Tips for Estimating the Time for Software Testing

Last updated on October 15th, 2022 at 07:20 pm

There are many important phases of a project, including the planning phase. It allows teams to use their resources rationally, and predict the timeline of a project. The more accurate a team plans its data, a higher quality project management is ensured. Particularly, in the software industry, it is extremely important to initiate new products to keep up with the current competitive era. Thus, independent software testing companies also need to come up with solutions to set businesses apart from their competitors.

Testing time is one of the most crucial parts of project planning. Due to improper planning, teams can cause a number of negative effects, from increasing costs, schedule changes to overall project unprofitability. So, is it even possible to avoid such consequences? How is it possible to estimate the testing time and what factors are to be considered in the process? Is there a single approach that testers can use for their projects and what type of testing tasks would that include?

Well, the following tips will be helpful for independent software testing companies in estimating your testing time properly:

Explore Existing Techniques

Test planning is not a new task in the IT industry, so industry experts have already developed several techniques for estimating the software testing time. Each of these planning techniques has its own characteristics, some of them are formal, others are less formal, some of them are based on metrics, while others on intuition, and learnings from past experience. These characteristics are strengths and weaknesses of the planning techniques. In order to choose a suitable testing technique for a project, one has to explore and analyze the details of these techniques and understand which of these disadvantages would affect your actions less and which advantages to focus on.  

Use Multiple Techniques For Better Results

Testers should also minimize the disadvantages of a technique they have chosen, to combine it with another technique. For instance, set a good base for other techniques without breaking down the structure. This technique helps in realizing the scope of work, divide the larger tasks into little ones, clarify any queries and requirements analysis. This will make the utilization of other techniques easier because the work breakdown structure creates the necessary details for time estimation. Make sure you try different techniques and their combinations to compare the results.

Evaluate All the Tasks

If testers have estimated the testing time for a specific task, identify the risks associated with the testing task. Make sure you consider that each of these risks requires time resources to eliminate the consequences. These risks are quite broad, for instance, it may be due to lack of understanding, unstable test data, insufficient knowledge of tools and techniques, etc. 
The above tips will be helpful for independent software testing companies to ensure estimating the time for their software testing processes. There are a number of ways in which they can plan and estimate the time-frames.