Navigating Disrupted Software Testing Schedules

Managing software testing teams means coping with breakdowns in test execution and disruptions to planned testing, resources and schedules. It’s an unfortunate eventuality. Disruptions and issues in development trickle down to the test plan — and the execution schedule of the testing teams. Despite proper and thorough test planning, test teams often must implement creative management techniques to work in shorter timeframes and rapid cycles in hopes of aligning with deployment schedules.  Testing schedule disruptions don’t just affect the test plan and schedule; they cause unnecessary stress and angst. It’s incredibly frustrating when you need to adjust the approach to accomplish valid testing in a shorter time frame. In this blog, we’ll discuss some viable options for deploying quality code on disrupted schedules.

Viable options for completing testing quickly

When a software project’s progress comes to a complete stop after hours spent planning, it’s stressful. The whole team slips into crisis mode, scrambling to get work done — let alone balance this extra work with their personal lives. Most interruptions come from integrating test servers, new software and/or hardware. Even third-party changes can introduce defects that can have catastrophic effects. Projects also get off track due to disruptions in resources or failure to quickly adjust to issues when they occur.

So, how do you keep test execution on track to meet deployment schedules while also delivering a high-quality product?

First, testing teams must assess and categorize risk to the customer experience. Putting a face on the risk, so to speak, helps create a more realistic emergency test approach that focuses on quality for customers. 

It’s tempting to resort to testing with manual scripts or attempt to use your automated scripts as manual tests when disruptions occur. However, unless the current testers understand the test script and the objective, it’s difficult to manually execute automated scripts. Teams that keep manual scripts must also contend with lengthy execution times. And if one adds the defects found and fixed along with the retesting effort, manual testing will not get the team back on schedule without significantly reducing the amount of testing.

Instead, think of creative new ways to provide testing coverage. Some creative approaches include: 

• Implementing rapid testing cycles for regression testing
• Partnering with an external crowdtesting provider
• Consulting with internal resources on how the customer uses the application, and performing exploratory testing accordingly
• Uploading new scripts, if the test automation tool is the problem
• Leveraging developer unit, performance or integrated automated tests
• Using an AI tool to generate suggested customer test scenarios across the application

The best option is the one that works for the team and eliminates crisis mode. Many teams can gather additional resources from customer service or operations to assist with exploratory testing, at least for a short amount of time. The beauty of exploratory testing is that there are so many ways to execute it, and it fits into nearly any time structure. However, the testers must be familiar with how the customer uses the application, including current issues and feedback on the user experience. Testers from outside the dev and QA teams must also be able to provide defect reports that enable developers to reproduce and address any problems. 

If the issue is within an automated tool, try to find a replacement that uses the same base coding language. With any luck, you can duplicate or migrate the existing scripts to the new tool. The only remaining challenge is creating or reconnecting the test data to your automation suite. Another option is to leverage developer-based automated tests. These tests, which might consist of unit, performance or integration checks, are not a replacement for automated regression. Developer-based tests, such as unit tests, are scoped only to the code the developer writes and do not include the code of others. Executing these tests might cause duplicate efforts, but continuous execution helps identify defects. 

The testing team can opt to use an AI tool to generate customer-focused test suggestions — either an existing AI tool or public tools can help generate a manual set of tests quickly. Be sure to review any AI-generated tests to ensure accuracy and relevancy. Tests must be reliable, valid and focused on real customer workflow expectations. Simply running tests won’t resolve the crisis.

Rapid cycle testing for emergencies

A rapid cycle testing regression suite can help teams any time the test schedule gets off track. Rapid cycle testing requires mature tests that cover all customer-facing functionality. The team can pull these rapid cycle test suites as long as it has a complete functional set of regression tests in a human-readable form. If not, the best approach is to create a rapid testing cycle suite after the current crisis is over and before the next one occurs. This suite should include both automated and human-readable test scripts. Even better if you can link the manual scripts to the automated tests. So, for example, when an automation error occurs, you can quickly diagnose whether it’s a test problem, a data problem or an application problem.

Rapid cycle testing aims to increase both the speed and efficiency of test execution. To succeed with this approach, testing teams manage rapid cycle test suites in the following ways: 

• Prioritizing these tests based on importance to known customer expectations and workflows
• Ensuring test cases are up to date and accurate
• Arranging the test suites to force parallel testing where possible to reduce execution time
• Developing tests to include validating integration points and back-end processing 
• Adding visual tests to validate page display content

When creating rapid cycle testing suites, always include end-to-end functional test coverage where possible. The fuller the functional coverage, the better.

Partnering with a crowdtesting provider

Crowdtesting teams enable teams to maintain momentum even when internal schedules are disrupted. Applause provides essential testing capacity and capabilities that augment internal QA efforts. This allows internal staff to transition to more strategic development activities, rather than dedicating time to unplanned testing efforts.

Crowdtesting can expand testing rapidly, especially in crisis mode, including testing on different devices, versions and platforms, with little overhead for the internal QA organization. Applause boasts a global community of over one million experts and end users in over 200 countries and territories. This community grants access to millions of real devices and configurations, helping ensure coverage across virtually any operating system or hardware combination your customers use. Alongside internal QA efforts, this comprehensive coverage improves confidence across devices, markets, languages and environments.

Crowdtesters become partners performing testing according to joint test plans or strategies, while catching bugs stemming from unexpected usage patterns that internal teams or lab testing might miss, especially when in crisis mode. Applause manages the sourcing, training and testing execution. Feedback is swiftly translated into actionable results and insights, which the internal team receives in as little as a few hours.

Establish a recovery framework

Test team managers must think of having not only the perfect Plan A but also a Plan B — and even a Plan C. Preparing for disruptions might seem like time wasted, until a significant disruption occurs. Talk about a great occasion for crowdtesting — you can bet team members don’t want to perform these tasks. Still, this extra planning is essentially the same as having a strategy to manage security breaches. Hopefully, it isn’t needed, but if it is, the team has a reasonable plan to perform adequate testing without delaying customer deployments. 

A recovery framework is a project management methodology to help projects recover from crisis mode by providing a roadmap to: 

• Analyze blocking issues to identify the root cause
• Create realistic recovery steps
• Communicate with stakeholders for broader awareness
• Assist with executing the plan 
• Provide a repeatable process for future use as needed

Creating a recovery framework helps project managers remain in control. Testing teams must analyze issues immediately as they occur, including a root cause assessment that helps pinpoint what functionality, tools and teams are impacted. Once the issue is known, plan the recovery.

Many teams re-baseline work based on timelines and deliverables, as well as the owners and assigned resources. Test managers must consider all options. Review the recovery plan regularly with testers and developers to ensure all risks and responses are met.  

Next, communicate with application stakeholders to stop additional demands from coming in and extending the crisis. Address stakeholders’ concerns and make sure they understand the recovery plan, including the risks. As the recovery plan progresses, track test execution progress and provide thorough status updates.

Once the crisis clears, create or update the emergency testing plan. What worked? What didn’t? Here, as in most areas of the business, a feedback loop provides guidance. Planning ahead for testing schedule disruptions helps prevent a crisis mode from becoming a prolonged issue and burning out valuable resources. 

Old habits die hard

It’s easy to slip into comfortable testing habits. Like a pair of warm, soft slippers on a cold floor, following the same testing process release after release becomes a peaceful routine. But, when issues occur that disrupt the test plan, it’s critical to creatively solve the problem. Testing must occur quickly, ideally without affecting the deployment date — and, of course, while providing a high-quality product. 

After the team goes through a crisis period, be sure to create backup testing plans. Try different options and be prepared to manage disruptions in the test schedule. You can’t let a temporary crisis mode become a permanent working style. The team must deliver quality testing in a variety of ways to get back on schedule.

Applause offers a crucial strategic partnership to help institutionalize quality testing. To learn more about its fully managed solution and expert-driven model, contact Applause to get started today.