Blog

A work-in-progress. This is a word-match to describe the relationships between developers and QA specialists operating on the same software product. Apart from the long-lasting stereotypes, some of the strategic pitfalls and lack of focus on the things that matter hinder both: working environment and project growth. How Agile helps? It`s pretty common for some software development companies to work on features independently from testing, to pass code over to the QA team, hearing back from them only when a defect is found. When product developers and QA teams work by Waterfall model, they practice this frequent disconnect, since the software testing is performed at the end of each coding phase. Here QA engineers provide detailed analysis on the way the software should have functioned. Since Waterfall is a downstream process, programmers and QA engineers work independently and, therefore, rarely practice communication and project engagement. Agile methodology requires organization...

Since the outsource of software testing services is a multi-faceted process, it is natural for the questions to occur at any stage of cooperation with a software testing company. This is the reason why we`ve collected the most popular aspects you`re interested in when requesting our services. You ask - we answer :) What types of cooperation models do you offer? The type cooperation always depends on client needs. Usually we apply two models: Time & Material and Full time resource basis. Time & material basis. Also known as “work by an estimate”. You may choose it in case you develop several projects to have them tested at times. Or if you`re pressed for time and need additional resources, this model is also for you. The total payment depends on the number of hours QA engineers spend, types of testing applied. You share product requirements with the provider, and their task is to prepare a detailed strategy: description of testing methods, the exact number of hours counted d...

Recently, automated software testing has been widely identified as game-changer for software projects. With artificial intelligence quickly gaining traction, total automation sounds like an inevitable reality. Yet those jumping to conclusions gave birth to more common misconceptions related to the way automated testing is applied today. We`ve already debunked some of the myths about test automation. You`re most welcome to read the new. Myth 1: Automation isn`t about cost-efficiency. Fact. At the starting point, automated testing does require considerable investment. Since the price covers both QA expertise and the set of required tools, the costs might be unexpectedly higher. Yet companies ripe long-term benefits of well-thought-out automation. The point is that this approach is quite effective for the routine iterative tasks (e.g. functional checks). While manual QA takes much time to cover each test, automation helps to effectively manage human resources for the sake o...

Our blog posts are available in audio! Listen on the go and when you want to learn something new but don’t feel like reading. Your browser does not support the audio tag. Today are the times when an idea is turned into a real business so easily and so quickly. Start-up and middle-sized businesses are rising up and challenge the status-quo of the incumbent companies across all the industries. You may have heard about the disruptive tech too often. So let`s see what to expect from the latest cutting-edge technologies in the forthcoming years and what are the key areas where disruptive ideas might evolve. What is disruptive innovation? Clayton M. Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor, was first to introduce the term “disruptive innovation” in the book The Innovator`s Dilemma (1995). Since then, the debates concerning companies-disruptors continue till nowadays. The point is that we still don`t know how exactly such businesses occur, we can only analyze the o...

Often, management of the companies that outsource QA services asks to analyze the time required for testing efforts. But this index is hard to predict, a range of aspects elude the measurement. Some of the companies prefer a science-driven approach in this regard rather than just making assumptions. And it does make sense, management views software testing as a valuable investment, so they tend to fit the deadline, be aware of the costs & benefits testing brings. Factors influencing time estimation The guesses at the testing length only help to build an idea of the approximate time required. Once you hire a QA engineer, deadline uncertainty goes over the edge, the schedule is re-estimated. Once the QA engineer runs the tests and detects serious failures, the rate of a bug influences their further strategy. If the defect is marked as severe, that means a QA specialist would rerun the tests, sometimes more than once. The following factors always modify the relevant time-es...

The dynamic world of eCommerce is full of the events shaping the industry today and the future direction of its growth. Adobe acquisition of Magento triggered several subjects for debate. One of the questions is an appropriate choice of a platform to migrate. Some owners of small and medium stores consider migrating to the platforms concentrated on the same business size and anticipate Magento to focus merely on enterprise edition. Shopware is one among the industry competitors becoming a popular option to migrate. We will discuss the factors to encounter when choosing between Magento 2 and Shopware. Type of Business Even though Magento is flexible in providing small, mid-size, and enterprise business solutions, Adobe might change the direction of Magento services. The point is that Adobe is an enterprise-driven business, so chances are Magento goes the same path. This is the reason why some of the newly introduced features and tech support might not overlap with small and medium bus...

QA Madness is excited to announce that we have been ranked by Clutch as one of the top developers in the world, with a focus on companies that specialize in software testing. Clutch is a B2B ratings and reviews site based in Washington. They use market research and reviews of a company’s work to rank businesses in categories according to their service focus and location. We are ranked by them as one of the leading software testing companies. We are an independent software testing company that was created by skilled pros who are in love with their work and want to improve the quality not only of the software they test but the quality of the testing services in general. We’re experts in eCommerce, web, mobile application, and game testing. Our QA engineers use the most relevant and effective tools that help to ensure the quality of any software product. One of the most important factors that Clutch takes into consideration is the in-depth feedback it collects from the pa...

Our blog posts are available in audio! Listen on the go and when you want to learn something new but don’t feel like reading. Your browser does not support the audio tag. When you come up with a product that needs testing, the goal to find the right QA engineer might become a challenge. Traditional software testing process is often misunderstood while the “QA persona” remains mysterious. That`s why the choice of QA specialist is merely not obvious, as the list of competencies differs. Why is that so complicated? Since a dynamic IT area involves the projects of different complexity and requirements, there are no universal means to find a specialist. But don`t get frustrated. Our team decided to collect the set of skills required for manual QA, automation engineer, and QA lead. The recommendations will not set precise requirements for each, yet they might become a useful background for your further search. When to hire Manual QA Let`s make it simple: manual...

Our blog posts are available in audio! Listen on the go and when you want to learn something new but don’t feel like reading. Your browser does not support the audio tag. Probably, life has been much easier at times, when “coding” meant software development. Today, we realize that tech progress is unstoppable. Big data systems require architects, analysts, developers, QA engineers work together to deliver custom code for us, the software users. The approach to website development has become complex and enterprise-driving with a variety of models to efficiently build the process. We will recover in memory two most popular methodologies and show the way software testing integrates. Waterfall The oldest of the models and the best-known. It is the sequence of stages: the output of the first stage serves as input for the next. Meaning the phases don`t overlap, the next step begins only if the previous is ready. This is how software development cycle l...