Software testing is an inevitable part of the development process. Moreover, the importance of testing software is surely undeniable. So, why do many companies still avoid using in-house QA or third-party services for making their products and services better? That’s all because some organizations still believe in the common myth regarding quality assurance (QA). In this post, we are going to bust the myths of using testing services.
Misconception 1. You can get an absolutely perfect software with no bugs
Many companies believe that creating flawless software is the ultimate goal of any developing company. But is it really possible? Does bug-free software really exist?
Fact
The truth is that it is impossible to create a perfect solution or detect all the bugs in a certain program. There is no software without flaws, just accept it. Testing is an ongoing process that never ends. This means that in order to get the best results, you will need to wait for a while until the QA team completes the process of testing. Creating a perfect service requires months and, in some cases, years of testing days and nights. Still, it might appear not to be perfect for a particular user.
Just take a look around you – you will not find anything that is 100% perfect. This rule works for software, too. However, when hiring QA professionals, you are likely to increase your chances to detect and fix all serious bugs and faults that have a significant impact on the overall performance of your solution.
Misconception 2. Software testing is nothing but an extension to software development
Many officials and leaders in various industries believe that the process of software development and testing are all the same. Further, they believe that the developers themselves can test their own products. Moreover, many professionals think that developers and QAs have similar skills and knowledge. However, this is not true.
Fact
QA Engineers and developers often have completely different skills, experience, and educational background.
There are lots of experts who can create excellent apps but fail to test in a fast and effective manner. At the same time, there are many skilled QA professionals who can’t write code. These are completely different professions.
It is important to note that expert testers know many testing concepts and use various QA test methodologies the developers might not even be aware of. Moreover, the developers can often perform only basic testing procedures and fail to try chaos engineering, negative testing, and other important testing methods.
Misconception 3. Testing is a simple and easy process
Many professionals find testing to be a simple process that can be performed by any person without experience. Is it true?
Fact
The QA process requires having exceptional testing skills, an eye to detail, an analytical mind, and knowledge of software development. Further, it requires special education, courses, and certificates. The truth is that many bugs are not easy to detect. Most QA experts use manual testing combined with automated testing to ensure the best results. But good QA testing requires using many QA terms such as functional testing, non-functional testing, performance testing, exploratory, regression testing, ‘Black-Box’ testing, etc. Terms that only certified, professional testers can understand and execute. Furthermore, it is also often important to get help from crowd testers to ensure the app works well on various devices, carriers, and has no linguistic errors. By the way, creating an understandable bug report, or reading a ‘test case’ is not as easy as it might seem at first glance.
Misconception 4. Software Testing is exclusively a quality control activity
Quality control is the only thing most testers do. Is it true? What else do QA professionals do to ensure the best quality of the product?
Fact
Quality control is a significant part of the job of any QA professional. However, most experts do many other necessary things. First, plenty of experts create automated tests to speed up the QA process. Since the new app’s features constantly appear, is it vital to modify the automated tests, too. Second, most QAs use various types of software or supporting platforms for the best testing practices. Installing and maintaining such software also requires plenty of time. Third, a good QA expert is helping to draft the organization’s quality standards, procedures, internal audits, and test plans to allow the company to provide the best possible product.
Fourth, most testers provide recommendations on how to improve existing software and make it faster, more reliable and user-friendly.
Misconception 5. Testing is very costly
Many companies hire internal QA teams. However, is it cheaper than using outsourcing or crowd testing services?
Fact
In most cases, hiring an internal QA appears to be more expensive and time-consuming than using third-party testing services. You will need to pay the salary for an in-house professional regardless of whether you need to perform testing or not. In addition, there are other related costs such as social benefits, bonuses, office space, computers/devices, meals, travel, and more. Fortunately, crowd testing solutions can help you when you really need to scale your QA software testing in the fastest and most flexible way. These services are affordable and you can use crowdsourced testing only when needed. Lastly, crowd testing provides you with an experienced project manager to manage the entire testing process and literally acts as an extension to your own team. There are lots of companies that prefer using crowd testing services and significantly reduce their R&D budget while getting much better results by many more “unbiased” eyes.
Misconception 6. Testers can break the software code
Some developing companies still hesitate whether to start using testing services at all because the QA process might damage the code. In case you are one of those, who are feeling anxious about the final product or service, the fact below is right for you.
Fact
Most QA engineers are highly skilled professionals who always do their job in an accurate and precise way. They don’t fix any code, add new features, or change anything according to their views. Testers are only allowed to test the product with no interruption to the code allowed. In case you still have some worries regarding the issue, you can include this point to the agreement between you and the testing company.
Misconception 7. Everything needs to be automated
Automation is the only way to test the software. Machines can do the entire job for human testers without any assistance. Is it a myth or reality?
Fact
Currently, there is no QA technology that can substitute manual testing completely. Automated tests can check only pre-designed functions and options. In automation testing, you run similar scripts again and again. Therefore, lots of serious and minor bugs can be skipped. Manual testing allows a human mind to draw significant insights from a test that might otherwise be missed by an automated testing program. Further, a human tester can perform various types of tests to ensure the app works perfectly.
Manual testing is the only way to perform ‘random testing’ or get ‘subjective’ feedback on your product. That’s how you get the true “customer experience feedback” or ‘user-friendliness’ insight from real users.
All in all, testing is a complicated process that should be performed only by real professionals.
