Strategies for Manual Test: Quality Assurance (QA) is crucial for delivering reliable, high-performing software. As teams adopt continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD), QA becomes essential in identifying bugs early, reducing rework, and maintaining system stability. The goal of QA in the DevOps lifecycle is to integrate testing into every stage of development, ensuring quality is built into each release.

While automation is vital for scaling testing efforts, manual testing remains important in areas where human insight is essential—like user experience, exploratory testing, and scenarios that don’t lend themselves easily to automation. Effective manual testing ensures that no detail is overlooked, improving both functionality and usability.

Mindmapping Strategies for Manual Test Limitations:

As you plan your work Strategies for Manual Test, it’s easy to miss important details, which can lead to overlooked defects or skipped steps. To address this, we recommend demonstrating how the test function operates before writing your test plans. This narrative approach helps identify potential errors and allows you to plan how long it will take to test the functionality from start to finish.

Problems with Common Manual Test Case Writing

A frequent issue in manual testing is writing test cases that are right-sized. This means they should have the right amount of detail, but achieving this balance is often challenging. Test cases may contain too much information or too little, which can confuse testers with different experience levels.

One major problem arises when documentation assumes all testers have the same level of expertise. For example, if the documentation uses technical terms without explanations, it can create knowledge gaps. As a result, testers might miss crucial steps, leading to around 40% of defects escaping into production. This not only lowers software quality but also negatively affects the user experience.

Example of a common test case

In short, while good documentation is vital for successful manual testing, finding the right detail level is tough. It’s essential that all testers, regardless of their background, can understand and follow the test cases to minimize defects and ensure high-quality software.

Step #	Description	Expected Result	Actual Result	Pass/Fail
1	Log into ServiceNow.	User logs in successfully.
2	Search for “Create New” under the Incident module.	“Create New” incident form is displayed.
3	Fill in Caller, Short Description, Category, Impact, and Urgency fields.	Fields populated correctly (e.g., Caller: valid user, Category: Network, Impact: Medium, Urgency: High).
4	Click Submit to create the incident.	Incident created with incident number (e.g., INC0012345).
5	Search for the created incident using the incident number.	Incident displayed with correct details.
6	Change State to “In Progress” and assign it to a group (e.g., IT).	Incident state changes to “In Progress” and is assigned to IT group.
7	Log in as a member of the assigned group.	User logs in successfully.
8	Open the assigned incident from My Work or Assigned to me.	Incident appears in assigned technician’s queue.
9	Change State to “Resolved” and provide a resolution note.	Incident updated to “Resolved” with a resolution note.
10	Log in as the original caller.	User logs in successfully.
11	Confirm the incident is no longer in Open Incidents.	Incident no longer in “Open Incidents” list.
12	Confirm the incident appears under Resolved Incidents.	Incident displayed in “Resolved Incidents” list.

BEST Practices

Fundamental QA methods | LinkedIn Learning is a great course and introduction into Agile QA Methods taught by Ash Coleman.

Fundamental QA methods from Agile Testing by Ash Coleman

• Exploratory Testing: Testers actively explore the application without predefined test cases, identifying unexpected behaviors or UX issues.
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Involving end-users in manual testing ensures that the product meets real-world needs and expectations before full deployment.
• Ad-hoc Testing: When changes are made quickly, ad-hoc manual testing allows teams to check critical areas without formal test scripts.
• Regression Testing: While automation covers repetitive test cases, manual regression testing helps catch any missed nuances when changes are made to the codebase.
• Edge Case and Scenario Testing: Some scenarios may be too complex to automate. Manual testers explore these edge cases to ensure robust performance.
• Despite the push toward automation, manual testing continues to play a crucial role in ensuring a product’s quality from both a technical and user-focused perspective. Balancing automation with strategic manual testing ensures that the software delivered in the DevOps pipeline is both efficient and user-friendly.

Great new ideas from the A4Q Testing Summit – Mariami Goginava and David Mnatobishvili.

Modernizing Strategies for Manual Testing

By aligning your demo with acceptance criteria, narrating each step, recording the process, and leveraging AI tools, you can create comprehensive, assumption-free test steps. These strategies not only enhance test documentation but also ensure quality in your testing process.

Effective Development Demos for Test Documentation

When conducting a development demo or writing test documentation, it’s vital to ensure the solution meets the acceptance criteria. Here are key strategies to improve this process:

1. Align Demo with Acceptance Criteria

First, check the functionality against predefined acceptance criteria. This step ensures the solution meets required standards.

Tip: Conduct a Development Demo where the developer or Business Analyst walks through the solution, explaining how each feature aligns with the criteria. This approach helps identify gaps early.

2. Narrate Steps During the Demo

Next, narrate your actions out loud during the demo. For example:

• “I am logging in here.”
• “Now, I am navigating to the URL.”
• “I’m clicking the box in the upper right corner.”

This verbal narration creates a clear audit trail, documenting every action.

3. Record and Transcribe the Demo

Additionally, record the demo for future reference. Tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft Teams allow you to create both a video and a transcript. The transcript serves as a valuable resource that can be edited or enhanced using AI.

Having both video and transcript ensures:

• A complete record of the demo.
• The ability to revisit specific sections.
• Assumption-free documentation.

4. Create Assumption-Free Test Steps

Even when working alone, you can develop high-quality test steps. Use a transcription tool, thats free and available in Microsoft Word’s dictation feature, while narrating your testing process. This captures every action, ensuring no steps are overlooked.

At the end, you’ll have a complete, accurate set of instructions reflecting your testing process.

5. Edit and Refine Using AI Tools (Note this should be used with caution)

Finally, enhance your documentation with AI tools:

• Edit the transcript to remove unnecessary details.
• Refine test steps for conciseness and clarity.

AI can help automate generating detailed test steps, transforming a rough transcript into polished documentation quickly.

Other Resource Strategies for Manual Test

• 5 Critical Mistakes to Avoid When Integrating AI in Testing
• 10 Manual Testing Best Practices – GeeksforGeeks
• 10 AI Testing Tools to Streamline Your QA Process in 2024 | DigitalOcean
• AI Testing – Definition, Examples, strategies & Benefits (qatouch.com)
• AutomatePro & ServiceNow Automated-Test – Dawn Christine Simmons (dawncsimmons.com)
• Glossary of QA Terms | Testlio Help Center
• Quality Assurance Test Process
• QA Jobs | Groups | LinkedIn
• Manual Tester/QA aspiring to become Automation Engineer | Groups | LinkedIn