Planning Your Testing Approach:

A great testing tool is only going to be as effective as the process you have in place to utilize it.  While Janova is designed to fulfill a versatile role in any organization, immense gains in quality and timeliness can be achieved by clearly defining the ways in which it will be used.  Whether you want to ensure the quality of an existing product, are in the stages of designing a new piece of web-based software, or need a tool that can confirm functionality across a broad suite of applications, Janova can fit into your organization without problems. 

Procedurally, there are multiple approaches that can be used, each of which brings their own strengths and weaknesses.

Planning a Strategy for Existing Applications:

There are two main approaches for testing existing applications, a full regression approach and a release approach.  Each has potentials and drawbacks that will determine whether or not it is a right fit for your organization. 

Full Regression Approach:

If an organization determines that substantial upfront costs in labor are worth the return of a complete suite of tests from the onset, a full regression approach is preferable to release approach.  To do this, the entire application - as it currently exists - would be entered into Janova as a series of tests.  Every element on every screen would be defined, and tests would be created that fully exercise the system and all its components.  This method should be utilized if, after each release, unrelated areas to the feature in release stop working correctly, which they typically do. 

The advantage of this method is that it ensures that the entire application is functioning at every release or iteration point.  Not only is each new release free of defects, unforeseen complications will be caught by testing the rest of the existing system.  Of course, the disadvantage is that there are higher upfront costs, and it will take some investment of time to create an entire regression suite of Janova tests.

 Release Approach:

Standing at the other extreme from the full regression approach is the release approach, wherein only the features and defects that are scheduled for release are created for testing within Janova.  This approach ensures the quality of each release, but does not ensure that previous functionality is free of defects.  One screen may work perfectly, but a previous release is now entirely broken.

The advantage of this approach is that there is little upfront investment of either time or labor.  Were an organization moving from not testing at all (or testing manually) to a release approach, it would cost little to greatly improve initial release quality.  Furthermore, a regression suite would incrementally build over time as each release milestone came and went.  The disadvantage of this approach is that Janova would not be used to confirm the quality of the entire application, and if the application has many defects, there would still be a lot of manual testing to be done.

Planning a Strategy for New Applications:

Naturally the implementation of Janova, alongside the creation of a new application, is a more straightforward approach than those for existing applications.  Since there is no regression suite available (nor possible at that point) Janova can be used by business analysts to define the functionality of the new system and simultaneously define its testing parameters.  Working in concert with a new application allows for a seamless transition from business roles to a full-fledged suite of tests because the rules themselves are the tests.

Of course there are not always new development projects in every organizations, but if you are fortunate enough to have one ready to begin, Janova can be used to assist in the development process from day one onward.

Continue on to part two, The Requirements Are the Test.