How to avoid making lot of mistakes while testing functionality?

Question

How can we avoid mistakes while doing testing specifically black box testing of application?

I test a financial web application that deals with lot of funds moving around and financial data in different files.. that application is used by lot of large banks which move to transfer financial data of thousands of customers in many files I have been making lot of mistakes lately and bugs have been slipping in production.

I am a very senior test analyst of the team, I am not a junior test engineer but somehow I test just once and I am quite familiar with the application and have lot of domain knowledge over the years but I usually Test the functionality once and test 1 or 2 regression areas and pass it. one issue is that senior team members are not testing much on Staging area as they have the own work to do.. what can I do as I am doing lot of mistakes and if this continues I will lose my job soon

Answer 1

This is an interesting career question.

What do we know: you have experience, domain knowledge, etc.

My thought is you might be bored. Consider these questions:

• Are you learning new skills?
• Are you being challenged with new projects?
• Are you getting growth opportunities?
• Where do you want to grow in your career? Stay in testing? Move to another discipline? Move to a leadership role?
• Are you mentoring anyone with less skills or domain expertise?
• Once you identify the answer, can you ask leadership for opportunities for growth to pursue?

My thought is one or more of these things will be the solution. I have found in my own career that if you lack a challenge, if you lack growth, it creates an environment for boredom.

Answer 2

Learn from your mistakes. Look back and figure out why the regressions passed your supervision. Create a check list to prevent similar risks or regressions in the future.

Answer 3

Ensuring Software Quality requires avoiding errors during testing. Here are some ethics I used to practice; they might be useful to you as well:

1. As much as possible, thoroughly review and clarify the requirements before start testing. Ensure understand what needs to be tested and the expected outcomes.
2. Develop a comprehensive test plan outlining the testing strategy, scope, resources, and timelines. This helps maintain focus.
3. Prior to writing comprehensive test cases that include input specifications, execution processes, and expected outcomes, prepare the business use cases. This offers a precise roadmap for testing.
4. Identify the high-risk areas and prioritize testing efforts accordingly. Focus on critical features first.
5. Maintain clear and organized documentation of test cases, results, and any issues encountered.
6. Have team members review your test cases and results to catch potential oversights and improve quality
7. Combine structured testing with exploratory testing to uncover unexpected issues that might not be covered by test cases.
8. Always maintain a checklists for common mistakes or important areas to test. This can serve as a reminder to cover essential aspects.
9. Keep the lines of communication open to receive clarification and insights from the development team.
10. Allocate sufficient time for testing and avoid rushing through the process, which can lead to errors.