You're facing a tight deadline for testing. How do you ensure quality without compromising quantity?

I would say that this question is more for a lead or manager position. It is always a question of how to deal effectively with budget, time, and quality. Of course, the best to avoid rush is to plan ahead. Always be honest with your manager and share your concerns about time estimates and some dependencies. A realistic and well-thought-out timeline will make it possible to meet deadlines, stay on budget, and still create high-quality work.

By making sure that "testing" is part of the software development process instead of a separate function added to the end of a "delivery" or "build". A feature isn't complete until the tests prove a build works. Automated testing within the build process is key.

In a time crunch, prioritizing tests is crucial. Focus on core functionalities critical to your application's performance. Identify tests that have the greatest impact on the product's quality and user experience. Risk-based testing can be particularly effective; by pinpointing areas with the highest risk of failure, you can ensure these critical components work flawlessly, maximizing quality without compromising quantity. Prioritize high-risk areas first to manage limited testing time efficiently.

Identify critical functionalities and user flows risk assessments. Focus your testing efforts on these high risk areas first to catch major issues early. Focus on the 20 percent of the features that will likely yield 80 percent of the bugs. You can revisit less critical areas later if time allows.

Automating tests wisely ensures quality without sacrificing quantity, even under tight deadlines. Focus on automating repetitive, time-consuming, and stable tests that don't frequently change. Strategic automation helps save time and resources, providing a significant return on investment while maintaining high-quality standards. However, remember that not all tests warrant automation due to the initial investment involved. Select tests that offer the most value, allowing you to meet deadlines efficiently.

Testing cannot and will not ensure quality. Although testing will and should contribute to the overall quality of the product.

The best way in which you can contribute to quality is - Collaborating with others to establish a common understanding of what quality means in your organisation and what's acceptable as quality - Educating and helping others to implement practices which help to achieve quality standards established because quality is everyone's responsibility and testing alone cannot ensure quality - Helping developers & architects to build testability inside the product - Leverage automation as much as possible to save time, test more combinations & increase coverage All of this will ensure you always have sufficient time for testing even if timeliness is tight and you are not required to cut corners when you have release

In tight deadlines for testing, clear communication is paramount to maintain quality without compromising quantity. Ensure every team member understands their roles and responsibilities and keep communication channels open to promptly address any issues and avoid bottlenecks. It's equally important to keep stakeholders informed about progress and potential issues, managing their expectations effectively. This holistic communication strategy fosters a collaborative environment, ensuring that the testing process remains efficient and effective.

Discuss the tight deadline with developers and stakeholders. Agree on realistic testing goals and adjust expectations if necessary. Use a clear bug tracking system to efficiently log, categorize and prioritize identified issues. Involve developers in the testing process early on. This allows for quicker bug fixes and reduces the overall testing burden later.

There are numerous testing tools available that can help streamline your testing process. From test management software to defect tracking systems, these tools can help you organize, manage, and execute your tests more efficiently. By leveraging these resources, you can reduce manual overhead and free up time to focus on more complex testing scenarios that require human judgment. Using these tools effectively can ensure that quality is maintained without compromising quantity, even under tight deadlines.

It's the first time I see AI-generated article without the option What else to consider. But - let's make it. What else to consider when you want to ensure quality under tight deadlines: - Negotiation and trade-off. Deadlines can move, the scope can change (release the features one by one over some period of time), release can be postponed to a better marketing date, or bundled with another release. - Setting up expectations Talk to stakeholders about some "unknown unknowns". Suggest limited testing coverage, based on stakolder priorities. Come up with wokraround plans, support workflows, communication- for production problems. Clearly communicate the risks to every decision maker. - More eyes on the product. Self explanatory ")