as videos and images along with bug reports. This is done to describe the issue in a more brief manner, for the developers to quickly fix them. With the use of specific Scrrent Capture tools, your software testing agency will be creating the required videos or images instantly. Some of those tools include:
- CloudApp
- Skitch
- Loom
What are the Common Myths Associated with Manual Testing?
Manual testing has been criticized for some myths that people believe to be true. So, let’s shed light on the facts:
1. Manual Testing is Quite Easy
People believe in the myth that manual testing is an easy approach, but that’s not at all the case. The experts offering manual or mobile testing services are meant to have a special set of skills and mindset to create the test cases. It is not at all a random clicking approach!
2. Manual Testing is Outdated
Business owners believe that manual testing is an outdated approach, and automated testing has taken over. But, you must know that manual testing is still one of the important grounds for completing the QA process. There’s no way automated testing can replace it!
Parting Words
Manual testing calls for immense effort and time utilization! Even though automated test scripts can provide you with the best opportunities, manual testing is considered more adaptable or creative for you to ensure top-notch software quality. Quality software testing is a priority, and let your experts decide what’s best for you.
