Manual Testing Process: A Step-by-Step Guide to Improve Software Quality

Software testing is a critical part of the software development process. It helps ensure the software has the right features, functions, and security based on the client’s needs. To check the software quality, you can perform automated and manual testing processes. Both are equally necessary to identify the defects and correct them before launch.

Adhering to the exact steps of both processes is crucial to avoid missing out on critical aspects. This blog explains the manual testing process in detail. It highlights the importance of each step for successful execution.

Manual Testing Process

A manual testing process means testing the software without using any tools or test scripts. You use the software during and after the development stage to detect errors and bugs and check its proper functioning. The aim is continuous software improvement before launch in the market for maximum acceptability.

Manual testing service is a basic method of inspecting the software quality, security, and functionality. You can use this method for usability, functional, regression, and performance testing to deliver better user outcomes. Being a manual process executed by a user, it is time-consuming and can lead to errors. You can make it effective if you carefully follow the steps of the manual testing process.

Step 1: Requirement Analysis

The first and most crucial step is understanding the client’s requirements. Unless and until you know the client’s expectations, it’s impossible to determine if the software meets them. So, gathering and analyzing all the information about the software’s features, functionality, and appearance is essential.

This helps identify which parts of the software need testing to eliminate errors, improve quality, and meet customer expectations.

Step 2: Test Planning

Since you understand the client’s requirements, the manual testing process’s next step is preparing the test plan. The test plan must include all the following aspects:

*Scope of the Project*

• Software testing goals and objectives

• Functional, non-functional, and user requirements
• Test conditions
• Testing environment, tools, and techniques for manual inspection
• List of resources responsible for testing
• Schedule of the test plan, including duties, timelines, and priorities
• Measures to define when the testing phase is complete

This test plan acts as a guide for carrying out the manual testing process in an organized way.

Step 3: Test Case Design

Now, you have all the requirements regarding the software and testing essentials listed before you.

Based on each of the requirements and their sub-elements, define different scenarios. These scenarios cover all the software’s functionalities and features that you expect in it. Each of these test cases will have preconditions, postconditions, instructions, steps of execution, and expected results. QA engineers follow these test cases to perform manual testing, so they must be clear and easy to understand.

Step 4: Test Environment Setup

Preparation of the environment is necessary before any testing to ensure accurate and reliable results. That means the engineer must set all the conditions to facilitate the testing, including hardware and network configurations. The testing engineer must have access to all the data, resources, and test cases to enable faster inspections. Even the software application’s installation with the necessary settings is vital to proceed with the testing procedure.

Step 5: Test Execution

Now, you’re all set for the real action – the testing of the software manually. Interact with the software to check every feature and capability and see if they meet the client’s requirements. For this, you will input test data, perform different operations, and check the outcomes of each.

You will perform all these steps according to the pre-defined test cases. For each test case, note down the feature checked and resulting outcomes, and mark pass/fail per your specifications.

Step 6: Defect Reporting

Report the results of the actual manual tests you performed. If the software passes a test case, report it as a success. But if the software fails in a test case, it means that the feature or functionality has some bug or defect.

In such cases, you must be detailed in your reporting with all the following information:

Feature/functionality checked Steps performed for the inspection Desired outcome Actual outcome Description of the problem faced The severity level of the defect and its impact on the software.

Assign priorities to each of these test cases so that you know the sequence of importance in subsequent iterations. You can mark them as minor, major, and critical.

Step 7: Retesting and Regression Testing

A crucial step of the manual testing process is retesting the corrected defects in the previous step. After identifying the flaws in step 6, the developer will correct them. To confirm that the issue is fixed hasn’t returned and hasn’t introduced new bugs conduct regression testing.

The problem is resolved in this step. And that the software’s functionality is as expected, without creating new inconsistencies. Once you verify the modifications, you can report it as fixed and resolved.

Step 8: Test Closure

You must prepare a closure report. Since you have performed all the above procedural steps and tested each capability successfully. When testers meet all testing objectives, they confirm it in a summary report. It must contain the following aspects:

Testing activities performedOutcomes of the testing relevant metrics

This software quality report describes everything about the manual testing process. You must submit it to the relevant stakeholders and reporting managers and share your findings. You can also include future testing recommendations and why manual testing is important. Additionally, you must archive these documents for future reference purposes.

Conclusion

Manual testing is a good approach to getting human insights into the software. A human touch technique that gives effective results on human behavioral aspects while using the software.

You must follow these steps to perform the manual testing process successfully. Missing any step or incorrect execution can lead to errors, affecting the quality of the software. Pay attention to each step in the process. Get the best results from manual testing and achieve successful business outcomes.