{"id":15582,"date":"2023-02-01T15:41:55","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T15:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/abstracta.us\/blog\/?p=15582"},"modified":"2025-05-05T21:19:33","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T21:19:33","slug":"how-to-make-testing-progress-visible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abstracta.us\/blog\/software-testing\/how-to-make-testing-progress-visible\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Testing Progress Visible"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Testing efforts can easily go under the radar or be hard to grasp. It’s important to remember that software testing is not only about running tests: it involves multiple crucial facets that contribute to creating better and better software. In this article, we share with you all what we do in order to help the team and the different stakeholders to be informed of the testing progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Federico Toledo<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Testing is aimed to provide information about the quality of our system and the risks that might affect the user experience and our business<\/strong> so that better decisions can be taken. All this in order to mitigate those risks and improve the quality and the experience of our users.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are a quality partner.<\/strong> We know that effective communication is essential to optimize our work and achieve our goals. That’s why we focus on building relationships with our clients, through transparent processes that make testing progress visible<\/strong> on a daily basis. Find out how we do it in this article!
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Making Goals and Setting Expectations<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Testing must be aligned with the business goals. <\/strong>This is a common pitfall that many testers and testing providers make. The challenge with testing is not only how to test, how to design test cases, or how to test a particular feature. One of the most challenging things in software testing is deciding what not to test.

We must understand the business goals and risks in order to be thoughtful and mindful of prioritizing. With that context in mind, we design the best testing strategy aligned to the business needs, and this will set the expectation with the team for the progress they will want to see from us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creation of quality software is crucial for society\u2019s development and the improvement of its quality of life.<\/strong> We live in a globalized and almost wholly interconnected world, in which permanent digital transformation is a fact and good quality technology makes a real difference in people\u2019s daily lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our greatest impact lies in what the technology we create enables<\/strong>, and that this technology is of good quality,\u201d recently said my friend and Abstracta’s CEO Matias Reina. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe empower technologies that are enabling software to be made faster and with quality, we help create more accessible technology, and more people have access to communications infrastructures. When we analyze what we do in each project and with each client, we don\u2019t just think about the products themselves but about what they make possible, how their technology extends and improves the quality of life of many people,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All in all, as testers, the first step to give visibility on our work and progress is to understand and align our test strategy to the one from the business.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/span>Communication Strategy <\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Once we are clear with the goals, we start with the testing activities. As the rest of the team members are typically busy with their different responsibilities, the challenge on the day-to-day is to keep everyone informed. That doesn\u2019t mean that we must tell everyone about every little detail, about every test, or every result we get after each test we do. Different people have different needs for different levels of detail, which is crucial for an effective communication strategy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are convinced that communication is essential for a smooth, effective workflow. So, we pay great attention to communication with our customers and seek to deeply understand their needs.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our experience of almost 15 years in testing reconfirms every day that testing isn\u2019t only about designing tests! It\u2019s giving our best so that we can better the experience of the user. And, of course, it\u2019s also about enjoying the path together collaborating with the rest of the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have different levels of communication pre-established to keep stakeholders on the same page. Let\u2019s explore some of them. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Day-to-Day Communication<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The testers are embedded as much as our customers allow us to be. The most common scenario is that the testers become part of the development team<\/strong>, so they participate in all the ceremonies, meetings, slack channels, etc. That way there\u2019s almost no difference between the communication with testers (in this case, Abstracta\u2019s team members), and other team members, whether they are from the client\u2019s team, other providers, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In order to make communication more effective and reduce the chance of having blind spots, all our testers are guided and mentored by technical experts that support them, so there\u2019s always someone with more experience reviewing their work<\/strong>, helping them brainstorm, design tests, plan, communicate results, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s one extra layer of communication which is the customer success team<\/strong>, that helps with the business perspective, and they are a good escalation point if anything needs to be adjusted, to scale up the team, etc. At this level of communication, we try to gather the information that might impact our testing strategy, such as business decisions, changes in the global strategy, etc. This way we can align and strategize with the technical team, making the required adjustments, and making sure that our progress is in the right direction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are different things to share at each level, with different frequencies, and with different people. Just to give you some ideas:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n