Some best practices that contribute to improved software testing Part II

There is always a search for best practices going on. Some are well known and some hidden. Testing does not stand alone. It is intimately dependant on the development practices. These practices have come from many sources. These practices can be divided in three parts:
- Basic Practices
- Foundation Practices
- Incremental Practices

The foundational practices include:
- User Scenarios
User scenarios are developed to test the functionality of applications when multiple software products are integrated. User scenarios test the product in a way that it reflects customer usage. It also reduces complexity of writing test cases. This practice should capture methods of recording user scenarios and developing test cases based on them.

- Usability Testing
Usability testing not only tests how usable a product is but also provide feedback on methods to improve user experience. A good user experience is very necessary. The best practice for usability testing is that it should have knowledge in area of human computer interface.

- In-process ODC feedback loops
Orthogonal defect classification or ODC uses deect stream for precise measurability into product and process. The advantage of ODC is that it has the ability to close feedback loops which has proved to be cost effective and process improvement.

- Multi release ODC/Butterfly profiles
This technology or practice allows to make strategic decisions to optimize development costs, time and quality issues by recognizing customer trends, patterns and performance of the product.

- Test Planning Requirements
Requirements management and preparing test plans out of it is an important step to check whether they are meeting the customer needs or not. This practice is understood and executed with a holistic view.

- Automated test generation
There are many automated tools to generate test cases which help in software testing.this practice needs to understand which of the methods are successful and in what environments they are viable. A good amount of learning is needed to learn these tools.