Blog

Some years ago, automated testing (AT) became one of the most promising means to accelerate product delivery and mitigate QA specialists’ workload. As a result, software automation services redefined efficiency in the whole testing process. Today, AT is a popular trend, and, just like other well-known things, it is surrounded by stereotypes. We are here to disprove them and tell you the truth. Myth #1. Automation is More Expensive than Manual Myth: Many think that automation is more expensive than manual testing. Specifically, because AT needs knowledgeable, or ‘pricey’ as some may view it, experts, particular automation tools, and continuous test maintenance. Fact: In reality, test automation is about cost efficiency. Yes, you need to be prepared to invest in automation framework setup and cooperate with experienced specialists. But appropriate resource allocation is the golden rule for a great product. What AT actually offers is evident in the long run due to faster S...

Everyone knows what the software bug is. That’s a problem hiding somewhere in the code and spoiling the tester’s mood. Finding bugs in software testing is one of the core goals of any QA engineer. But why bug? Bugs can be cute (not in Australia, of course), so why problems with the software are called like this? There are enough scientific articles on this topic, but we will try to explain everything in simple words. First of all, there is a cool story about a month which got stuck in a relay of Mark II, an early electromechanical computer. Because of this month, the results of the calculations were wrong. After this funny issue, Grace Hopper, a programmer working with that computer, and her colleagues started using the word “bug” to describe the problems which made their machines malfunction. However, that was not the first time when someone used this word in this context. Another guy, Thomas Edison, used it long before Grace Hopper and her team. His story is not as memo...

Recently, some of our clients took the time to review our services on Clutch, the leading B2B ratings and reviews platform. More than 175,000 potential buyers use Clutch every month to find business services, software, or consultants. We are extremely proud of the 3 new reviews that have been added to our profile and wanted to share the amazing insight and feedback from our clients. As many of you know, QA Madness offers software testing for e-commerce platforms and mobile applications. One of our clients needed in-house testing resources for two online stores. QA Madness came in the picture and upgraded TheIrishStore.com from Magento 1 to Magento 2 and supported with bug fixes for Giftdirect.com. Max Pronko, the CTO of both platforms, commended QA Madness for identifying bugs across both sites that helped increase the average user session time. “I’ve appreciated the friendly communication from their team…They provided clarification for the reported bugs in the form of sc...

Increasing a share of software automation services is one of the main trends in software testing. To make your life easier and to help you to move with the times, we will tell you what tools can be useful for you. Our automation testing tools list contains the most frequently used frameworks among QA engineers. Selenium It’s one of the most popular frameworks with an open-source license. Selenium can give you flexibility and an ability to write advanced scripts, which will help you to meet diverse levels of complexity. However, advanced programming skills are an absolute must. Besides, you may have to spend time on building special libraries and frameworks - they may be essential for implementing specific functions. Unified Functional Testing (UFT) This is a popular tool with a commercial license, which provides a full set of functions for testing API and web-services. It also allows testing GUI of mobile, web, and desktop apps on any platform. Katalon Studio This one is the mo...

Okay, no more theory, it’s time to get to practice. You already know where the beginning and the end can be, so now we will tell you what tools you can use to measure page load time. There are more than enough tools, but if you try at least five of them, you will understand the following things: The results are not always stable. The main problem is that you probably will never even discover why it’s happening; Usually, load testing tools measure the page load time in different way. Sorry, but there is no unique formula; Websites with authentication are extremely difficult to measure. Let us know if you figure out how to deal with this problem, okay? The reports you get in the end usually miss details. Despite the challenges of the way, a lot of tools for an effective website load test are already available. No worries, you don’t need to try every existing tool in order to find the most suitable one. We have already done this for you. Here are the most useful an...

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...