5 Ways to Revolutionize your QA

I can’t remember where I originally found this post and the corresponding eBook but the eBook is definitely worth taking a look at. Here is the former uTest blog post, now Applause blog post.

The 5 ways or insights are:

1. There are two types of code and they require different types of testing
2. Take your testing down a level from features to capabilities
3. Take your testing up a level from test cases to techniques
4. Improving development is your top priority
5. Testing without innovation is a great way to lose talent

In point 2, James Whittaker also talks about a planning and analysis tool he used at Microsoft called a CFC or Component – Feature – Capability analysis. This allowed them to take testing down from features to capabilities.

The purpose is to understand the testable capabilities of a feature and to identify important interfaces where features interact with each other and external components. Once these are understood, then testing becomes the task of selecting environment and input variations that cover the primary cases.

While this tool was designed for testing desktop software I’m inclined to think it would work well for testing web applications. Essentially with the CFC you are mapping out the individual components / features in the web application in a branching form that closely resembles a mind map. Matter of fact a mind map might be better! =)