What a Scalable Approach to Testing Looks Like

Scalability is a necessity in the big picture of digital quality. But, along with it, organizations can expect a bit of disruption to their traditional testing workflows. Organizations have several options for scalable testing approaches to ensure application quality, but be prepared for teams to reskill or retrain along the way, as well as create new QA processes and procedures.

In this blog, let’s discuss various scalable testing approaches to consider and how they can help make for a more lean and efficient QA approach.

Taking a scalable testing approach

First, let’s define what a scalable testing approach means. We’re discussing efficiency or ways to reduce the cost and time associated with testing by using flexible models that enable scaling to meet the current need. A scalable approach to testing is not the same as scalability testing, a type of testing. Rather, a scalable approach is a way of testing that is more efficient and cost-effective.

Software applications carry the weight of business success. Testing ensures applications reach customers with a defined level of quality. Quality ensures the customer experience is positive and that the application meets the intended need. Critical defects or even annoying usability defects, such as display issues, turn away users.

Defects influence brand reputation, employee morale and business revenue. So, what happens when QA resources are lacking, or the testing process is ineffective and inefficient? Software testing is expensive, and it continues to expand, so this is an existential question with which organizations must grapple.

Consider that testing expands with every new feature added. As regression test suites increase in size and complexity, organizations need more resources to cover test execution. Businesses can’t support this type of growth indefinitely. So, testing teams must be able to scale to sufficiently mitigate risk.

Scalable testing enables organizations to spend resources on testing only as needed. Scalable testing also reduces the cost of testing while improving test efficiency, coverage and application quality. 

There are as many possible ways to scale testing as there are dinner recipes online. We’ll explore the scalability approaches that are most common and proven. In many cases a custom mix of these options will help achieve the best results.

Scaling manual testing

Organizations can scale manual testing teams in a variety of ways. However, before you start scaling, verify the testing process is organized and efficient. For example, review any existing QA processes and the performance records of testing team members. Is everything up to standard? Is the team composed of hard-working, organized and highly efficient testers?

If the team lacks skills or organization, start by introducing a standard set of QA processes and an official test strategy plan. Testing teams need a plan on how to manage a growing set of tests effectively.

Once organized and operating with a shared set of standards and rules, you can begin to scale testing in the following ways:

• Ensure testers can parallel test on multiple test environments. This enables simultaneous work on shared test environments.
• Execute tests based on test case priority to take care of critical tests first.
• Use a shift-left approach to test throughout the software development life cycle. Rather than wait until the end of a sprint, take an Agile approach where testing occurs mid-stream.
• Practice continuous testing. Execute tests continuously as time permits from sprint to sprint or release to release.
• Test using exploratory techniques. Test scripts have their purpose, but leverage the power of exploratory testing to dig up additional issues.
• Stop test case development, and start to test on the fly. Similar to exploratory testing, make test case development optional. Instead, testers validate new features and regression on the fly during the development cycle or sprint.

Scaling test automation

Test frameworks enable scalable test automation. It’s crucial for these frameworks to be incorporated into the design. Cloud-based solutions or tools, as they do with other functions of the SDLC, enable test automation at scale and offer multiple additional advantages, such as parallel test execution.

To foster scalable test automation, it’s important to also appropriately manage test data and environments. Testers must be able to provision and de-provision a test environment on demand. Likewise, test data must be easy to refresh and prepare for the next test run.

Consider using continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) to scale test automation. With CI/CD, development teams can continuously set up automated build and deployment pipelines any time code changes. Teams experienced with CI/CD can quickly write and execute tests.

Scaling test teams

If scaling actual testing procedures isn’t feasible or doesn’t yield significant results, consider scaling the internal test team. Organizations benefit from having an internal test team even if it’s a single person or small team. A variety of options exist to help you scale and organize internal QA personnel. Consider establishing a minimum head count internal team to cover only new features and functional testing.

You can also scale testing by outsourcing testing as needed. Numerous testing services provide qualified resources, organized testing, and options that work within your budget and schedule. The cost is often far less than hiring and managing a QA team internally.

However, keep in mind someone must provide a level of training on what the application or products do, and how they function. Someone must also triage defects and problems with test cases. There must be a resource to help external teams and testers with issues, questions and support.

External testing service teams can be quite flexible, depending on your contract. They might only be needed at certain times. And there’s no need to pay testers when there’s not enough work to perform. All of this makes external testing teams quite scalable with the right combination of service features.

Dividing and conquering with crowdtesting

A high-quality crowdtesting solutions company like Applause helps organizations scale testing on an ongoing basis. By supplying a large network of testers around the world — more than one million in the case of Applause — crowdtesting providers enable access to a diverse pool of testers as well as their respective devices, browsers, operating systems, connectivity options, customer profiles, demographics and more. Where internal teams might run out of time or lack resources, crowdtesting providers open up a world of possibilities.

You can even specialize the testing focus. For example, if you need accessibility testing but don’t have the qualified resources, consider a crowdtesting provider to handle the task. Applause, for example, provides accessibility testing and training services led by a team of experts, which enables access to curated teams that can include accessibility professionals or people with disabilities.

Organizations can also use crowdtesting to supplement an existing QA team. With crowdtesting, you can test in any geographic region, with real-world feedback on the usability, performance, and functionality of an application.

Diverse crowdtesting teams often identify uncommon defects that may pass through a dedicated internal team. Why? These external testers bring unique perspectives and backgrounds that might differ from an internal team, plus a dedication to identifying defects and issues without regard to whether they’ll get fixed or rejected. There’s no political pressure, and no strings attached to crowdtesting. The output, when done well, is real, actionable feedback.

Modern software development organizations need the flexibility of scalable testing. A combination of external teams, internal teams and crowdtesting can provide the right blend of effective testing across platforms, devices, and geographic regions. The more testers, the greater the chance you’ll release software that a wide variety of customers love.

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