Top 7 Ways to Communicate Software Testing Insights Better
Tags: softwaretesting, agile, devops, testautomation
Published: 2020-04-18 06:08:07

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” –  a famous quote by Hellen Keller is very much valid even in current times, especially in the context of teamwork.

The relationship between any two people is considered good when communication between them is healthy. And on the same lines, a team is able to work ‘together’ better when their communication is strong.

The testers in a software development team will be understood better if they are able to convey the software testing information and insights properly. In this article, Let's discuss how to improve communication in a team from the perspective of testers. 

Below are 7 ways that testers can communicate software testing insights better:


<p><strong>1. Establishing Channels For Cross-Functional Communication</strong></p>

Communication in a small team is usually not a challenge because one-on-one interaction is easy and simple. But as the size of an organization grows, the communication channels become complex in nature. Sometimes team members lack the know-how of sharing their knowledge with the right people and the communication gap widens.

This may lead to multiple people working on the same thing at the same time, which could also lead to a loss in productivity and ultimately revenue. 

The solution is to establish proper channels for collaboration. A short meeting daily to plan the work and the practice of sharing work status with everyone proves helpful in avoiding such situations. 

One communication tool that all the team members use to communicate with each other is also useful. Slack and JIRA are some tools that companies use and have proved to be valuable.

<p><strong>2. Well-defined Reports</strong></p>

Information related tasks and daily status is one aspect of communication. Another aspect is reports. Testers do many big tasks that can only be understood if they are followed up with well-defined reports. Test execution reports for example.

Testers execute a high number of test cases, for multiple features and for multiple releases. Sending reports, to concerned people, for each of these according to the timeline and goal of testing will make the testing process transparent for the team. Other team members can also pitch in their suggestions to improve the processes.

Typically, The test execution reports should include the objective of testing, testing scope, test results metrics, types of testing performed, test environment & tools, and conclusion.

<p><strong>3. Bug Reporting</strong></p>

Bugs are something that testers deal with almost daily. Whenever a bug is encountered, it should be reported for timely action.  The purpose of the report is to convey to the developers and the management the bug in short in the title. The test steps are to provide the reproduction steps if needed. 

Bug reports should be constructed keeping in mind that the Developer or the Manager does not need to consult the tester to understand the bug or to furnish any other details again.

An ideal bug report will include details of when it appeared and why.

For intermittent occurrences, the pattern of which it occurs, the different product versions, environment name, etc. It is a good practice to record a possible fix for the error if known, include screenshots, videos, and error logs where possible.

<p><strong>4. Removing Communication Barriers</strong></p>

If organizations really want the information to flow freely, it has to be easy, not just for the members who are working on a computer, but for those as well who are working remotely.

By using third-party integrations such as Slack and Jira, all the members of different teams can share information from all corners of your organization and all across the world in an instant.

<p><strong>5. Strengthen Important Messages</strong></p>

When a team grows beyond twenty members, the collaboration between the members decreases significantly, especially in teams that are in different departments, locations, and roles.

This says that strengthening the goal of working together can improve team communication and collaboration to a great extent.

It is important for the enterprise software teams having people in different departments, roles and regions to reinforce important messages with multiple teams. This could mean that the team managers highlight the important messages for the team or such messages are sent with an important tag.

<p><strong>6. Training of Developers and Testers</strong></p>

Developers and testers should learn from each other. Developers should help testers understand the code base and the testers should help the developers understand the test suite and the logic behind the test techniques used or followed.

The training will help both the developers and testers to easily collaborate and share important software testing information and insights related to the testing as well as development more often.

Teams which are using Agile and DevOps workflows should use CI (Continuous Integration) tools such as Jenkins. 

<p><strong>7. Effective Integration with CI/CD</strong></p>

 The CI/CD pipeline should be implemented in such a way that if a test fails, the report should be sent only to the concerned developers to avoid the bombardment of emails to those member’s inboxes who are not concerned with it. Otherwise, receiving many emails related to CI/CD status multiple times a day might compel people to ignore the mails.

Testsigma is an automated testing tool that is built after considering all above-mentioned strategies for improving communication between team members. Let’s see how:

<ul class="list_style_disc"><li> It generates custom reports with text logs, video recordings, screenshots that can be shared with different members of the team working at different levels according to the information they need.</li><br><br>

<li>It has a “Report Bug” feature which helps the testers in drilling down the test results to get more information for the root cause of the failure and file a bug into several integrated bug platforms such as JIRA.</li><br><br>

<li>It allows its users to share test results via email, manually or automatically.</li><br><br>

 <li>It hosts all<a href="https://testsigma.com/reports"> test execution reports</a> on the cloud. It helps the users to view and analyse the test results for each test environment from anywhere, anytime so you can better identify what areas need focus and determine the reach of your test coverage.</li><br><br>

<li>It ensures that the application runs on every OS, device and browser combination that is supported.</li><br><br>

<li>It also allows its users to share the software testing insights through the communication tool Slack. Slack is an amazing communication tool which is becoming highly popular among companies of all sizes. Screenshot of an issue, text and insights in other forms can be easily shared via Slack.</li><br><br>

<li>It has a test lab replete with the latest devices and browsers to support cross-browser and cross-device testing. Not only this, but schedulers can also be used to schedule test plan runs.</li><br><br>

<li>It is built to address the automated cross-browser testing requirements and allows for easy sharing and integration of actionable feedback instantly with the team. This ensures an uninterrupted user experience across all the browsers.</li></ul>

Current IT industry is becoming more and more complex with teams being geographically dispersed, organizations moving to the cloud and teams opting for emerging methodologies such as Agile and DevOps. This ecosystem makes it more difficult to communicate and evaluate the software testing insights from the testing activities.

With powerful reporting and analytics tools, it helps organize and share data easily and effectively. It allows the testers, stakeholders, and decision-makers to remain updated regarding the progress and results at any given moment.