How can you test software more comprehensively?

1. Create a Test Plan outlining the scope, objectives, and testing approach 2. Employ a mix of testing techniques-unit,integration,system,regression,acceptance testing 3. Begin testing as early as possible and continue testing throughout each stage 4. Test the software in various environments- different OS, browsers,devices 5. Implement automated testing tools 6. Conduct exploratory testing to uncover issues and validate the software's behavior 7. Test for edge cases, boundary conditions, and exceptional scenarios 8. Engage stakeholders-endusers,product owners,developers 9. Document test cases, test scenarios, test results 10. Incorporate security testing techniques, such as vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and code reviews

Requirements and tests are two sides of the same coin. Each requirement must be assigned to at least one test; each test relates to one requirement. Keep in mind that requirements occur at different levels; as well as tests.

Once the requirements have been gathered, it is important to make sure that the communication happens effectively. The team needs to know as a whole what is expected by the client and how to come up with an efficient solution that they would find satisfactory. You should be able to put yourself in the clients shoes while testing, keeping in mind what it is, you are trying to achieve with this product and how satisfied you are with the process. When you feel like the process is fairly simple, and the outcome is as discussed during the requirements gathering meetings, then you know you are on the right track.

Analyse the system requirements Create and execute system test cases Analyse the HLD, LLD for input - output , interface for unit level testing Setup test automation So in short testing from unit, function, system to be planned and execute for comprehensive test coverage .

One of the main perspectives is to have a clear understanding of the requirements. This ensures that you are able to ensure that the system remains stable after any changes are implemented, and in case of system failure, there is also a rollback plan in place to ensure seamless recovery.

The question seems to be framed incorrectly in my opinion. If you already have the software and are now trying to test it, you have lost. Write the test framework before you start the software. Write a test as you write each piece of the software. Release the software automatically if the tests pass. Bold, but it will hold engineers accountable for writing tests! Of course this assumes you are starting from scratch!

If we follow the V model software development approach, testing of software done at the different levels of right wing of the V model against the left wing of the V model. Different levels of testing is to verify the different concerns and requirements. At system level it is needed to verify the system requirements. At this level software may integrated to a system and testing is performed against the system requirements. At software architecture level it is required to verify the integration of small software units. Which is a kind of blockbox testing. At unit level, which is a lowest level in the V Model, a low level of software unit testing is performed. Which is a kind of whitebox testing.

I believe that good practice is embracing static analysis rules and adding custom ones for your own needs. This enforces teams at a PR level to follow some consensus and prevents common pitfalls too.

Different levels of testing are necessary, but I like to focus the attention on the lower levels, such as unit-tests. Requirements have the habit of change and evolve with time, in most cases the building blocks (at least some) of the systems will not change and/or will not be updated. Having the confidence that each of the building block do exactly what they say and is expected from them (not only what they were used for), will allow evolving the system with less worries about unintentional/unexpected behaviors.

There is no one size fits all solution to testing software. Different types of software require different levels and types of testing. The basic form of automated tests for your code is unit tests. These help test small pieces or units of code in isolation. Typically you should have lots of unit tests for your code, since they run really fast and are inexpensive. The other common type of test is End-to-End (e2e) tests. This tests your software as a whole. It would ideally interact with the software like an end user and test the entire workflow. You would write a few e2e tests for your application, since they take longer to run and maybe expensive. In addition, there are integration tests, performance tests, usability tests and more.

All developers need to get the interaction between components and learn how to test each components separately as well as the interactions between them. They need to use data that is similar to the actual data for the system being built during testing, since many of the failures are due to boundary conditions, which are typically not considered during development. Using tools like GenRocket can help developers generate realistic test data in large volumes, and ensure that the product is well tested for all scenarios.

Automate, automate, automate! Creating comprehensive and effective automated tests for a product can be a significant investment in terms of cost, but the cost is dwarfed by the value it adds. Once an automated test is created, it can be run hundreds or thousands of times over the lifetime of the product, at virtually zero cost for each execution.

Automation is the key to creating a good product and ensuring a good customer experience. This ensures that after every new release of the product, the system remains stable, and customers have the best and most stable experience with the product. There are many tools available in the market for automation, and they can be used according to the needs.

Continues Integration and Test Automation (CITA) is the best practice followed in any software industry. Test Automation is incomplete without Continuous integration. This approach improves the efficiency of software development, quality software. It helps to perform the regression test, smoke test efficiently. Test Automation is used to track quality of the software. Jenkins can be used to setup the pipeline to support the CITA.

The automated test must be thought into the development process. Unit test cases will test more at functional level. Will enable very early warning of that something is broken. Test of larger parts - or integration test - is based on a framework and should be a natural part of development as well. Ideally the automation is developed by a second resource, independent of the code itself. Run both types as an integrated part of the build pipeline. Save the human testers for the situations where you test for real-life user behaviour, where you do something unexpected, random, silly or wrong.

Doing pull requests with mandatory reviews is really helpful for quality culture, however the attitude is more important than approval. Sometimes people approve without proper inspection. The net impact of code reviews can go to negative if the review is focusing on style issues rather than essential topics, such as validity, integrity, architecture, security and technical debt. The best way to address that risk is to make agreements on code conventions, and automate style checking in pre-commit or post-commit phase.

Code reviews are absolutely important to the success of shipping quality software. Some teams push away testing to a different team and expect them to do all the testing work. This is not an ideal approach to build software. The developers who write the code, need to be responsible for the quality of their code. This involves engaging in code reviews with peers, identifying potential problems before the code is passed on, and writing plenty of automated tests to ensure the code is bug free. When you have your fellow developers review your code and also test it, there is guaranteed improvement in the quality of code and early detection of bugs. Testing should never be an after thought. It should be a part of the development process.

Code reviews are important, but be careful not to create unnecessary hurdles. I know teams that set their quality criteria for code reviews so high that they regularly over-develop their software. This usually reduces time-to-market, but does not always increase perceived customer quality.

I've never found a huge amount of use in code reviews. Maybe we just did them wrong. I found much more use in test driven development and pair programming.

Code review-l - quality of your project. Execute each code separately. Retest the code implemented. Review the output functionality.

To ensure test comprehensiveness, one of the key factor to consider would be applying Shift-Left approach to testing effort i.e. As soon the requirements are established, initiating requirements review (Stating testing) or defining acceptance criteria, moving forward apply quality gates/evaluation at each testing level i.e. Unit testing, Integration testing, End to End system testing using all applicable types of testing like functional and non-functional testing types and business acceptance testing. To ensure the test coverage comprehensiveness, there is a strong need to create and utilize Test Traceability Matrix where each requirement is ensured to be validated using at least one test case.

Understand that there will always be things in production that you cannot test. For example, you can't crash-test every car that rolls off of production line. So it's important to be aware what you cannot test, or cannot afford to test or even simulate. But hopefully what you have tested can help you prepare a plan to detect and observe those situations, and have a plan B in production. Because the ultimate goal of quality is not "pass the tests", but operate well in prod.

Feedback and metrics collected from users, along with measuring usage patterns, can help improve software testing by providing insights into areas that need attention & are used most frequently. It gfives insights what is causing issues or errors, and how users interact, testers can focus their efforts on those specific areas. This helps to ensure that bugs and glitches are identified and resolved before they become major problems, leading to a more robust and reliable product.

Using effective and relevant metrics and obtaining constant feedback helps a lot in the software development process, avoiding repetitive work and wasted time, thus achieving results sooner.

Testing software manually can be time-consuming and error-prone. To comprehensively test software, especially in API design, automating test data becomes crucial. Avoiding hard-coded JSON requests enhances endpoint robustness across different testing environments. Leveraging test automation and tools for tasks like data generation, executing test cases, and comparing expected/actual results is key. While this approach improves efficiency, human judgment is irreplaceable. Choose the right automation strategy, tool, and framework, ensuring a balance between automation and creative testing practices.

I agree with all the solutions stated above. If anything I would add that good testing begins with accepting the fact that everything cannot be tested. Prioritizing is essential and always use customer data or mock data mimicking customer data to test your solutions.

Use end to end business flows when progression, regression and integration testing is done. Use the training material or the new Business Process flows to pick the most common path and automate it. Especially important in transformation projects.

To test software more comprehensively, you can use a variety of testing methods. Start with functional testing to check if the software performs its intended tasks correctly. Conduct integration testing to ensure different parts of the software work well together. Implement system testing to evaluate the entire system's functionality. Perform performance testing to assess how the software handles various workloads. Security testing is crucial to identify vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Usability testing helps gauge user-friendliness. Additionally, conduct regression testing to ensure new updates don't break existing functionality.

I started in IT in 1997 without any certificate or course but successfully grown upto corona lockdown i.e. two and half decades. i served with experience that "Every software is bound to tested in field over years cumulative with update as per time and demand passes by". Today"Amul" is a big fish in the ocean. To me every obstacle is an opportunity to step up with your visionary solution.