How can Testers and Developers cooperate better?

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Software development is a process that requires ongoing communication, no two ways about it. In order for the project to go smoothly, it’s crucial for team members to cooperate successfully. We can say that good cooperation equals good communication and this can be achieved much more efficiently with a test management app such as QAlity Plus – Test Management for Jira. When each team member has access to a tool like that, it makes the whole process much more transparent, as everyone can then easily catch up with the project’s latest developments. As a result, it helps to integrate the testing and engineering process. 

There are a few QAlity’s features that can especially help testers and developers in their cooperation. 

Testing software as a communication tool

In QAlity, you can link stories to tests or create tests directly under a task. This allows you to keep everything in one place and it gives the whole team clarity on what’s been going on. It facilitates trouble-free cooperation, that’s why it’s so crucial for the test management tool to be easily accessible for team members.

Imagine there’s regression testing being done using dedicated software. As a developer, when you want to find out about e.g. statuses of test cases, you don’t need to bombard testers with messages like ‘hey how is X going’, you don’t have to wade through excel spreadsheets – all you need to do is just open the test cycle overview and you will immediately get all the information you need.  

Execution history 

Think about how often it happens that the tester is absent at work and the developer is trying to find out at which stage the tests are. With QAlity, all he or she needs to do is open execution history to catch up with the work that has been done so far. Execution history will contain links to tests that have been carried out recently, the developer will also be able to see the current status of tests. If they report a new bug, a list of which execution succeeded or failed in the past will be produced automatically. Moreover, there will be a link that will take them directly to the test execution, so they will be able to see and tag where exactly the bug is coming from.   

Dashboard

Dashboard can be a useful source of information for the whole team. It shows tests and test cycles that have recently been carried out. There is no need to send e-mails and/or messages in order to inform others of the current status of the tests. Each team member can access the dashboard whenever they want, look at it, and find out what’s been happening lately. They can also click on a test case and immediately see details of it. 

Test cycles overview  

It shows all tests that need to be performed. There’s an option to open the cycle’s overview which will give us more information such as the percentage of tests that passed or failed as well as tests that are blocked or in progress. Moreover, you can filter test cycles based on the version of the application.   

Reports

Traceability reports are another feature offered by QAlity that can facilitate smoother cooperation. For example, you might want to see which cases are currently active. In order to find out, you don’t need to message anyone and wait for their response, you can just filter your report by active test cases. Then, only test cases without resolution will be shown. With reports, you can also gain insight into what the most problematic issues are, what the percentage of solved bugs is, or how many bugs have been reported in total. They will give you a general overview of how the tests have been going over a certain period of time which makes them a great tool for drawing conclusions. From a traceability report, you can go straight to a Jira issue and see all its details such as how much time was spent on it and what has already been done. You can also add comments which are a great communication tool – everyone involved in the project will be notified and see them, so again, there’s no need to use e-mail or slack and risk that your message will be omitted by someone. 

Traceability reports can be useful for drawing more general conclusions. You might find out what the most problematic issues were. They can also serve as a summary of your testing activity as the tester and developer can open the report and immediately see all the information about test cases, their executions, and bugs reported. This will give you insight into how many times the test has been carried out recently. Additionally, you will know how many errors were then discovered and the percentage of those that have already been fixed. That kind of summary will help you determine which part of the product requires more attention.

Summary

Although software development is not always plain sailing, there are things that can be done in order to make things go more smoothly. Using dedicated software that all team has access to is definitely one of them as it facilitates both better cooperation and communication. With QAlity Plus – Test Management for Jira, testers and developers can comfortably navigate through the whole testing process and stay up to date with its progress (or lack thereof). Moreover, they can draw conclusions on how it could potentially be improved, all without the need to exchange any additional messages.