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The question “how to measure page load time?” sounds very simple, but there are a lot of complicated things (and tools) hiding behind it. First of all, where is the beginning? It would be logical to think that we start counting from the moment when we paste the link into a browser address bar and press “Enter”. But what’s about before upload? It may also influence the page load time. Obviously, you can always start from about blank, but still… Anyway, it’s usually more difficult for a tester to understand where is the end. Here are several ways how to detect if the page has finished loading. Network activity. You simply have to wait until you have no pending requests. This strategy looks simple, but it doesn’t work for most sites, because JS initialization may take plenty of time even after the page loading seems to be over. Visual changes. This is probably one of the most convenient ways to understand that the page loading is done, but the thing is that modern sit...

Testing software products is not the only focus of testers - it’s also essential to test documentation for these products. High-quality documentation is important to all sides: customers have fewer questions for the support service and don’t hurry to reject the product, while it’s easier for the team to understand how the product should function. Here are some things to pay attention to when performing documentation testing. Description. All sorts of things (especially the most important ones) must be described, and this description must be absolutely relevant. No one wants to read outdated information. Besides, the documentation must be clear, logical, and consistent, just like a good book. Structure. Customers usually start checking the documentation when they have some problems. When it happens, they virtually always are in a bad mood. That’s why it’s important to make sure that everything is easy to find - the documentation must be simple enough to meet needs of any...

Any software developing company wants its products to be tested by a really good QA tester. But what does this “really good tester” means? Which qualities are hiding behind this title? Let’s figure this out. Understanding This is the most obvious thing - a magnificent tester must understand how the product works. Otherwise, finding bugs can turn into an extremely complicated challenge. It is also important to understand the entire project. Love It’s hard to make something perfect when you don’t care about it or even hate. The same rule works with testers and their projects. It’s also essential to love testing itself. This thing works with any job, and software testing is not an exception. It’s hard to be good at testing if you hate looking for bugs. Balance Quality matters, but speed is important too. A good tester knows how to balance them and when to stop. If your product will be reintroduced two times per month, speed is probably more important. But if your so...

We will probably say an extremely obvious thing now, but it’s so important that we can’t just skip it. So, a QA tester is NOT the same profession as a developer. They need different skills! However, they are equally vital for the success of your project. Finding an experienced tester is not an easy task to complete. These guys progress like characters in computer games. They start from the level 0, when they have virtually no skills, armor, and weapon, and level up until they become true professionals. This is how their career path may look like:   Not even a tester yet. Each of us can be a tester. Really, everyone sometimes finds a bug just by accident. This is the first step for most testers - detecting problems without even being a tester.   Almost a tester. A person who knows something about software testing and tries to find bugs on purpose.   A tester. A person who understands the basics of testing. These guys are already able to follow the documentation or even de...

Creating software testing documentation may seem to be boring, but this doesn’t mean that you can simply skip this part of your project. Sometimes the documentation is the only way to save and share information about the product. Test Cases vs Checklists There are several types of the documentation: checklists and test cases. Cases are extremely detailed and heavy and take a lot of time. Besides, bugs can adapt to tests, and cases increase the possibility of this problem. Checklists give you more flexibility, but their functionality may at some point decrease due to the human factor. Going into details To avoid the mistakes, you can try to make checklists more detailed. Such a strategy will virtually turn them into one giant test case, and it has certain advantages: Both positive and negative cases are covered; Your chances of detecting problems are higher; It’s easier to understand how the software works; Such list covers a lot of user scenarios. Obviously, ...

Just imagine: one day, you, an experienced QA tester who knows everything about testing software, completely switch to managing projects. That’s a good step forward, but being a project manager is not an easy challenge. No worries, we will give you some tips on how to survive. Keep your priorities in order You are not a tester anymore, so pay attention to planning tasks for your team. Don’t forget to communicate with your clients and control the deadlines. Check the status of your project Make sure that all the milestones are delivered. It’s better to do this regularly, between the deadlines. Providing your team with a feedback is a must. Don’t dig into details too much Being aware of everything is great, but when you’re a project manager, you have no need to know ALL the details. Don’t overload yourself - you just have to know where to get the essential detail when necessary. Be responsible for your team You’re not walking alone. You’re a project manager now, a...

Talking about testing probably seems to be a pretty unnatural activity. Why should you waste your precious time on talking, if you can spend it on testing instead? Well, this may work in case you are the last QA tester in the world. But since testing is usually done on the team, it’s important to know how to talk about it in the right way. Here are several things to avoid: Talking as if testing is an easy task. Please, don’t think that testing can be formalized. If you learn nothing while testing the software, you are doing something wrong. Sure, you can still predict certain steps and use some patterns, but this doesn’t mean that testing can always be done in the same way. Counting the cases. No one cares about the number of test cases. Quantity matters, but not in this situation. Instead of counting them, discuss bugs, risks, and other important things. Inability to describe the strategy. A testing strategy is something that must be designed and discussed. It’s a whole se...

We have already talked a lot about quality assurance companies and quality control so that you know that QA and QC are extremely important things. But what does the quality mean? Can we measure it? What hides behind this word? This is a pretty philosophical question. We have no Aristotle or Nietzsche on our team, but we will still give you an answer. We are not philosophers, but cool testers, so we definitely know better. Here are 6 features which your customers would like to find in your high-quality product: Functionality This is the most important feature. Your customers simply want to use your product and get a result, and you have to ensure this. You must predict all the potential scenarios, and make sure that your product is functioning without a problem under any of them. Portability Your product won’t become very popular in case it’s compatible only with a single iOS gadget. Find out what devices your target audience uses, and make sure your product is friendly to them...

Every time you release a new product, you have to make sure that it works properly, and there are no bugs hiding under its stylish design. Quality Assurance and Quality Control are essential parts of this process, and they seem to be pretty similar. But they are not the same. QA: To prevent failures In other words, QA is the maintenance of your product’s level of quality. Its main mission is to improve both development and testing processes, which will allow preventing the occurrence of defects during the development lifecycle. Besides, QA implementation has a beneficial impact on planning and your team’s productivity. QC: To detect failures The mission of QC is to find all the defects AFTER the product was developed and BEFORE it will be released. It allows ensuring that the product meets all the requirements. What is the difference? We guess you have already understood the main distinction: QA is about preventing failures, while QC is all about finding them. QA involves pr...