Common Challenges Faced in Quality Assurance Testing and How to Solve Them

If anyone tries to argue that quality assurance testing is easy, then it’s likely they’ve never tried it before. Quality assurance testing is an essential component when developing and publishing a website or mobile application. Unfortunately, many issues can arise during this process, even when working with a veteran crew. Understanding these issues ahead of time and knowing what to do when they pop up can help ensure that your QA team stays on target.

Last-Minute Changes to the Project

You’re putting the final touches on your app and website, only for someone to make some last-minute adjustments. As frustrating as this can be, it’s unfortunately a common occurrence in the quality assurance industry.

The Solution

Ideally, you’ll want to stick to your plan and not making last-minute changes to your project. But in the real world, we understand why this won’t always be possible. If a last-minute change has to be made, the best way to handle it is to have your testers run as many tests as possible within the time remaining. It is not a perfect solution, and you may not be able to run all the tests you want to, but that is the risk of making last-minute changes.

Unstable Environment

Unstable environment setup issues are a reality of the quality assurance testing process. Sometimes, the server gets overloaded, and it needs to be restarted many times, among other issues.

The Solution

In these situations, it’s best to escalate the issue to the senior testers in your team and ensure that your environment is ready for testing beforehand.

Poor Collaboration Between Testers and Developers

A professional team needs to collaborate. Unfortunately, there are many times when there’s a disconnect between the testers and the developers. Even worse, some professional tensions may arise between your testers and developers because of this disconnect.

The Solution

Find ways to increase communication and efficiency between your two teams. This could be as simple as installing a messaging system for them to communicate or to invest in a DevOps strategy.

Tests Fail Under Real World Conditions

Proper testing procedure has your app or website be tested under real world conditions. Unfortunately, there are times where the software does not function as expected under these conditions. Why might this happen? Because testing on emulators and simulators can only mimic real-world conditions—they are not the real thing. So, it’s entirely possible that your software passes the test on these emulators and simulators but not under real user conditions.

The Solution

It is always best to test on your software on real devices and browsers, not just on emulators or simulators. This can ensure you’re testing real user conditions, like battery issues, push notifications, slow network conditions, and more.

Inadequate information on user journeys

A tester creates test cases based on possible user journeys. However, in order to develop these user journeys, you need accurate and in-depth information on the user. This information comes from the product owners, but if the product owners do not have clarity on user journeys, then they cannot communicate the proper information to the QA team.

The Solution

Ideally, you’ll want to find ways in the future to ensure that the user journeys are accurate and completely filled out. However, what do you do in the meantime? In these situations, testers can start thinking about high-level scenarios a user would likely face when using their software. Put yourself in the user shoes and consider what they might be dealing with on a daily basis with your software.

While issues can always pop up with quality assurance testing, it’s important to have a veteran team beside you to help you deal with them properly. At Beta Breakers, we have over 30 years of experience with quality assurance testing under our belt. Contact us today to learn more.