November 2019 - Testbytes Software

What is Remote Usability Testing? Why is it Crucial?

Posted on November 29, 2019 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

Remote usability testing has opened a new horizon for software testing. Imagine an unknown user testing your website who has no pre-occupied thoughts about you and your business sounds effective, isn’t it? Let’s dig deep into the process.

What is Remote Usability Testing?
Why is it needed?
When to Perform Remote User Testing?
Moderated Remote User Testing
Benefits of Moderated Remote User Testing
What is UN-Moderated Remote User Testing?
How to Run a Remote Usability Testing?

What is Remote Usability Testing?

Remote Usability Testing is a technological process that allows you to perform research of the participants, with the help of different tools and virtual vendor services of Remote Usability. This procedure plays a vital role in decision making and for the massive success of your product.
You can observe and grab the answers from real-life users by following specific steps:

Display your service or product in front of the participants
Ask them to complete different tasks
Carefully observe the participants behavior throughout the journey of test
Interact and communicate with them while they are completing the analysis

Why is it needed?

It is a unique set of test procedures that will enhance your ability to understand how real-life customers are reacting to your service or product. You can learn and improve their products exclusively for targeted precious customers.

It is a specific job to run remote user tests frequently for your valuable website. Most of the websites will be having their precious users scattered across the globe and therefore persuading the customers to do the remote user testing by visiting them personally could be a challenging task.

There are methods available to conduct the same test through well qualified online tools. It might take just 20 to 30 minutes that involves a few simple tasks. Since the users need not worry about traveling, but merely participate in the test from their home or office within their comfort zone, it is likely that they agree without much concern.

The remote user testing can be “moderated” or “un-moderated” according to the methods implemented to complete the tasks.

When to Perform Remote User Testing?

Certain factors make it inevitable to consider remote user testing. Let us analyze a few conditions that lead us to this conclusion:

1)  There might arise issues in managing the schedules which in turn will hinder the in-person testing, because of the timelines.
2) The targeted participants are usually dispersed geographically, which makes traveling difficult and least preferable.
3)   The participants find it difficult to use a particular working device as per the software requirements.
4)   Multiple tests can be conducted potentially.
5)   The participants gave the flexibility to use their equipment or software essentially.
Moderated Remote User Testing

In Moderate Remote User Testing, Participants are carefully observed by interacting with them while they are completing the test and performing the given tasks. Moderate Resting could be considered as the ultimate choice for completing a structured complex set of tasks, where more interrogation and interaction will highly benefit the procedure. Following the guidance, steps need to be considered while conducting a moderate Remote User Testing

First, you should define the Remote User test and then decide the set of tasks that you will assign to customers to complete and also any other question as a follow-up process.
Schedule properly and inform the timings of the test sessions.
You need to understand the participant’s capability and provide enough space and time during the test sessions so that they can resolve the technology issues correctly without many complications.

Moderated Remote User Testing will allow you to assign the performance of multiple tasks based on the interview. You can ask the participants to follow up questions. Ensure that every person has completed the test. Check and analyze according to the plan.

According to the methodology or technology used, you can efficiently analyze certain types of metrics including time on task, completion rate of the task, the time is taken to complete the task, time taken for finishing a single web page, opinion or satisfaction rankings, and pathway covered by the clickstream.

Benefits of Moderated Remote User Testing
Moderated Remote User Testing is advanced and the best option with two significant advantages.

The first benefit that both the moderators and participants will enjoy during the moderated Remote user Testing is the ability to interact with the customers participating in the test. Moderators can ask to follow up questions regarding the comments etc.
The second benefit is the flexibility and complete control that accompanies the moderated Remote user testing. By this method, the moderators are provided control of the whole test session, and they can efficiently channelize and guide the participant, in case they are getting off track. You can eliminate or shift tasks according to the requirements.

What is UN-Moderated Remote User Testing?

The researchers and moderators automate their study using a particular software program. The participants will be attending the test by performing a list of pre-determined tasks. The screen and the voice will be recorded, and they will complete the task by thinking out loud. Participants are the actual decision-makers regarding place and time. A virtual tool will be installed and used for participating, recording the test session and provide honest feedback.

Once the participants complete the tasks, the researchers will be receiving the recorded video results of the participants for review. Un-moderated Remote User Testing does not allow the researcher to communicate in real with the participants during the test. But the researchers can send follow up questions or just interact with the participants, after viewing the recorded test session.

How to Run a Remote Usability Testing?

If you are the moderator, it is essential that you define the Remote User test and decide the list and order of the tasks you plan to ask the participants to perform.
The next step is to determine the list of participants. Most of the un-moderated testing software tools will allow the moderators to recruit or intercept users from the own list of tool developers participants or select them from your Official website.
Prepare and determine the recording capability of the particular screen sharing service and keep it working for the test.
Choose the perfect contestants who are your targeted customers.
Include research questions with rich quality and analyze the feedback.
In case the participants have some visual defects or not familiar with the screen sharing services then make sure they are assisted by a person with knowledge of screen sharing tools.
Most of the un-moderated testing software tools will generate test results automatically for your analysis.

Conclusion

Remote User Testing is a wonderful combination of comfort and technology, which allows you to conduct the test for huge participants at much reasonable price rates. Every methodology of user research software has unique advantages and limitations. Therefore it is crucial that you analyze the different Remote User Testing tools and choose the one which is perfect for your research.

Yes! Experienced tester helps But User testing is a combined process

Posted on November 28, 2019 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

1. User-based testing/UAT is gaining momentum at present. Do you think user-based testing is necessary or relying on experienced testers like you is the safest option?

– UAT has always been crucial and the most important activity in a testing lifecycle. The most astounding benefit of UAT is that apart from measuring performance it can be also used to monitor the human interaction level or the engagement level of an app. Talking about users, in a usual case, the app will be used by many people ranging from technical experts to people who don’t have an idea about how an app works. UAT can be used as a validation tool to make sure that an app has met its requirement specification and can be easily used any kind of users
Answering the second part, yes! “Experience” helps a lot in UAT. To be precise, you need experienced testers to carry out user testing smoothly. So it’s a combined process where user and the tester are equally important.

2. Security threats are increasing day by day Unfortunately app development is not focusing that much on security. On the other hand, even OS is releasing security patches as a safety precaution. Do you think app development companies should give much more focus on security?

Users are the king and it is important to ensure that their data is secure in your app database. If you fail to safeguard user’s precious data, there is a high chance that it can be stolen or manipulated, injected with a virus or cloned to create a doppelganger of your app. ultimately you may end up wasting all your resources spent in development and end up ruining your business reputation. Thus app development companies should give more focus on security

3. Apps are now being deployed globally aiming at the market all over the world.

Owing to the same do you think crowdsource testing should be put to practice more or will it gain momentum in the future?

-True. We can also say that this is a current trend and future prospect of the mobile app market deploying globally for the world’s customers. Having already seen a huge growth in the crowdsourcing sector, it’s clear that the future holds even bigger and better possibilities for crowd testers.

4. When it comes to mobile app compatibility, developers would like to get feedback from testers since testers are more used to various Oss. As a seasoned tester, what advice would you like to give them?

An ideal condition for healthy app development would be
Developers and testers working together, Seamless communication between testers and developers and testers included in the very first of the project itself
When it comes to developing the compatibility factor of a mobile app,
Developers should always rely on testers inputs without hesitation and developers should ask for their feedback as much as possible because
1. Testers spend more time testing entire product so they have an added advantage of knowing the product better
2. Testers deal the app from a customer perspective. So they are in a better position in understanding the fitment of the product and the market

5. Since testers are used to various types of apps in a particular domain, do you think they can give proper advice to app developers regarding what will work and what won’t? If so don’t you think testers also need to perform the competitive analysis?

-Yes, testers can give proper advice to developers regarding what will work and what won’t. Talking about competitive analysis, there is no doubt that testers should perform the task of competitive analysis during their testing activities. The competitive analysis not only gives the amount of knowledge about the similar products in the market but also helps in identifying the strengths & weakness of our product

Software Testing Tutorial For Beginners

Posted on November 26, 2019February 1, 2024 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

We are sure you are here because you want to know what software testing tutorial is all about and how will it take you to the next level of your career. Before we start, software testing methodologies of verifying and validating that all the bugs/faults in a software product are resolved and is fit for use by the end user.
<span data-mce-type="bookmark" style="display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span>
Software testing doesn’t just stop at fixing all the bugs, but building a strategy that can improve the products usability, accuracy and reliability. In this blog, we’ll help you understand the concepts and techniques involved in the process which will certainly help you to decide if this is the right profession you are looking for.

Software testing can be divided into two paces:

Validation
Verification

Validation is referring to various types of pre-specified tasks to ensure it matches with the customers’ requirements. It involves tasks like automated testing, running scripts and checking functional dependencies.
Whereas, Verification refers to checking the tasks that make the product actually run in its real-time. It involves reviewing the test cases, inspections, and documentation

Some key differences are as follows:

S. No	Validation	Verification
1	Does the final product actually meet what was proposed?	Is the product built with respect to the requirements?
2	Automated & Manual Testing	Document reviews, inspections and walk-throughs
3	Execution of application required	Does not require execution of software

Types of Software Testing
If you ever had to visit a training institute or an interview, you certainly must have heard the terms automation and manual testing. Well, that’s nothing but types of testing. So let us classify these two:
Manual Testing:

Manual testing is the process undertaken by a tester himself to check if the systems perform as expected. In other words, the testing is done without using any automated tool or script.
The Manual Tests include a set of test cases defined by the tester and then each case is verified for their respective functions. To do this, the tester has to follow some steps:

Requirement Analysis

To successfully run manual tests, you should first know what the application is all about and what output is expected from its behaviors. For this, you need to analyze its requirements and study it thoroughly. By doing this you will know what you are testing and makes reaching your goal a lot easier.

Writing Test Cases:

A well-written test case allows you to understand and run the tests with ease. It is like a guide that supports you during your testing process. There are many software’s now that allows you to tip down those cases. While you write the tests, make sure you think like an end-user. After-all you are testing it for them.

Regulate the Test Cases

Once you are done writing all test cases, it’s time for executing each one of them. Jot down the “Passed”, “Failed” and “Skipped” tests and leave the rest for the developers to fix.

Logging of Bugs

Once you identify the state of the bugs, make sure you follow a proper medium to communicate them to the developing team. A lot of developers prefer using the Mozilla Bugzilla, which is an add-on to the browser.

Reporting

The final steps expect you to report any additional assumptions and conditions which couldn’t be marked. Also mention suggestions to improve validations and processes.
Automation Testing

Automation testing, as the named suggests, is automated. It differs from manual testing in a way that uses automated scripts for running the test cases. It is a boon in today’s testing market.
Automated tests are basically conducted on large projects, which otherwise would consume a lot of time in manual. Some companies also run automation after the manual to make sure all the test cases are covered. Follow the below steps before proceeding with your automation tests.

Learn and decide what tests to automate
Test as often as you can
Selecting the right tool for automation
Make sure each test has its own contribution towards the efforts.
Have quality data in hand
Create automated scripts that can accommodate changes in the UI

When should you opt for automation testing
Always go for test automation if:

The project is large and complex
The project requires continues testing for the same area
Time constraints
The software is stable with respect to manual tests.

Tools for automation tests:

The Techniques of Software Testing
Believing you now have a clear idea of what software testing and its types are, let’s see the techniques used. There are 2 techniques defined in software testing:
1. Black-Box Testing
Black Box Testing deals with the internal working of the system where only the system coder has access to the source code. Hence, while testing, the tester has to perform the tests under the guidance of the developing team for inputs and outputs.
Black box testing clearly separates the tester’s and developer’s point of view to look at the software. Hence is well-suited for large code segments of the project. But certainly, this complicates the designing of test cases.
2. White-Box Testing
White Box testing deals with the program logic and structure of working. For this, you need to first understand the internal working of the code, which is easier than working with the code.
Since the user has an understanding of how the code functions, it’s easier to identify the data to be tested. That’s why it’s also called as glass-box testing or open-box testing.
Levels Of Testing
During testing, you come across various levels of steps. In this section let’s have a brief look at these.
The Levels are divided into 2

Functional Testing
Non-Functional Testing

Functional Testing
Functional testing is performed when the actual software development is taking place ensuring that all its requirements are met. Not to forget, the test is performed only when a piece of the module is complete.
The process involves 5 steps:

Defining the functionality to be checked
Creating the test cases

Comparing the output based on the test cases

Execution of test cases and writing scenarios
Comparing the actual and expected results

Functional testing can be performed by the following tests:
1) Unit Testing: The tests are conducted before the program is handed to the testing team for executing test cases
2)Integration Testing: This testing is done by putting together parts of the application to determine if they together functional properly.
3) System Testing: This testing tests the whole system as one. Once all the system components are integrated, it is checked for the working on specified quality standards.
4) Regression Testing: Many times, when there is an unplanned bug in the system testing, there are possibilities that it might have affected or will affect other components in the system. In such a case, regression testing is carried out.
5) Acceptance testing: Considered as one of the important tests in the functional testing phase, acceptance testing is done purely by the Quality Assurance team. They check it for the final specification meeting the requirements.
6) Alpha Testing: A test conducted by the QA team and the developers, which combines all of the above tests for a final review before it’s tested by the end-users.
7) Beta Testing: The final test before its release, the beta test is done by a chosen audience. The audience may be any non-technical team or a group of new users. The application is run in real-time to check the application runs as expected.
Non-functional Testing
Non-functional testing deals with bugs that are caused by any external factors like network, database processing, client-side downtime, etc. The non-functional testing types include:
1) Performance Testing
Identifies any performance issues that affect the speed, stability, and reliability of the application. Performance testing can be further divided into Load testing and Stress testing based on its qualitative and quantitative aspects.
2) Security Testing
As the name implies, security testing checks for flaws related to the security of the program. It includes confidentiality, validations for inputs, attacks due to SQL insertions, scripting and virus attacks, etc.
Conclusion

So the reason is much simpler now, you know what you deserve in a tester’s career. So if you are a beginner, make sure you understand all the aspects of testing well before jumping in. We will be happy if you are even halfway through to deciding your career in testing. Take your first step towards being an excellent tester.

Exclusive Bonus: Download PDF

Black Box Testing Techniques with Examples

Posted on November 25, 2019February 1, 2024 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

What is black box testing?

Black box testing refers to a software testing method where the SUT (Software under Test) functionality is tested without worrying about its details of implementation, internal path knowledge and internal code structure of the software.

This method of testing is completely based on the specifications and requirements of the software.

The focus of the black box testing is upon the output and inputs of the software system rather than the program’s internal knowledge.

The system that undergoes this type of testing is considered as the “black box”, and it can be any software like a database, website or an Operating System.

What Is The Purpose Of Black Box Testing?

Black box testing focuses on testing the complete functionality of the system as well as its behavior.

This testing method is also referred to as behavioral testing and functional testing.

This testing method is critical during the stages of software testing life cycle like regression testing, acceptance, unit, system, integration and software development.

The techniques of Black box testing are beneficial for the end users who wish to perform software verification.

Techniques of Black Box Testing

The following are the techniques employed while using Black box testing for a software application.

BVA or Boundary Value Analysis:

It is one among the useful and critical Black box testing technique that helps in equivalence partitioning. BVA helps in testing any software having a boundary or extreme values.

This technique is capable of identifying the flaws of the limits of the input values rather than focusing on the range of input value. Boundary Value Analysis also deals with edge or extreme output values.

Equivalence Class Partitioning:

This technique of Black box testing is widely used to write test cases. It can be useful in reducing a broad set of possible inputs to smaller but effective ones.

It is performed through the division of inputs as classes, and each class is given a value.

It is applied when the need for exhaustive testing arises and for resisting the redundancy of inputs.

State Transition Testing

This technique usually considers the state, outputs, and inputs of a system during a specific period.

Based on the type of software that is tested, it checks for the behavioral changes of a system in a particular state or another state while maintaining the same inputs.

The test cases for this technique are created by checking the sequence of transitions and state or events among the inputs.

The whole set of test cases will have the traversal of the expected output values and all states.

wish to know the difference between functional and non-functional testing?

Decision Table Testing:

In some instances, the inputs combinations can become very complicated for tracking several possibilities.

Such complex situations rely on decision tables, as it offers the testers an organized view about the inputs combination and the expected output.

This technique is identical to the graph-based testing technique; the major difference is using tables instead of diagrams or graphs.

Graph-Based Testing:

This technique of Black box testing involves a graph drawing that depicts the link between the causes (inputs) and the effects (output), which trigger the effects.

This testing utilizes different combinations of output and inputs. It is a helpful technique to understand the software’s functional performance, as it visualizes the flow of inputs and outputs in a lively fashion.

Error Guessing Technique:

This testing technique is capable of guessing the erroneous output and inputs to help the tester fix it easily. It is solely based on judgment and perception of the earlier end user experience.

Apart from the above-explained popular techniques of this testing, there are few more, such as the fuzzing technique, all pair testing and orthogonal array testing.

Examples of Black Box Testing

The example given below throws light on how the techniques of this testing can be used to test the specific software with given inputs

While considering a shopping scenario,

Shop for $500 and receive a discount of 5%
Shop for $1000 and receive a discount of 7%
Shop for $1500 or more and receive a discount of 10%

With the help of Equivalence partitioning technique of this testing, it is possible to divide inputs as four partitions, amount less than 0, 0 – 500, 501 – 1000, 1001 – 1500 and so on. The details such as the maximum limit for shopping and the product details will not be considered by this testing technique.

When boundary value is added to the partitions, the boundary values will be 0, 500, 501, 1000, 1001 and 1500. With the BVA technique, the lower and upper values are usually tested, so values like -1, 1 and 499 will be included. Such values will help in explaining the behavior of the input values in software.

According to State Transition Testing technique of Black box testing, when a shopper shops above $1500 two times in a month, their status gets changed from Gold to Platinum, and if he does not shop for the next 2 months, the status gets back to Gold. Using further test cases, it is possible for the tester to such complex track.

Types of Black Box Testing

There are several phases of which are segregated into different types, such as regression testing, unit testing, beta testing, integration testing, system testing, functional testing, load testing, etc. But, the prominent types are explained below.

Functional Testing:

This type of testing is useful for the testers in identifying the functional requirements of a software or system.

Regression Testing:

This testing type is performed after the system maintenance procedure, upgrades or code fixes to know the impact of the new code over the earlier code.

Non-Functional Testing:

This testing type is not connected with testing for any specific functionality but relates to non-functional parameters like usability, scalability and performance.

Difference between Black Box Testing and White Box Testing

Used to test software without knowing the internal structure of the software	Performed after knowing the internal structure of the software
Carried out by testers	Performed by developers
Does not require programming knowledge	Requires programming knowledge
Requires implementation knowledge	Does not require implementation knowledge
Higher level testing	Lower level testing
Consumes less time	Consumes a lot of time
Done in the trial and error method	Data domains and boundaries can be tested
Types of black box testing 1. Functional testing 2. Regression testing 3. Non-functional testing	Types of white box testing 1. Path testing 2. Loop testing 3. Condition testing
Not suitable for algorithm testing	Suitable for algorithm testing

Levels to with Black Box testing are applicable to

Integration testing
System testing
Acceptance testing

How to do Black Box testing?

Requirement and specifications will be examined
Positive inputs, as well as negative inputs, will be given to the system to verify it
Outputs for the tests will be defined earlier
Test cases will be executed
Actual outputs and expected outputs will be compared
Fixed issued will be retested

Major Tools used for Black Box testing

QTP, Selenium for functional and regression testing

LoadRunner and Jmeter for non-functional testing

How Much Does Usability Testing Cost?

Posted on November 21, 2019 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

With the intensive competition, among the websites, applications, and software, it is extremely important to ensure ease of usability so that your users can easily adapt to your digital product. If the users find it hard to operate your software product they might lookout for an easier alternative to your product. To avoid such a situation you need usability testing. But How Much Does Usability Testing Cost?

Let’s get into more details about usability testing and the cost of performing it and the overhead cost incurred when we do not perform it.
What is Usability Testing and Why does it Matter?
Usability testing is a software testing techniques that ensure that software product you have developed is easy to use. Usability testing is generally carried out by real users.
They are asked to accomplish a key task of the software, and their ease to accomplish it is considered as the usability test results. The purpose of usability testing is to validate and enhance the usability of the product or the flow of the task that the end-user uses to accomplish the task.

For example, you own an e-commerce website. The key task of any e-commerce website is to let your customers search for their products and purchase it. The flow of the process might go like:
Going to the home page, searching for the required product or looking at the product catalog, reading the complete description, analyzing the reviews, maybe adding to the cart and finally purchasing it.
During the usability testing, we look for the blockers that prevent the user from performing these tasks smoothly.
In short, the main aim of performing usability testing is to ensure the user can perform the task or use our solution easily.
But why is it important?

Usability testing is extremely important in the present world, where you have to compete with hundreds of users. If you do not provide easy to use solutions to your users, you already lose your race to them.
If the users will find it hard to use your product, they will turn to other options available in the market; hence you will find it hard to make your presence in this competitive world.
Cost of Usability testing
The cost of usability testing depends on various factors:

Platform Technology Costs

The cost of usability testing depends upon the platform required (desktop and/or mobile), features, and the number of users accessing the product concurrently. Many testers combine all these costs into one.
Commercial UX platforms testing varies between $1,000 to $100K for a simple web-based-only study to multiple studies for a prolonged period.

Competitive/Comparative Studies

If you decide to opt for comparative studies/testing, you might have to pay higher for usability testing. Your cost will ultimately increase with an increasing number of comparative products.

Cross-device knowledge

If you want to conduct usability testing on your product for multiple devices, you will have to end up paying more.
Mobile UX is different from desktop UX, so testing on multiple devices requires more time and more effort and hence more cost.

Larger Sample Sizes

In the case of larger sample size, like in comparative studies increases the number of participants for usability testing and recruiting costs.
Even single testing can require larger sample sizes if you go for multiple user segments. Hence the larger sample size means larger cost.

Participant Recruiting

The cost of usability testing also depends on Participants. Usability testing participants may charge you from a very trivial amount to a hefty amount.

Moderated Recruitment costs

Involving a well-trained and veteran moderator who would test the product in the corporate setup can incur you paying a high cost for well-trained and veteran personnel. A moderator can charge you between $100 and $300.

Unmoderated Recruitment Costs

If you chose not to use a moderated usability testing, you end up using various other sources like advertising, internal customer online panels, lists, and bulk email costs.
These sources too will add up to your usability testing cost. These sources have their own charges like online panels, range from $7 to $10 for general consumer profiles and can rise up to $40 to $100 for specialized profiles. Likewise, you will have to pay for other sources too.

International Studies

If you decide to carry out usability testing on an international level, you will have to pay more. Searching for international participants and their fees will both be added expenses.
Also, you will have to consider the cost of translating and re-translating the responses. Again the translation cost will be directly proportional to the study length.
Example For Usability Testing Costs
Though you cannot deploy any formula for usability testing, here are few examples of usability testing cost based on different budget:

Usability testing can cost you under $10K for an independent contractor that would conduct 5-10 moderated sessions. And if you chose the unmoderated study, an agency would conduct only the analysis phase for you.
These prices would keep rising as per your requirements and more extensive study for both moderated and unmoderated studies. The cost of usability testing can rise up to as high as $100K + for more extensive study.
What cost you might have to pay for not doing usability testing
You might end up paying much higher cost if you chose not to carry out usability testing.
If your key functionality has even a single blockade that might prevent the users to accomplish the end task, you would have to end up reconsider your development phase and hence consuming more time and ending up paying more money. This complete rework process can cost you around $150K.
Now it is up to you to decide what is more profitable – to do or not to do usability testing!
Conclusion
Although it is believed that usability testing is both costly and time-consuming, but if we look at the benefits of usability testing, it is a better idea.
As we have already discussed above the not conducting usability testing means an extra of 4 sprints leading to an added cost of over $150K and a lot of time. This cost and time could have been saved to an extent by conducting usability testing.
Not only this, the defame and loss of trust that will come along with not doing usability testing is immeasurable.
Hence it is a better option to choose usability testing and get things to work smoothly.

What is User Testing? How Does User Testing Work?

Posted on November 13, 2019 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

User Testing is the only effective way in existence to find out your app or website will work or not. When we put the business into perspective. How does user testing work?
So you have a business idea! But will it work? Any idea if it is not desirable by its prospective users is worthless. The same goes for the software world. Any software or application idea if it is not desirable by its users is of no use.t is hence very important, to get your idea tested before converting it into reality. And here is where you will require
What is User Testing?
It is an idea that gives birth to software or an application. The success of the application depends on how viable your idea is? It is very important to test whether your idea is desirable for its prospective customers or not.
To test this viability, user testing is done. User testing ensures that it is worthwhile to convert your idea into an application or not. For example, you go to a taxi stand and find numerous people waiting for the taxi.

Suddenly an idea strikes your mind to build an app, where people can book the taxi online and the taxi can reach their doorstep when they book it. Now there are many questions in your mind like, “will this application work or not?” And in such scenarios this testing is very important, to tell your idea to its prospective users and see if your product will be desirable and valued by its audiences.
In short user, testing is a type of testing to test whether your idea is desirable or not.
When is user testing done?
This testing is done after you get an idea and before you commence working on the software/ application. The input to your testing is your idea and the output or result is its user’s feedback on your idea.
Who does user testing?
User testing tests the user’s perspective on the application idea. The main reviewers in such kind of testing are the prospective users.
The testers and the idea owners create a survey and the users take that survey. Hence the main participants of this testing are the users and the idea owners/testers.
What is the purpose of user testing?
The purpose of this testing is to evaluate whether the idea you are planning to work upon is desirable by its prospective users or not. It is a good idea to convert your idea into an app-only if people are ready to use it if and only if they think they need such a solution to make their lives easier.

Also Read : How To Secure Website From Hackers?

If users think that your idea is worthless then investing money in building that app would be just a waste of money. Many of the apps fail miserably because the businesses do not consider conducting user testing as an important part. If they would have conducted this testing, they could have avoided many losses. Rather it should be the very first step towards the building of the app.
What factors are considered while performing user testing?
Customer needs, their Perception, and their Demand are the major factors that are considered while performing this testing.
What are the types of User Testing
Usability testing
A kind of user testing where real users embark on a journey to figure out the ease of access of the app/software. The main goal behind user testing is to measure the human interaction on a particular software.
User scenarios can be verified using this technique and the success percentage can be measured prior to release.
Tree Testing
A tree-like sitemap will be given to users and they will be asked to navigate the software without any distraction.
Remote Usability Testing
There will be a centralized platform that will record user interaction by users located in various parts of the world. Localization testing is the perk of this type of testing.
A/B Testing
It’s one of the most effective ways of user testing. If there is a huge update for the software, for instance, a website is planning to launch a new version of its web app. Through A/B testing the company can release two versions of the web app and seek feedback from users and compare it to get a better perspective. The purpose of A/B testing is to study user behavior and compare it with the feasibility of update or the production of software.
How is user testing conducted?
User testing can be conducted through in-person discussion, coffee shop discussion, Google hangout, Type form, Virtually at Skype, Google forms, Survey Monkey, social media polls, social media discussion, online discussion forums, etc.
What to ask during user testing?
The main concern in this testing is what questions to ask your users while conducting the survey or this testing. Some of the basic questions you can ask are:

How you solve that problem currently?
Have you ever thought of doing it in a better way?
Will you use the proposed solution to accomplish this task?
Will you pay money if asked to use this solution?
Do you think this solution will ease out your work?

How to do user testing done?
User testing serves as the analysis of the achieve ability of any idea. A questionnaire will be prepared including all the questions that will extensively define the user’s perspective to that particular idea. This questionnaire is then presented to the prospective users and their answers will be collected. Based on their answers a decision will be made whether to give the idea a go-ahead or dissolve the plan.
Does user testing really pay?
There is an on-demand user testing platform called usertesting.com which helps products acquire real-user feedback.
Basically how it works is that you have to visit the website and register yourself as a user tester you get to test. As per the information provided on the website you ger to earn $10 for every 20-minute. However, the dubious part is whether you get enough chances to test the website or will there be any geographical disparity to not?
Difference between user testing and usability testing

Many of us get confused between user testing and usability testing. In fact, too many of us, user testing and usability testing are some of the same things. But in reality, they both are very different. Here are the differences that might clear your doubts on the user and usability testing.

User Testing	Usability Testing
Do users need your app?	Can users use your app?
Done after you have an idea	Done after you have you’re your design ready and continues till the end before the app is live
A discussion or a survey is best suited for this testing	You have to have a design ready to get usability testing

Conclusion:
An idea is the creator of everything including the software. but the success of your app depends on whether your idea is desirable by its users or not. Many applications like Uber, Amazon, Facebook, etc. have become a huge success because their idea was open-heartedly accepted by its users.

It is always better to be double sure before putting your efforts and your money on an idea. And this testing is a perfect answer to be sure whether your idea would be accepted by its users or not.
Also, it can help you identify your right audiences so that when you design and work upon your app, you can keep in mind its perspective users and build it according to their demand. Testing on the contrary as believed to be the last phase of the software testing life cycle begins at the very early phase just after the birth of the idea.

Test Case vs Test Scenario: What’s the difference b/w two?

Posted on November 13, 2019 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

What’s the difference between test cases and test scenarios or Test Case vs Test Scenario: how do they differ?

people often find it confusing in defining these two terminologies in software testing. To ease the burden, we have made an infographic representation out of the topic so that it will be easy to understand the test case and test scenario.

What is a test scenario?

A test scenario is a high-level use case or functionality to be tested. Each test scenario can be mapped to one or more detailed test cases. Test scenarios are derived by understanding the user expectation from the software and it is used by the user.

A good tester would cover all the test scenarios and functionalities. This document would then be used to derive the test cases. An example of a test scenario would be a login scenario that can consist of multiple test cases.

What is a test case?

A test case is a detailed step-by-step instruction to perform a series of actions or steps that help to validate a particular functionality in an application. A test case has the following main parts:

Pre-conditions: the conditions noted in this section need to complete before proceeding with the next steps. For example for a login test case, the preconditions would be the app or software should be successfully launched and the login screen should be displayed.
Test Steps: These are detailed step-by-step instructions on how to perform the actions on the application. It should include the data to be entered, the action to be performed, and the details of the object of which the action needs to be performed. The quality of the test case is defined by the quality of the test steps. The steps should be so detailed that even a layman should be able to perform the test.
Expected Result: This section describes the happy path or actual application behavior. For e.g in a login scenario, successfully being able to log in and enter the new screen should be the expected result. One should make sure that 1 test case should have only 1 expected result. This is particularly important for tracking and retesting defects.
Actual Result: This section is left blank during the planning phase and is updated by the tester during the execution phase. This section captures what the tester sees in the application after performing the test steps mentioned above.
Test Case Result: If both the expected and actual results are the same the test cases are marked as a pass, and if they are different it is marked as a fail.

Difference between test case and test scenario

Test case	Test Scenario
Detailed information about what to test, steps involved, expected result, etc.	Mostly contains one line information about what to test
Used for the validation of test output	It’s a thread of operation
Helps in agile testing	Helps greatly in exhaustive testing
Consumes a lot of time	Consumes less time compared to test case preparation
Serves as a proof guard for new testers	Helps in reducing complexity and repeatability of the product
Derived from test scenarios	Derived from use case
Can be used in future regression test cases	Used by new testers to save time

How to write test cases?

Step 1: ID’ing the test case is very important. Each test case must have a unique ID for better traceability and accountability.

Step 2: Description of the feature or functionality that will be put to test must be added to each test case

Step 3: Conditions that have to be met before execution must be included

Step 4: Relevant data for the execution must be included in every test case

Step 5: The step required to execute the test must be included in detail

Step 6: Expected result before the execution along with actual result must be included

What is test case and test scenario with examples?

Example for a test case

Test Case ID

Description

Steps involved in the execution

Test data

Expected result

Actual result

Pass/fail

TEA01

Check user login functionality with required data

1. Open the app

2. Click the login button

3. Enter mail ID and password

4. Click submit

User ID= 123@gmail.com

User password: 1212a!@

Successful login

Blank screen

Fail

Example for a test scenario

search functionality

Test Scenario

Verify whether the feature is able to display all the related search results according to the search query

Best Practices in writing test cases

it should be easy to understand and decode
Must be accurate and reusable
Using a strong title will bring forth a better understanding
Use short description
Include pass/fail to every test cases
Include actual as well as expected result
mention steps to achieve the objective of the test case
Subject it to peer review

Best Practices in writing test Scenario

Make sure that you have clearly gone through business Requirement Specification (BRS), Software Requirement Specification (SRS), Functional Requirement Specification (FRS)
Make sure that you listed down all the positive and negative test scenarios
Do several discussions in sprints to form an effective one
One scenario is supposed to cover one of the requirements. If multiple requirements need to be addressed, create multiple scenarios
if the scenarios are large and might consume a lot of time. Discuss with the client or the owner and then prioritize!
it should be easy to understand and must be mapped with the requirements

Final Thought about Test Case vs Test Scenario

Both terminologies are essential for software testing. So Test Case vs Test Scenario is pointless however, differentiating between them essential to not only adopt better practices but for academic purposed also.

How Much Does Penetration Test Cost?

Posted on November 7, 2019 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

How much does penetration test cost? have you ever thought about it? You would, absolutely! if your business is based on the digital domain.
The digital world is very susceptible to security threats. Hackers are increasingly hacking websites for various reasons. There had been many security threats that had made many big companies reconsider their security measures.

Hackers find the loopholes in the website and accomplish their felon ideas. Even web world biggies find it hard to evade these stacks. To lessen the chances of such security breaks, companies are taking help on website penetration testing. But, how much does penetration test cost?
Before we get to the cost of penetration testing let’s have a look at the latest cybersecurity statistics

Around 230,000 malware’s are created by hackers every day
It is estimated that cybercrimes will cost around $2 trillion
60% of companies have cyber-attacks one way or another
A frightening 56% increase in web-based attacks have been reported
33% increase in mobile-based ransomware attacks
25% of the attack groups use harmful malware
There are tools available on the dark-web which help any person with computer knowledge to be a hacker. Pricing of these tools are mostly $1
94% of the email attacks have a malicious email attached to it

What is Penetration testing?

Penetration testing or also known as ethical hacking refers to testing websites to discover security susceptibilities that the hackers could use to get an illegal entry to your website. Penetration testing of websites can be done both automatically and manually.

Know : Top 10 Penetration Testing Companies in India

The process helps organizations find the following vulnerabilities in their websites:

Target point of hackers
How can attackers attack the website
How effective is your website defenses mechanism
Probable size of the breaks

What are the types of penetration testing?
Black box penetration testing
Performed after there is no or little information available regarding the digital architecture of a company. The main intention behind such an attack is to imitate cyber-attack.
White-box penetration testing
performed after a complete analysis of the system. White-box penetration testing is performed for in-depth security audit
Gray box penetration testing
Performed after having only partial knowledge about the system. For instance, testers escalate user privilege for an efficient assessment.
Network service penetration testing
Done to perform vulnerabilities of network architecture such as switches, firewalls, servers, routers, printers, workstations, etc.
Web-app penetration testing
A continuously evolving type of testing used to find the vulnerabilities of web-based applications
Penetration testing can also be used to recognize

application layer flaws
network-level flaws
system-level flaws
Physical security barriers

Automated penetration testing has the ability to discover some cybersecurity issues but extensive penetration testing also focuses on business’s susceptibility to manual breaches also.
Why penetration testing important?
• Helps in experiencing real-life scenario of intrusion
• Helps in revealing lacking security policy
• A single target can be attacked in a various manner to reveal flaws
• Gives a user perspective of your software security
• Saves a lot of money by saving your company from devastating breaches
• Ensures the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) compliance
• Pentest result can be used as training material for developers to make fewer mistakes in the future
Why penetration testing differs from vulnerability scanning?

Penetration testing	Vulnerability Assessment
Evaluates the security defense of your company software architecture	Used to unravel as much security flaws as possible
Combination of manual and automated techniques	Can be automated easily
Unknown vulnerabilities can be traced out	Exploitable vulnerabilities that are known can be fished out
Must be done by skilled individuals or a team of individuals	Can be done by an in-house team
Mostly performed once or twice in a year	Performed quarterly

How much does penetration testing cost?

The cost of penetration testing varies based on the size and complexity of the website. There are many other factors that also play an important role in defining the cost of penetration testing. Let us discuss in detail various factors that affect the calculation of penetration testing.
1. Objective
The objective of your website plays an important role in deciding the pricing of penetration testing of the website.
Whether you are going to get a small website tested or a huge website or a social media app, the size of your website will largely affect the penetration testing of your website.
Also if you want to test networks, applications, IoT devices, etc. will affect the cost of the testing. Also, the amount of information you want to give to the tester will affect the cost of penetration testing.
2. Scope
Scope in penetration testing is related to the time required by the testers to test the website.
Both cost and time are related to the number of parties/networks/IP addresses/applications/facilities involved, etc. The cost also depends on the restrictions if any.
3. Approach
There are many ways to approach penetration testing. These approaches play an important role in the cost of the pen-testing. Some go only for the basic level of testing, while others are only bothered about the entry points for the breaches, but if you are interested in the more extensive approach to penetration testing you might have to pay more.
The deeper insight into the vulnerabilities means more cost. While the less deep the penetration approach testing, the lesser will be the cost.
4. Skills
The very common phenomenon for all types of testing is the skills of the testers. The more expertise of the testers, the more will be the cost. If you will go for high expertise, you ensure deeper penetration testing but will have to pay higher for it.
But if we consider in a long term perspective, the deeper penetration testing will give you more chances to protect your website and hence saving you from many cybersecurity issues and thus saving you a lot of money.
5. Re-Testing
When testers conduct penetration testing, the vulnerabilities in the website get unveiled. The developers again work on the code, to correct the code and bar all the vulnerabilities. But once after the corrections are done, the code is again retested to check if the vulnerabilities have been taken care of and the website is secure from any future security breaches.

Read also : 15 Best Penetration Testing Tools

Re-testing is a very important factor that adds up to the cost of a penetration test. There are few testing teams that offer to retest for free. Though there are many companies that charge an amount for retesting. The cost of retesting depends upon the amount of retesting that is required to be done and the number of retests that are conducted.
6. Service
Penetration testing cost also depends on the services offered by the testing teams. Some teams offer you all-inclusive services consisting of many reports, suggestions, etc. These teams keep you completely involved in the testing process.
Penetration testing costs can vary from a few thousand dollars to more than $100,000 depending upon the size and complexity of the website.
7.The complexity of the system
A penetration test is a mandate for corporate of all types, be it a start-up or a multibillion-dollar company. But depending upon their size, the cost of penetration testing also differs as the difference in size leads to differences in the amount of work required for penetration testing. The number of systems, number of roles, type of testing play an important role in determining the cost of penetration testing.
8. Types of tools used
Penetration testing might require a variety of tools for its execution. There is a large variety of such tools and even their pricing differs by a huge margin. Some of the tools are available free of cost while others come for a hefty amount. The use of these tools in penetration testing plays an important role in determining the overall cost of penetration testing.
Cost of pen testing
The cost of penetration testing can range from $1500-$5000+ in a normal situation with respect to how big the company and complex the systems are.

For somewhat decent testing, it would cost around 5000$ for a small company which has fewer than 100 employees
There will be another 25% increase in the cost if the penetration test has to be PCI compliant.

Conclusion:
Penetration testing is an important part of website testing to ensure the high-end security of your websites. But many website owners consider it as an expensive overhead and avoid conducting penetration testing. But focusing more on the initial cost of penetration testing they forget to count on the cost they might have to incur for not getting the penetration testing done.

Not getting penetration testing done opens the doors of your website to security breaches. These security breaches cannot bring you monetary losses but can also be very harmful to your reputation and name. Hence, realize the importance of penetration testing and ensure you conduct penetration testing.
hope you get an idea about How much does penetration test cost?
Why Testbytes?
Testbytes can carry out penetration testing for your company with astounding efficiency. Price ranges from 1500$ to – 5000$ based on the complexity of the system.

11 Easy Steps to Secure Your Website From Hackers

Posted on November 1, 2019 by tbsupadminnxtbackendacc

In this time of heightened cyber-attack you must be aware of how to secure website from hackers. Your website is an important asset to your business. It is very important to protect it from any kind of threat and hacking. Here are some ways that can help you protect your website from hacking.
1. Install security plugins

If your website is built using a content management system, you can easily improve the security of your website using the plugins. Most of the CMS offer security plugins so that you can improve the security of your website.

Security plugins for WordPress:

iThemes Security
Bulletproof Security
Sucuri
Wordfence
fail2Ban

Security options for Magento:

Amasty
Watchlog Pro
MageFence

Security extensions for Joomla:

JHackGuard
jomDefender
RSFirewall
Antivirus Website Protection

These plugins prove helpful in barring security vulnerabilities. You can also opt for siteLock. It supports both CMS managed and HTML pages. SiteLocks does regular monitoring for all security loopholes including malware detection, vulnerability identification, active virus scanning, etc.
2. Use HTTPS

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate helps in secure-transfer of information amid the website and the server. There is a lot of secure information that we need to share through the websites.
The secure transaction ensures the end clients to freely transact their information without worrying about the treats the insecure transfer of sensitive information can bring.

Must Know : Top 10 WordPress Plugins For Developers and Testers

The security of your website plays a very important in today’s world unless your clients are satisfied and trust your security system, they will not share their sensitive information with you. SSL is an important way to convince your customers about the security of their information.
3. Keep your website platform and software up-to-date

One of the main causes of security threats on the website is vulnerabilities in CMS’s extensible components. Many of these extensible components are open source, and hackers could easily detect the security vulnerabilities and take control and exploit your website.
To ensure the security of your website your CMS, plugins needs to be updated.
4. Make sure your passwords are secure

Making your password strong might not seem to be a very unique and dominant idea, but the fact is keeping your password strong plays a very important role. It is important that you keep your password strong.
It should be long enough, with special characters, numbers, letters, etc. Avoid keeping your password on the names of special people in your life and on special dates of your life. It gets easier for hackers to hack such a password.
Not only you, but your team should also follow these rules so that the hackers could not enter your system through any of your team member’s ID.
5. Invest in automatic backups

Even after following all the precautionary methods, there are still few chances of you getting attacked by hackers. The best way in such cases is to have a backup copy of your website. In case you do not have a backup copy, you might land lose everything.
Though data breaches are very stressful no matter what, having a backup can give you a levy to recover your website easily. But sometimes you might forget to back up your website, regularly and hence investing in the automatic backup can give you peace of mind.

Must Read : How to Find Bugs in Your App

The above steps are easy to follow and can even be followed by people with minimal technical knowledge, but here we move on to some more complicated ways to protect your website from hackers.
These advanced techniques might require a technically skilled person and also ensure a higher level of security from hackers.
6. Be cautious while accepting file uploads.

Allowing uploads to your website can be pretty dangerous. Hackers can upload malicious files to your system and can gain access to your system, overwrite existing files, can bring your website down, etc. hence, it is very important to check the kind of files that are being uploaded to your system.
If not required, do not permit file uploads at all. But if it’s a necessity, do keep a check on it. The following points may help you to protect your website by the hackers.

Allow only specific file types to be uploaded to your system.
The above point can be easily defied by renaming the file. Hence it is highly recommended to use file type verification.
Set maximum file size and reject all the files over this size.
Scan files for malware. Use antivirus software to check all files before opening.
Use a system to automatically rename a file when uploaded to your system. In such a case hackers will keep looking for their file to accomplish their notorious intentions.
Do not include upload folder in the web root, it will keep hackers away from accessing your website using their uploaded file.
These steps can prove helpful in defending your website from file uploads risks.

7. Use Parameterized Queries

SQL injections are a widely used method to hack websites by hackers. SQL injections can be exploited if your website has a web form or URL parameters that accept information from outsiders.
It these parameters are way too open they let the hackers exploit your website by inserting them with the codes that allow them to access your database. Though there are many ways to protect your website from hackers using SQL injections the easiest way is to use parameterized queries.
8. Use CSP

Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks are another very common way that allows hackers to slip malicious JavaScript code into your website. This code can further infect the devices of the users of the website exposed to that code.
The easy way to defend your website from such abuses is to ensure that the code that accepts input that is categorical in accepting the inputs. It protects your website from getting induced to any malicious scripts and keeps it protected.
Content Security Policy (CSP) is also an effective tool to protect your website from XSS attacks. It permits you to allow specify domains a browser should consider.
9. Restrict the permissions for directories and files

There are several files and folders inside your web hosting account. They contain data that makes your website work and also includes the permissions on who can read, write, and execute the files and folders.
Ensure these rights are properly set to ensure the highest safety of your website. Any intrusion to these files and folders can put your website security on risk.
10. Be careful about the error messages.

Error messages can play a huge role in putting your website security on risk. How? Here it is: a detailed error message tells you what is wrong with your website and how can you rectify it. It can help you a lot internally. But if the same messages are displayed to your visitors they can exploit these messages and find vulnerabilities in your website and can exploit them.
Ensure that the error messages are not very detailed one that can give hackers a chance to get inside your system. But also make sure that these messages give an idea to the visitors to what to do next in case an error occurs.
11. Do proper validation

Validation has to be done both on both on the browser side and server-side. Imagine that someone is trying to inject code through one of the mandatory fields. The browser has to reject such an invalid input.
When it comes to validation like this it has been performed on server-side also to ensure that malicious code hasn’t been injected to the website.
Conclusion:
Hacking is a very common practice in the digital world that has put on stake the security of your systems. Your website can too be easily exploited by hackers. It is very important that you take enough preventive methods to secure your website from hackers.

The security threats to your website can not only harm you and your business but can be equally harassing for your audiences. Ensure that you take proper measures to protect your website from hackers.