Quality assurance teams have turned to cloud-based testing as a way to improve development processes and make applications more functional. However, if these groups bring traditional practices into the cloud, they likely won't be as efficient as they expect. For this reason, it's important to understand how to streamline cloud-based testing efforts to improve performance and change development processes for the better.

Start With Test Planning

In the testing lifecycle, planning is one of the most critical stages to ensure that everyone understands what testcases must be executed. However, as industry expert Robin Goldsmith noted in a piece for TechTarget, many QA professionals view test planning and design as busywork. This sentiment can be avoided by using best practices to streamline these strategizing efforts.

Goldsmith suggested that testing should be treated as a project, to ensure that it takes advantage of management techniques that increase the likelihood of success. This can be done be describing tasks, sequences and dependencies required, as well as the schedule required to finish the work and mitigate risks. Doing so will in turn help streamline cloud-based testing processes.

"By serving these purposes, a test plan helps the testing project succeed," Goldsmith wrote. "It's the thought process that's important, not tons of verbiage. One writes down the test plan so the thinking is not lost or forgotten and so it can be shared, reviewed and refined."

Leverage Testing Tools

With teams dispersed across a variety of locations, it can be difficult to keep track of progress or what still needs to be accomplished. JIRA Cloud test management does fix this by allowing QA teams to easily communicate and log all changes being made. If any defects are identified, for example, it will be recorded in the test management system, and can be prioritized by how it will affect app functionality. Without this type of tracking in place, the process of mitigating bugs would be much more complex and could lead to redundancies and other vulnerabilities in the projects.

Test management solutions also can provide detailed reports containing testing metrics. This will give QA teams insight regarding what types of defects were detected, time between each sprint and other crucial information about what processes can be streamlined for better efficiency.

Automate Tests When Appropriate

For many organizations, automation integration has become a priority in the software development lifecycle. One of the biggest inefficiencies testers still experience comes from manual operations. These processes take up a significant amount of time and can often miss critical defects within the app, affecting the quality of the project.

Many testcases are repeated over the course of a project's life, and may even extend across to other applications being developed. Instead of creating a script for each instance the case is run or manually executing the test, organizations can leverage automation to ensure the app is evaluated on a set schedule. This will give QA teams peace of mind that the software is getting the attention it requires while they focus on other critical areas of testing needs, streamlining the overall testing efforts.