Manual software testing is a necessity, and an unavoidable part of the software product development process. How much testing you do manually, as compared to using test automation, can make the difference between a project’s success and failure. We will discuss test automation in more detail in a later chapter, but the top five pitfalls of manual software testing illuminate areas where improvements can be made. The pitfalls are listed and described below.
1. Manual testing is slow and costly. Because it is very labor-intensive, it takes a long time to complete tests. To try to accelerate testing, you may increase the headcount of the test organization. This increases the labor as well as the communication costs.
2. Manual tests don’t scale well. As the complexity of the software increases, the complexity of the testing problem grows exponentially. If tests are detailed and must be performed manually, performing them can take quite a bit of time and effort. This leads to an increase in the total time devoted to testing as well as the total cost of testing. Even with these increases in the time and cost, the test coverage goes down as the complexity goes up because of the exponential growth rate.
3. Manual testing is not consistent or repeatable. Variations in how the tests are performed are inevitable, for various reasons. One tester may approach and perform a certain test differently from another, resulting in different results on the same test, because the tests are not being performed identically. As another example, if there are differences in the location a mouse is pointed when its button is clicked, or how fast operations are performed, these could potentially produce different results.
4. Lack of training is a common problem, although not unique to manual software testing. The staff should be well-trained in the different phases of software testing:
– Test design
– Test execution
– Test result evaluation
5. Testing is difficult to manage. There are more unknowns and greater uncertainty in testing than in code development. Modern software development practices are well-structured, but if you don’t have sufficient structure in testing, it will be difficult to manage. Consider a case in which the development phase of a project schedule slips. Since manual software testing takes more time, more resources, and is costly, that schedule slip can be difficult to manage. A delay in getting the software to the test team on schedule can result in significant wasted resources. Manual testing, as well as badly designed automated testing, are also not agile. Therefore, changes in test focus or product requirements make these efforts even more difficult to manage.
1. Manual testing is slow and costly. Because it is very labor-intensive, it takes a long time to complete tests. To try to accelerate testing, you may increase the headcount of the test organization. This increases the labor as well as the communication costs.
2. Manual tests don’t scale well. As the complexity of the software increases, the complexity of the testing problem grows exponentially. If tests are detailed and must be performed manually, performing them can take quite a bit of time and effort. This leads to an increase in the total time devoted to testing as well as the total cost of testing. Even with these increases in the time and cost, the test coverage goes down as the complexity goes up because of the exponential growth rate.
3. Manual testing is not consistent or repeatable. Variations in how the tests are performed are inevitable, for various reasons. One tester may approach and perform a certain test differently from another, resulting in different results on the same test, because the tests are not being performed identically. As another example, if there are differences in the location a mouse is pointed when its button is clicked, or how fast operations are performed, these could potentially produce different results.
4. Lack of training is a common problem, although not unique to manual software testing. The staff should be well-trained in the different phases of software testing:
– Test design
– Test execution
– Test result evaluation
5. Testing is difficult to manage. There are more unknowns and greater uncertainty in testing than in code development. Modern software development practices are well-structured, but if you don’t have sufficient structure in testing, it will be difficult to manage. Consider a case in which the development phase of a project schedule slips. Since manual software testing takes more time, more resources, and is costly, that schedule slip can be difficult to manage. A delay in getting the software to the test team on schedule can result in significant wasted resources. Manual testing, as well as badly designed automated testing, are also not agile. Therefore, changes in test focus or product requirements make these efforts even more difficult to manage.
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