How can you prioritize cross-browser testing with limited time?

Define Your Target Audience: Understand your target audience and their most commonly used browsers. Prioritize testing on browsers that are widely used by your audience to ensure optimal user experience for the majority.

My target audience includes individuals and teams involved in software development and quality assurance, such as developers, testers, project managers, and QA professionals. I aim to provide helpful and relevant information, guidance, and support to assist them in their roles and improve their understanding of software development and QA practices. My goal is to empower them to create high-quality software products, enhance their skills, and stay updated with the latest trends and technologies in the industry.

Limited time for cross-browser testing? Here's how to prioritize: 1. Target Audience: Focus on browsers used by your target audience (traffic stats). 2. Popular Browsers: Include major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) at minimum. 3. Consider Evergreen Browsers: Test on recent versions with longer support windows. 4. Critical Functionality: Prioritize testing core functionalities across browsers. 5. Automation Tools (Optional): If time allows, explore automation for repetitive tasks.

To prioritize cross-browser testing focus on browsers that have highest user traffic and compatibility issues. Identify key functionalities and critical paths in your application, then prioritize testing those across different browsers. Utilize automated testing tools to streamline the process and maximize efficiency. Additionally, leverage browser compatibility testing services to cover a wide range of browsers. Remember to regularly update your testing strategy based on user feedback and browser usage trends.

1. Understand the nature of application and its target audience. 2. Study the browser market share and derive list of potential browsers to test the application. 3. Use cloud based browser compatibility tools to test on the OS/Browser combinations which are not presently available to the team / not easily available to the team.

Use Risk-Based Testing: Identify the browsers that pose the highest risk to your application based on factors such as market share, historical issues, and critical functionalities. Allocate more testing resources to these high-risk browsers to mitigate potential risks effectively.

Risk-based testing is an approach that focuses on prioritizing testing efforts based on the potential risks to the project. It involves identifying and assessing risks that could impact the project's success and then using this information to determine which tests to prioritize. In risk-based testing, high-risk areas of the application are tested more thoroughly, while lower-risk areas may receive less testing. This approach helps ensure that testing resources are allocated efficiently and that the most critical aspects of the application are thoroughly tested, even with limited time and resources.

Prioritize regression testing on critical browsers to ensure that recent changes or updates have not introduced compatibility issues. Focus on validating critical functionality and user journeys on these browsers to detect regressions early in the testing process.

Applying web standards and best practices involves following guidelines and recommendations established by organizations such as the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to ensure that websites and web applications are well-designed, accessible, and compatible with different browsers and devices. This includes using valid HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code, optimizing website performance, ensuring cross-browser compatibility, and making the site accessible to users with disabilities.

Apply Web Standards and Best Practices: Adhering to web standards and best practices during development can minimize compatibility issues across different browsers. By following industry standards, you reduce the likelihood of encountering major issues during cross-browser testing, allowing you to focus on fine-tuning compatibility for specific browsers.

Let's face it, manually testing every browser version is a recipe for burnout. This is where automation comes in. By investing in tools that can automate repetitive tasks like regression testing, you free up valuable time. These tools can execute pre-defined test cases across various browsers, flagging any inconsistencies. This allows you to focus your manual efforts on areas that require human judgment, such as complex interactions or visual nuances.

Automate What You Can: Automate repetitive and time-consuming test scenarios using automated testing tools. Focus on automating tests for browsers that are essential to your target audience or those with complex functionalities. Automation helps maximize testing coverage and efficiency, allowing you to allocate more time to manual testing of critical scenarios.

Cloud-based testing services offer a vast array of browsers and devices at your fingertips. This eliminates the need to maintain a physical lab full of machines, saving you time and money. Cloud services can run tests in parallel across different configurations, significantly accelerating the testing process. Plus, they often provide real-time results and detailed reports, allowing you to quickly identify and address compatibility issues.

Use Cloud-Based Testing Tools: Leverage cloud-based testing platforms that offer a wide range of browser configurations. These tools enable you to perform cross-browser testing simultaneously on multiple browser versions and devices, significantly reducing testing time and effort.

Tools like LambdaTest, and BrowserStack can help you running cross-browser testing in a very simple way. Currently does not make sense to mantain lot of real devices in order to test your software in different platforms. These clod-based tool can perform perfectly to help you to test in a lot of platforms, parallely, and quickly. Try it.

Utilize cross-browser testing platforms, such as BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, or CrossBrowserTesting, to automate and streamline testing across multiple browsers and devices. These platforms provide access to a wide range of browser and device configurations, enabling efficient testing without the need for physical infrastructure.

Not all browsers are created equal. Instead of testing on every conceivable browser version under the sun, focus on the ones your target audience actually uses. Analytics tools can provide valuable insights into user demographics, including browser usage statistics. By prioritizing the most popular browsers and recent versions of older ones, you can ensure your website functions optimally for the users who matter most. Additionally, when testers report issues, don't get bogged down in fixing every minor bug. Evaluate the severity of the issue and its impact on user experience. Focus on addressing critical problems that affect core functionalities or usability.

Review and Prioritize Feedback: Gather feedback from users, QA testers, and stakeholders regarding browser compatibility issues. Prioritize addressing issues reported on browsers commonly used by your audience or those impacting critical functionalities. Regularly review and prioritize feedback to focus your testing efforts effectively.

Browser compatibility testing can be carried with the limited available resources and strict timelines by following the below strategies. Collect the metrics from the product management team/customer where the distribution of browsers across the clients and pay attention to the browsers which clients mostly use and run the automation on these browsers. See whether in the previous releases we had issues in the specific browser and run the browser compatibility on the specific browser. Divide the work amongst the talent to validate the browsers based on critical features.

Here’s What Else to Consider: Consider factors such as browser market share, geographical location of your audience, and the complexity of your web application when prioritizing cross-browser testing. Additionally, communicate with stakeholders to manage expectations regarding testing coverage and potential trade-offs due to time constraints.