4 Reasons Why Software Testers Struggle (and How to Fix Them)
Is test case management consuming too much time? Are more bugs are crawling out of your products and onto customers than usual?
These could be signs that your software testers are struggling.
While the struggle is common, there could be several different reasons for it. Here are four of the most common.
4 Software Testing Problems
1. Mix of Veteran and Novice Testers
Your team is growing. You’re delighted. You’re hiring more help, but you don’t have the budget for a dream team of senior testers.
So you currently have a mix of veterans, who are deeply familiar with the process, and novices, who aren’t. In fact, some may be new to software testing altogether.
Ideally, the veterans mentor the novices and bring them up to speed as quickly as possible. But if the team is large, or things are moving fast, that critical knowledge transfer might not be happening as it should — or at all.
This scenario is tough for veteran testers. Whether they're training or compensating for the new staff, they’re doing double-duty. It’s hard on novices who want to help, but can’t help but slow the process. It’s hard on you — and on the product.
How to solve it:
It's tough to have a mix of veteran and novice software testers. But by creating a better process for managing test cases, you can set them up for success. Learn how to help testers succeed >
2. High Staff-Turnover Rate
Perhaps your team isn’t growing — it’s churning. Whether due to the cyclical nature of your product or other reasons, it all reduces to a single challenging question. How can you maintain product quality while staff come and go?
There's a revolving door of replacement QA testers. They lack visibility or insight into requirements they’ve been assigned.So, they deliver their work the best they can under the circumstances. And then they go back out the revolving door.
When they leave, their work gets picked up and resumed by another tester. The knowledge that isn’t entirely lost is partially misinterpreted, then wholly misunderstood.
In the end, it’s a challenging scenario for incoming testers who want to do great work. And for you — you still need to make sure all tests are run and issues reported and addressed.
How to solve it:
It's a challenge to constantly onboard new testers. It can lead to a lot of change in your testing team. Learn how to help incoming testers adapt >
3. Many Outsourced/Offshore Team Members
Despite how networked the world is, collaborating over time and space can be challenging.
Co-location is just not feasible for every team. Knowledge transfer issues happen. Communication is an obstacle.
Outsourced or offshore testers can have difficulty overcoming this gap. Testing (and morale) can suffer as a result.
How to solve it:
It's a challenge to work with a team spread around the world. But you can make it easier by taking advantage of communication tools, such as Slack. Learn how an integrated toolset solves this problem >
4. Tools Not Built for Regulated Industry
If you work in a heavily regulated industry — like medical devices — you have the added responsibility of documenting compliance and passing audits.
You can achieve this, at a basic level, with a pen and paper or spreadsheet software.
But not without pain.
Getting everyone to update the same spreadsheet, piece of paper, or even a shared whiteboard is a job by itself.
Creating a traceability matrix? It takes hours or even days.
No tester entered the industry because they enjoyed chasing down and updating spreadsheets. Truer still, you and your team are doing data entry when you could be using that time by conducting more tests!
How to solve it:
Documenting every test case and test run takes time. But when you use traceability tools, you can make the process painless for your testing team. Learn how to free up time with traceability >
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Solve Your Software Testing Problems
Whether your testing team is large or small, a modern testing tool can address many of these issues. And that will help you to successfully manage testing at your organization.
Want more tips to help you succeed at testing?
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