As we move towards a more digitally integrated world, the impact of software is becoming increasingly important. Global corporations are pouring money into high-quality software development. But is it enough? 

Evaluating software to determine whether it meets end-user requirements is as paramount as the development process. Companies must effectively test their software to appease customers who demand regular updates with all bugs and glitches fixed. 

The only roadblock in the path is that sometimes testing takes time. As a result, all corporations ponder how to speed up the testing cycle. 

This article will show 21 ways to speed up testing cycle to maintain quality and significantly raise test velocity. 

How to Speed Up Your Software Testing Cycle and Maintain Quality?

The process to speed up testing cycle and maintain quality does not have to imply starting from scratch. All you have to employ new test automation tactics that will help you get there even quicker. 

So, here are 21 ways to speed up testing cycle and maintain quality:

1. Optimize The CI/CD Pipeline

It’s time to change your testing strategy if most of your testing time is spent waiting for an upgrade. It is where CI/CD comes into the picture. Using CI/CD tools can save you a lot of time compared to the conventional approach. 

The primary purpose of continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) is to push code changes as quickly as possible to speed up testing cycle. Thus, helping the testers can shorten the average time to resolution and guarantee that crucial fixes reach the customers quickly. 

2. Bug Reporting

By accurately describing the issue and directing engineers towards its resolution, a good bug report can increase the efficiency of software testing. Contrarily, a poorly written report can cause significant misconceptions between a QA expert and a developer. 

Thus, investigating the bugs effectively and writing a good report is the keystone to speed up testing cycle. 

The document must not only list potential bug scenarios. Always include a screenshot of each instance of a failure in the software testing. 

A thorough bug summary makes it much more effortless to identify the bug’s nature and expedites its fixing. Since bug IDs are difficult to remember, they can also be helpful when looking for a bug in a bug inventory.

3. Implement Parallel Testing

Executing tests simultaneously across various device, browser, and OS combinations are the ideal way to accelerate the execution of automated test scripts. 

This way, testers can complete the testing process more quickly by running multiple tests parallelly rather than sequentially. As a result, it will speed up testing cycle.

Let us take an example where you run 30 tests to run parallelly on various devices. The entire test suite will be finished in five seconds if each test takes five seconds. On the other hand, the test would have taken one hundred fifty seconds to complete on a single device.

Read also: The Guide To Parallel Testing ! TestGrid

4. Organize The Testing Process 

Although frequently overlooked, this advice is important for accelerating the testing process. 

While running the software through various test cases, organizing your test cases may not be one of your foremost preferences. However, it greatly facilitates the process to speed up testing cycle and makes the testing cycle smoother. 

So, maintain concise, reusable test cases and automate features at the unit level. It will be less complicated for you to run tests when required if you use sound test management techniques, maintain precise data, and keep neat automation reports.

5. Strike a Balance Between Manual and Automation Testing

Testers frequently place more emphasis on automation testing than manual testing because release time is a crucial component of the test cycle.

However, before the software is made available to the public, manual testing is essential for understanding the user’s viewpoint and identifying bugs. Manual testing lets testers predict user behavior to design an experience that users will cherish. 

Hence, automation testing is not a replacement for manual testing. You need to balance manual and automated testing to speed up testing cycle for software while maintaining quality.

6. Decrease Flakiness In The QA Process

As we all know, automation tools help speed up the testing cycle. These tools may, however, produce false positives, which could result in flakiness. 

False negatives will only slow you down. Nobody enjoys constantly seeing red and dealing with unpredictable results. 

The best way to prevent this is to tackle the issue straightforwardly by removing flaky tests from the build earlier and fixing them quickly. 

Read also: How To Set Up Software Quality Assurance Process (SQAP) Effectively?

7. Test on Real Devices

Conducting real-device testing can help testing teams better understand users’ issues when using the software in real-world settings.. 

Functional testing on actual hardware removes duplication from the quality assurance process and allows QA teams to collect functional performance data without running additional tests. 

Real device testing can help testers address these problems before the software’s release.

As a result, businesses will spend less time testing new products after they are released and can even speed up software updates.

8. Use the Container Approach To Get Fast Feedback

Today, various organizations use multiple tools to carry out different tasks when testing software, leading to delays and confusion. Testers must use container approach to get faster feedback to prevent such unwarranted delays in the software testing cycle. 

They can separate various methods by creating separate projects using various programming languages or frameworks. It would be best to have an integrated testing environment to access multiple features, plugins, and extensions simultaneously. 

It can help you speed up testing cycle more than ever when coupled with the cloud.

9. Implement Continuous Testing

When testing occurs only once during the cycle, it can become one of the most significant blockages in the software release process. But thanks to continuous testing, we have a clear solution to the problem at hand.

Running automated tests regularly after each change to the code is known as continuous testing. The tests produce more rapid feedback, allowing you to spot faults early and address them more quickly. 

“Continuous testing can shorten the time it takes you to give your developers feedback while enhancing the overall quality of your software throughout the entire development cycle. Hence, it will speed up testing cycle for you”. 

However, to maintain momentum, you must make it a standard practice to frequently deploy more minor code updates. Thus, continuous testing can only be effective in a testing environment that is routinely updated.

10. Maintain Transparency in  Communication

Some of your most valuable resources for ensuring successful and efficient testing are your coworkers. There are always other stakeholders in the software, whether you’re the lone tester on a software team made primarily of developers or are one among many other automation engineers. 

By keeping in touch with these individuals, everyone can stay informed about the status of the software, including what is new, what needs to be tested, what has been tested, and what needs to be fixed.

The developers and testers can connect via a G-meet or Huddle call on Slack to discuss the bugs and where they can make improvements. 

In addition, the best method is to capture a screenshot or a video of the bug during the test cycle. The right collaboration tools can make this process easier.

11. Use Database Calls as much as possible

Most automated tests generate test data using browsers. Direct data creation in the database would save time instead of going through this process. 

The cost and time of database calls are generally reasonable. Reducing the amount of user interface interaction speeds up the test and increases its accuracy. When you approach it correctly, it can ease your life.

This approach might not be as helpful if the project involves complex database interactions. When performing database testing, including Oracle testing, you must exercise caution. 

12. Develop an Effective Cross-Browser Testing Strategy

Cross-browser testing determines whether the software functions correctly on various web browsers, screens, and mobile apps. It has become essential for every developer as new devices and models enter the market. 

Cloud-based cross-browser testing has many benefits, and efficient testing solutions result in an exceptional user experience. Cross-browser testing covers a lot of ground. You receive hundreds of browser and OS combinations that you must include in your test script, in addition to many new devices and monthly browser updates. 

Using various cross-browser testing tools, you can reduce expenses, improve the speed and performance of your products, and guarantee that testing environments remain scalable and dynamic. 

To ensure the devices and browsers you will test on, you should develop a proper cross-browser testing strategy beforehand.

13. Ensure Your Developers are Automating Unit Tests

Unit testing is meant for testing for small independent pieces of functionality and is a crucial step in every release cycle.

Each time a new build is released, it is run to ensure the most recent changes are secure and functional. If done correctly, there may be fewer bugs for the QA team to report in that area. 

Because manually isolating units would be too expensive, time-consuming, and complex, unit tests are typically automated. 

14. Stay Organized with Best Test Automation Practices

A software test engineer must have the ability to follow best practices in test automation and understand appropriate testing methodologies in general. 

For use and reference in the future, all data and automation reports must be maintained accurately. The cycle can be repeated more quickly if the test cases can be run again.

15. Adopt a Modular Approach

You can build a comprehensive test suite of manual and automated tests using a modular approach to test management, which is relatively simpler to maintain. These suites sometimes make it easier for the engineer to analyze failure when defects are found. 

The modular tests can also be reused, saving the quality assurance team a lot of time from having to rewrite the tests. In addition, the strategy produces tests arranged according to function and provides a solid framework for developing automated tests.

16. Look for the Right Parameters

It’s crucial to evaluate your team’s performance using the appropriate metrics. The team will ultimately waste time if it continues concentrating on the wrong set of parameters. To move forward, the testing objectives must be clearly defined.

If the team continues to concentrate on a set of unattainable goals, mapping your test strategy to high-level business objectives can become a real challenge. The test cycle’s parameters must be well-defined, brief, and as per the specifications. If you underestimate or overestimate goals, it can result in significant time loss.

You can start by performing exploratory testing, combining your plan, testing it, and then quickly executing it using multiple simultaneous events. Exploratory testing is very effective as it allows you to account for every significant parameter and speed up testing cycle.

17. Make Use of The Right Tools

Software products called test management tools or systems assist QA teams in organizing and controlling the testing process. Test automation frameworks, CI/CD tools, bug-tracking tools, and other software solutions can all be integrated with such platforms. 

They can design test cases, manage environments, capture requirements, store testing information and results, and create test execution reports. Additionally, they enable data sharing among team members and across teams and provide visibility by monitoring KPIs.

You must choose between a commercial platform and an open-source one because the latter is more expensive but provides more functionality and support. On the other hand, open-source tools are typically a good choice for smaller businesses.

18. Automate Your Regression Tests

When introducing new changes to the app, regression testing is the process you use to ensure that the previous functionality still works flawlessly. 

It ensures that no new bugs are introduced by adding code. Therefore, regulating testing is inevitable whether you make a small or big update in the app.

To ensure that the old code continues to function as intended after a code change, it is essential to ensure that it doesn’t clash with the new code. 

They are frequently repetitive because they are implemented to test functionality. Therefore, automating them can free up manual testers to focus on other tasks.

19. Conduct Code Reviews

When you want to massively cut down on the overall number of coding errors, it’s always a good idea to consider code reviews. You can improve your code reviews by creating and monitoring better test cases to report the code review results to your team. 

It would help if you learned the specifics of the bug’s root cause during the test cycle and regularly analyzed it to determine the direction of refinement. Several tools are reliable for checking for memory leaks.

20. Create a Risk Registry

Project managers know that risk management is essential to enhancing software quality and that risks must be tracked throughout the development lifecycle. A project risk register, also known as a risk log, locates, monitors, and assesses potential risks. 

Your team members should establish a risk registry to track these risks, evaluate them, and assign the proper priority levels for efficient solutions.

21. Use Testing Clouds for Mobile App Testing

Purchasing a device farm is costly and time-consuming. Each month, you must add a new version, and some older ones must be updated. It’s not straightforward to manually test your website using emulators and simulators when you compare emulator vs simulator vs real device. 

Read also: Emulators vs. Real Devices For Test Automation: Which Is Better?

Even if you rely on a simulator like Apple XCode and a mobile emulator like Android SDK, it cannot be easy to test it across various browsers, operating systems, and devices because you have to write the test script, inject it, and run the tests. 

The biggest cons of testing on emulators and simulators include being unable to mimic or simulate a real-time environment, among other issues. On cloud platforms, you can test your websites and apps on real devices, simulating real-world situations like gestures and controls. 

How TestGrid Helps Speed Up Software Release Cycles?

Finding a satisfying balance between quality and speed is fascinating. To set the charm, you must slightly improve your current automation strategy. Utilizing the appropriate cloud-based testing tools makes it simple to accelerate the testing process. 

At TestGrid, we help you achieve that exactly. With the help of intelligent automation and data science insights, organizations can easily collaborate to shorten the software testing cycle. 

By offering a real device cloud library, TestGrid aids in the improvement of your software’s quality. For example, you can automate testing, conduct early testing, shorten developer wait time, integrate with your CI/CD pipeline, and more. 

So, request a demo today and find a seamless solution to speed up testing cycle while maintaining quality!