Being in the software industry as a part of quality assurance, you are always expected to carry a quality stick to ensure quality is maintained to the ‘T’. We are always asked to put ourselves into the shoes of the customer and ensure the product/projects meet its expectation with the highest quality achieved. But the actual irony lies where all our quality metrics boils down to quantitative numbers and terms like bugs logged, a number of test cases written, a number of test cases executed, time spent on testing, URLs tested, browsers checked for cross browser testing, defect leakage etc.

1. WHY TO CHOOSE QUALITY OVER QUANTITY IN
SOFTWARE TESTING?

2. We need to question ourselves on
how to justify our testing approach
where every path is been
quantitatively visualized? This is one
of the reasons why the quality of
testing is been reducing drastically. A
simple example could be when you
measure your team efficiency or
efficacy with the number of bugs
logged.
Is It Okay To Justify Our Software Testing Metrics With
Numbers Alone?

3. The very first approach your every
team member would be taking, is to find
as many bugs as they can anywhere in
the application. I know many would be
arguing stating, how does it matter until
we are finding bugs in the web
application. But eventually, this is
where the quality of testing comes in
place.
Is It Okay To Justify Our Software Testing Metrics With
Numbers Alone?

4. Looking at the agile software
development approach that we are
working on these days, with shrinking
cycles and testing been pushed to the
end of each cycle, all we are left with is
the seemingly high pressure to test
applications in the shortest span
available.
Is It Okay To Justify Our Software Testing Metrics With
Numbers Alone?

5. It’s important how we lay down our
testing efforts in alignment with these
objectives. In fact, this helps us drive
our decision of what to fix and what not
to. Hence it all comes down to the
bottom line, the clearer picture you
have for your stakeholder views and
mission of their project, the better it
will be to build and prioritize your
testing efforts.
Quality Is Subjective & May Change From
Customer to Customer

6. So let’s focus on writing a sufficient number of test cases that drives your customer and
project objectives rather than focusing on writing a large number of test cases with no major
crux involved in them. Highlighting the high severity issues rather than just filling your
bucket with those umpteen number of minor bugs. Give precedence to the risk that can
bring down your customer and not your evaluation matrix.
Quality Is Subjective & May Change From
Customer to Customer

7. Been in the industry for seven years
now, and after mentoring so many
budding testing professionals, my
whole idea on measuring individuals on
the quality basis has always derived
from their ability to analyze the
business requirements, break them
down into the smaller level of chunks
and ensure those are built and worked
as they are intended to.
How To Judge A Quality Tester Apart
From
The Others?

8. It’s always been the intent of the tester
that mattered to me rather than the
numbers he/she gives me in terms of
test cases or bugs. I have always
preferred people who ask questions
and understand the meaning of priority
rather than people who ‘just test’.
How To Judge A Quality Tester Apart
From
The Others?

9. Some of the qualities of good testers include:
● Understanding the priorities and severity
business.
● Ability to dig into the system and think
through.
● Following the quality processes and if
required bring corrective measures for
further improvements.
● A quick and constant learner.
● Passion for testing.
● Good communication skills.
● Analytical ability.
● Co-operative and work in unison with
other team members.
How To Judge A Quality Tester Apart
From
The Others?

10. Some of the qualities of badtesters include:
● Performing testing based on
assumptions.
● Reporting bug without analysis.
● Poor business analysis skills.
● Lack of customer insight.
● Poor communication skills.
● Incompetency to follow processes.
● Fear of rejection of work or thoughts.
How To Judge A Quality Tester Apart
From
The Others?

11. 1. Conduct seminars on a regular basis to help
them become proficient in writing bug
report.
2. In order to enhance poor communication
skills, I insist them to loop and an internal
call with developers.
3. Fear of rejection always victimize freshers
or young software testers. This can be
easily dealt with cooperative management.
4. In order to keep the spirits high I make sure
to conduct award/gift ceremonies on either
monthly or quarterly basis for recognizing
the phenomenal effort.
Here is how to encourage to bring out the
best qualities in QA Tester

12. I have seen it happen many a time, that the software testers would focus too
much on raising their bug count, and as a result, they would end up drifting
away from the objective of the functionality they were meant to test. I am sure,
you must have experienced the same too!
Don’t Drift Away From Your Objectives!

13. Think of it as setting up the right OKRs(Objective Key & Results) for the test
department. If you are a QA lead or manager, responsible for aligning the
testing team in the release management then it becomes very critical to set up
the right goals for your test department.
Don’t Drift Away From Your Objectives!

14. With those clearly defined OKRs we can help deliver a quality product as a team
rather than comparing and analyzing the valueless numbers(metrics) across team
members. Having said so, collecting those numbers to improve your quality objective
should be the only essence. Believe it or not, numbers drive the psychology of
people, hence it’s important how we frame and utilize them.
Don’t Drift Away From Your Objectives!

15. So let’s not push quantity to drive quality. Quality should be singly driven
and should deem to be the one and only major aspect of achieving customer
satisfaction.
www.lambdatest.com
CONCLUSION

16. HAPPY TESTING!!