Manual testing is an important aspect of the software testing process and plays a critical role in ensuring the quality of software applications. While automated testing can help speed up the testing process and reduce the workload of testers, there are certain scenarios where manual testing is necessary.
Few Reasons Why Manual Testing is Still Relevant
| Exploratory testing | Exploratory testing involves testing a software application without any predefined test scripts or test cases. This type of testing is necessary to uncover defects that may not be found through automated testing. Exploratory testing requires the tester to think creatively and interact with the application in different ways to find defects. |
| Usability testing | Usability testing is the process of testing how easy it is for users to interact with the software application. This type of testing requires manual testing as it involves the tester taking on the role of an end-user and evaluating the software application from a user’s perspective. |
| Ad-hoc testing | Ad-hoc testing involves testing an application in an unplanned and unstructured manner to identify defects. This type of testing is often done to verify that the application is functioning as expected and to uncover any unexpected behavior. |
| Edge cases | Edge cases are scenarios that are not covered by automated test cases. These scenarios may be complex or rare, and require manual testing to verify that the application behaves correctly. |
| Compatibility testing | Compatibility testing involves testing the software application on different hardware and software configurations to ensure that it works correctly in different environments. This type of testing requires manual testing as it involves verifying the software application on different systems with different configurations. |
How Does Tricentis Tosca Support Manual Testing
Tricentis Tosca supports manual testing. Tosca provides a manual testing module that allows testers to create and execute manual test cases. The manual testing module provides a user-friendly interface for creating and managing manual test cases, test data, and test results.
With Tosca’s manual testing module, testers can create manual test cases that are linked to automated test cases, requirements, and test data. Testers can also execute manual test cases and record their test results directly within Tosca. Additionally, Tosca supports exploratory testing, allowing testers to perform ad-hoc testing and record their findings.
Tosca’s manual testing module is fully integrated with the rest of the Tosca suite, providing seamless integration with automated testing, test data management, and requirements management capabilities. This allows organizations to have a unified view of their testing efforts and improve overall testing efficiency and effectiveness.
TestSteps for manual TestCases can either be recorded automatically or manually created simplifying your repeatability of executing the Tests. You can easily record your manual TestCases on Tricentis Tosca, and with a click on the Manual Test Case icon in the Tosca Commander Home menu. If a Requirement is selected when recording starts, Tosca will automatically create a TestCaseLink. Post this you can execute your manual tests.
Testing with Tosca has become very simple. Tosca tool uses manual TestSteps with several manual TestStepValues to perform the corresponding actions. To create manual TestSteps right-click onto a TestCase and select Create Manual TestStep from the context menu.
Challenges in Manual Testing for ERP Applications
Manual testing of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems such as SAP, Oracle EBS, Oracle HCM, Oracle Fusion Cloud applications, can be challenging due to the complexity and scope of these systems.
Here are some of the main challenges faced by testers when conducting manual testing:
High level of complexity: The ERP systems are often complex and have a vast number of modules, functionalities, and integrations with other systems. Manual testing of these ERP systems requires a deep understanding of the business processes, functional requirements, and technical aspects of the system.
Complex but critical Data management: ERP systems require large amounts of data to be generated and manipulated during testing. Manually entering and managing data can be time-consuming and prone to errors, which can affect the accuracy of the test results.
Integration testing: ERP systems often integrate with other systems and applications, which makes it challenging to identify and test all possible scenarios. Manual testing of integrations requires a thorough understanding of the underlying systems and protocols. Check out why performance testing for Oracle environments is important in this ebook
Security testing: ERP systems often contain sensitive data, which requires careful consideration of security testing. Manual testing of security features requires a deep understanding of security protocols and practices.
Regression testing: ERP systems require frequent updates and enhancements, which can impact the functionality of the system. Regression testing is essential to ensure that changes to the system do not break existing functionality. Manual regression testing of ERP systems can be time-consuming and requires a large number of test cases to be executed.
Lack of documentation: ERP systems may not have comprehensive documentation, which makes it challenging for testers to understand the system’s functionality and requirements. This can lead to incomplete or incorrect test scenarios being developed.
Overall, manual testing is important in ensuring that software applications are thoroughly tested and meet the quality standards expected by end-users. While automated testing can help speed up the testing process, manual testing is still necessary to uncover defects that may not be found through automated testing, and to verify that the application is functioning correctly in different scenarios and environments.
In summary, manual testing of ERP systems can be challenging due to the complexity and scope of the system, data management, integration testing, security testing, regression testing, and lack of documentation. Effective planning, test case design, and collaboration between testers, developers, and business stakeholders can help overcome these challenges and ensure the quality of the ERP system.
Also check out how to identify the right testing service provider in this ebook
