What is the strategy for halting #Erling Haaland’s unstoppable goal-scoring spree? He has been an unstoppable force!

In his debut season, the exceptional Norwegian striker has scored an incredible 48 goals in 41 matches. In the Premier League, he is only a couple of goals away from breaking previous records.

With Haaland’s remarkable ability to convert strikes into goals during the Champion’s League playoffs, rival team managers are on a prolonged hunt for a solution. While Haaland continues to amass more Easter eggs, his opponents must find ways to impede the ascent of the 22-year- old Manchester City sensation.

It is a relief that a plan has finally surfaced, and it is strikingly like what our developers at Magic FinServ have been implementing for a while now to prevent a bug from unleashing its destructive potential. In an interview with a TV show, Brantford defender, Ben Mee, elaborated on a strategy to confront Haaland on the field. The strategy entails several steps:

1. “Man-mark” Haaland. Train all your guns on him. Predict all his moves including his goal scoring and penalty taking tendencies, etc.
2. Sandwich him or crowd him out of the game which simply means pushing him out of the picture or breaking the link between him and his teammates.
3. Withold midfielders, who are more important than the star striker as their creative passes enable Haaland to make the golden strike.
4. Bee Mee openly admitted that Brentwood’s strategy was all about stopping Kevin De Bruyne’s link play with him, and that’s why Brentwood was one of the few teams that could keep the Norwegian star striker from going on a rampage.

Whether it is Haaland or bugs, it is necessary to contain them before they go on a destructive spree and cause harm (to opposing teams) or applications. As with Haaland, developers have some strategies for stopping bugs which are as under:

Tackling bugs is not an easy task

When it comes to the issue of bugs, there is unanimous agreement that developers must eradicate them to prevent additional harm. This involves identifying and isolating the bugs, carrying out comprehensive testing to eliminate them, and thoroughly checking the environment and APIs, whether in the cloud or on-premises, where significant threats may exist. Magic FinServ’s approach is akin to Ben Mee’s strategy. Our QA and testing teams ensure that the bugs are promptly addressed to prevent their proliferation.

Crowding out the Bugs with Automation and Integrated DevOps practices

We crowd out the bugs using an extensive mix of automation, regression testing, and carrying out tests of the software in different environments to ensure that the performance is as desired irrespective of the kind of operating systems, APIs, browsers, and hardware configurations. To fully test an application and ensure optimal performance, developers rely on different types of testing – functional testing, usability testing, and performance testing.

The kinds of tests we do:

• Magic FinServ offers test automation/tool expert services, test automation frame and design services, and business and domain assurance testing services for data verification.
• We provide non-functional testing such as Data warehouse testing and ETL services along with security assessment and security testing services. If the data is on the cloud, then cloud-based test design and execution services
• Additionally, we offer functional testing for QA performance engineering optimization, QA agile transformation services along with QA audit and process improvement services.

The Benefits of Integrated DevOps and Lifecycle Automation for Testing Approach

At Magic FinServ, an integrated DevOps approach and automated testing are utilized for quality assurance, in contrast to a manual approach where testing is conducted at the end of the development lifecycle due to business and operational constraints, leaving only time for functional tests.

Fewer incidences of bugs slipping in: Compared to the manual approach, where the incidences of bugs slipping in or flaws existing are high, – Magic FinServ’s approach to QA and testing is more effective as it relies more on technology and less on human intervention and hence is quick and proactive (anticipating bugs and flaws is easier).

High visibility and less dependence on key people: In the manual approach the same set of people are required to carry out key tests increasing the dependability on them.

We follow the Agile and DevOps practices which promote high visibility and limit dependency on key people. The use of automation also eliminates the need for synchronization with downstream systems, ensuring that teams can continuously test using shift-left/shift-right methodologies to quickly identify and eliminate potential threats, resulting in a richer user experience.

Automated testing and an integrated approach minimize defects to less than 5% and the time taken to fix an issue and provide the QAs with a new build is less than a day. As the incidences of false positives are minimized with automation, less time is spent weeding out the exceptions.

Conclusion

Erling Haaland’s presence on the field leads to one-sided matches but watching him play is a delightful experience. We hope Ben Mee’s evaluation will bring about more excitement and breathtaking goals during the upcoming May 2023 semi-final match between Manchester City and Real Madrid, and the Champions League final in June 2023. If you have any inquiries regarding bug deactivation and ensuring optimal user experience, please contact us at mail@magicfinserv.com in the meantime.

In the competitive world that we are living in today, organizations set high expectations to deliver more in quality assurance despite a decline in budgets and shorter timelines and due to this, many firms struggle to manage the cost of innovation and business demands in parallel.

Quality assurance is a critical area where neither speed nor quality of an expected behavior can be compromised as this leads to adverse business impact. Furthermore, most software tests appear to reside in an isolated manner making integration, collaboration and automation challenging. Thus, companies need innovative testing, solutions, and strategies to balance Speed, Cost, and quality.

This blog explains some cost saving business strategies that enable quality assurance/testing companies to improve ability within their teams while assuring high-quality output with less testing.

Testing Strategies and Proposed solutions – Entrust cross functional teams

What is a Cross-Functional Team?

Cross-functional teams are groups consisting of people from different functional/technical areas of the company – for example, PM, BA, DEV, QA, DBAs, RELEASE Engineers, etc. They can be working groups, where each member belongs to their functional team as well as the cross-functional team, or they can be the primary structure of your organization.

When teams of varied talent ally together, innovation, collaboration, and learning magnify. Cross-functional synergy helps advance relationships amongst teams who otherwise would have never crossed paths, creating a collaborative culture that benefits all levels of an organization and work towards a common goal.

Cross-functional Teams – Benefits

• Heightened innovation in process and product
  • When companies operate in isolation, it becomes very painful to identify and implement improvements across the value stream. Cross-functional teams can work to identify best practices for different processes, then cross-train other cross-functional groups to promote coherence and competence across the organization. Working together to find solutions for common problems, cross-functional teams can find more innovative, more comprehensive solutions than each functional group could develop on its own.
• Curtain cycle times
  • Cross-functional teams help companies identify their inefficiencies, while improving their ability to find solutions that work. In this way, using cross functional teams can knock off cycle times for any deep-rooted painful area.
• Client first
  • Cross functional teams help organizations put their client first, by inspiring effective communication across teams.
• Gain a superior wisdom
  • Towards delivering a draught of creative ideas, cross-functional association is a viable choice. Creativity is a group process. When the leaders, like Project Manager (PM), put together people who are experts in different subjects, each with niche and unique skills sets, it will bring out some new viewpoint. This method of collaboration will bring new insights to the team to bring up creative solutions and enhance development. With each team member bringing their skills and knowledge to the table, the work will progress and thrive, bringing solutions very fast.

Smart Automation – Automating the right set of tests

• Delivering QA services at the right time has become critical for businesses. Rapidly changing global business environments need special focus for the testing teams to provide testing at speed with minimal cost. Therefore, automating the right set of tests, particularly business scenarios and frequently used workflows by users will enhance quality with less cost.
• QA teams should focus more on integrating various components that may change continuously and need to be regressed frequently.
• Have a robust framework to curtail business risk. We have seen that the cost to fix defects discovered in beta version or in production can be many times the cost to fix them earlier. Failures in production can leave users sitting idle resulting in lost productivity, or they may result in lost revenue, lost customers, and compliance liabilities.

Use End-User’s Mindset while Testing

The major value of a QA is to test the applications to improve customer experience and provide quality. Also, the assurance process tends to verify if all the rules and regulations are met.

But the major question here comes to all the QA organizations, does the QA process truly pay for its duty? We all must think about bringing additional business values beyond our regular testing.

We all know that the business users are the only ones who will be able to define quality, as they are the only ones who know about the expectation and need. And sometimes even business users have a tough time knowing what it is that they want or need.

So, QAs must evaluate products by undertaking real customer journeys across the system and test frequently used customer workflows in shorter testing window. By impersonating real user scenarios such testers identify a higher number of critical production bugs.

So as a QA, get involved in customer-facing activities: calls, visits, and support interactions. Take notes. Try to take part in these meetings.

Conclusion

More focus on quality and less on testing does not mean that testing will not be done or work in testing is going to disappear. What it does mean is that the focus will be changed from finding bugs to enabling the achievement of quality products while supporting the company’s goals and values.

QA teams are struggling to maintain the balance between Time to Market and First Time Right. Time windows for QA are shrinking as release cycles become more frequent and On Demand. The move towards Digital Transformation is making this even more acute. Enter Risk-Based Testing.

The idea of risk-based testing is to focus on testing and spend more time on critical functions. By combining the focused process with metrics, it is possible to manage the test process by intelligent assessment and to communicate the expected consequences of decisions taken. Most projects go through extreme pressure and tight timescales coupled with a risky project foundation. With all these limitations, there’s simply no room for settlement on quality and stability in today’s challenging world, especially in the case of highly critical applications. So, instead of doing more with less and risking late projects, increased costs, or low quality, we need to find ways to achieve better with less. The focus of testing must be placed on aspects of the software that matter most to reduce the risk of failure as well as ensure the quality and stability of the business applications. This can be achieved by risk-based testing. The pressure to deliver may override the pressure to get it right. As a result, the testers of modern systems face many challenges. They are required to-

1. Calculate software product risks. Identify and calculate, through consultation, the major product risks of concern and propose tests to address those risks.
2. Plan and judge the overall test effort. Judge, based on the nature and scope of the proposed tests and experience, how expensive and time-consuming the testing will be.
3. Obtain consensus on the amount of testing. Achieve, through consensus, the right coverage, balance, and emphasis on testing.
4. Supply information for a risk-based decision on release. Perhaps the most important task of all is to provide information as the major deliverable of all testing.

The Association of Testing and Risk

There are three types of software risk:

1. Product risk– A product risk is a chance that the product fails in relation to the expected outcome. These types of risks are related to the product definition, the product complexity, the lack of stability of requirements, and the potential defect-proneness of the concerned technology that can fail meeting requirements. Product risk is indeed the major part of concern of the tester.
2. Process risk– process risk is the potential loss resulting from an improper execution of processes and procedures in conducting a Financial Institution’s day-to-day operations. These risks relate primarily to the internal aspects of the project including- its planning and scrutinizing. Generally, risks in this area involve the testers underestimating the complexity of the project and therefore not putting in the effort or expertise needed. The project’s internal management including efficient planning, controlling, and progress monitoring is the project management concern.
3. Project risk– A project risk is an uncertain event that may or may not occur during a project. Contrary to our everyday idea of what “risk” means, a project risk could have either a negative or a positive effect on progress towards project objectives Such types of risk are related to the context of the concerned project as a whole.

The purpose of structured test methodologies tailored to the development activities in risk-based testing is to reduce risk by detecting faults in project deliverables as early as possible. Finding faults early, rather than late, in a project reduces the reworking necessary, costs, and amount of time lost.

Risk-based Testing Strategy

Risk-based testing – Objectives

• To issue relevant evidence showing that all the business advantages required from the systems can be achieved.
• To give relevant data about the potential risks involved in the release (as well as use) of the concerned system undergoing the test.
• To find defects in the software products (software as well as documentation) to make necessary corrections.
• To highlight and build the impression that the stated (as well as unstated) needs have been successfully met.

Risk-based test process – Stages

Stage 1: Risk Identification

Risk Identification is the activity that examines each element of the program to identify associated root causes that can cause These are derived from existing checklists of failure modes (most commonly) and generic risk lists that can be used to seed the discussions in a risk workshop. Developers, users, technical support staff, and testers are probably best placed to generate the initial list of failure modes. The tester should compile the inventory of risks from practitioners and input schedule the risk workshop, and copy the risk inventory to the attendees. Ensuring that adequate and timely risk identification is performed is the responsibility of the test manager or product owner is the first participant in the project.

Stage 2: Risk Analysis

Define levels of uncertainty. Once you have identified the potential sources of risk, the next step is to understand how much uncertainty surrounds each one. At this stage, the risk workshop is convened. This should involve application architecture from the business, development, technical support, and testing communities. The workshop should involve some more senior managers who can see the bigger picture. Ideally, the project manager, development manager, and business manager should be present.

Stage 3: Risk Response

The risk response planning involves determining ways to reduce or eliminate any threats to the project, and also the opportunities to increase their impact. When the candidate risks have been agreed on and the workshop is over, the tester takes each risk in turn and considers whether it is testable. If possible, the tester then specifies a test activity or technique that should meet the test objective. Typical techniques include requirements or design reviews, inspections or static analysis of code or components, or integration, system, or acceptance tests.

Stage 4: Test Scoping

A test scope shows the software testing teams the exact paths they need to cover while performing their application testing operations Scoping the test process is the review activity that requires the involvement of all stakeholders. At this point, the major decisions about what is in and out of scope for testing are made; it is, therefore, essential that the staff in the meeting have the authority to make these decisions on behalf of the business, the project management, and technical support.

Stage 5: Test Process

The process of evaluating a product by learning about it through experiencing, exploring, and experimenting, includes to some degree: questioning, study, modeling, observation, inference, etc. At this point, the scope of the testing has been agreed on, with test objectives, responsibilities, and stages in the overall project plan decided. It is now possible to compile the test objectives, assumptions, dependencies, and estimates for each test stage and publish a definition for each stage in the test process.

Conclusion

When done effectively, risk-based assessment and testing can quickly deliver important outcomes for an organization. Because skilled specialists assess risk at each stage of delivery, the quality of deliverables starts with the requirements.

Know how Magic FinServ can help you or reach out to us at mail@magicfinserv.com.