When your test suite takes longer to run than the actual application: 'Something's not right here...'

[albert.vu]

I am not a tester myself so I don’t think I am the right person to comment on topics such as these, but many of our members have expressed their own take on the concept of Testing Efficiency in our recent giveaway.

For example, @guy.mason’s take on Testing Efficiency is rather insightful…

@guy.mason

Efficiency relates to speed, relates to saving time, relates to optimising things, but of these three things, the key area to make progress is in optimisations.

A focus on speed or time, as a primary objective, may sacrifice quality, whereas a focus on optimisation still actually means ensuring that you’re covering what you should be covering, and when you should be covering it.

This is where a focus on the current context of what is being tested is a way to better ensure that what you’re covering what is relevant to the area under test, too. This relevance is where people are able to filter down from testing everything to filtering (at least initially) just what applies to that area.

A user may still go back (and say prior to signing off or releasing) and then choose to cover more broadly other areas outside of the AUT, in order to identify any additional regressions, or the likes, but it is these other areas where the risk is lower, as the probability of regressions in these other areas is likely lower too.

In addition to the above, efficiencies can also be achieved through process improvements, where something is often not yet found to be in the right state for testing, or some other patterns of issues exist, then by putting in reformed or new processes in those areas better ensures that when the testing is performed, it is more likely to go more smoothly and efficiently too.

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@Elly_Tran

How have you optimized your testing strategy to improve efficiency without sacrificing quality? What challenges have you faced, and what tactics have you found most effective in balancing these priorities?

@guy.mason Feel free to share more with us about how you have implemented your own take on Testing Efficiency within your testing projects and strategy… Or maybe just efficiency in other aspect of your worklife