Can you execute cloud testing without the involvement of the development teams and project managers? No? This is probably because you have adopted a streamlined workflow to improve cloud-based testing and also proper cross-browser compatibility. Modern tools like LambdaTest have completely changed how various departments of an app-developing company collaborate to create advanced applications.
You can use all these advanced techniques to implement smooth communication, real-time test execution, and integrated test reporting. This not only improves the delivery cycles but also provides better-quality software to your customers.
Struggling with collaboration on cloud testing platforms? Don’t worry! We are here for you. Our article will help you understand various features available in cloud testing platforms like LambdaTest for efficient collaboration. We’ll also understand how you can benefit from these features while improving the quality of your testing infrastructure.
Why Collaborate In Cloud Testing?
Before you start discussing all the collaborative features, let us take a step back and understand why we should even bother about collaboration in the first place. To shed more light on this segment, we have mentioned some of the major reasons that justify the importance of this process:
- Collaboration helps improve the testing efficiency as it will reduce redundancy and also streamline the entire testing flow.
- With proper collaboration, you can also easily debug the functioning of the application. This is because you will have access to real time feedback and also issue tracking to speed up the debugging process altogether.
- Proper collaboration helps improve the integration with continuous deployment and continuous integration tools. This will also benefit issue trackers and test management platforms to implement proper continuity in your testing workflow.
- Finally, the collaboration will help you access centralized dashboards and detailed reports. All this will provide actionable insights for multiple stakeholders to improve their decision-making when discussing the future of the application that is currently being developed.
Collaborative Features in Platforms like LambdaTest
Before we start discussing all the collaborative features available with cloud-based platforms like LambdaTest, it is very important for you to understand the basics of cloud-based platforms and how they assist in the modern application testing process.
To shed more light on this segment, let us use the example of LambdaTest as our reference point:
LambdaTest is an AI-Native test orchestration and execution platform that lets you perform manual and automation testing at scale with over 5000+ real devices, browsers, and OS combinations. After executing the test cases, this will also generate comprehensive test reports with screenshots and videos for elevated test debugging.
1. Real-Time Live Testing and Shared Sessions
LambdaTest will allow the quality assurance engineers and developers to execute live interactive testing across multiple devices and browsers. This real-time collaboration will help the team members join live testing sessions remotely, share their scheme during testing, invite developers to debug issues collaboratively and capture screenshots for better communication.
All the above features will massively cut the back-and-forth discussions that are traditionally related to the testing and debugging processes.
2. Integrated Issue Tracking and Bug Logging
One of the major aspects of collaborative cloud-based testing is smooth bug tracking. This is because platforms like LambdaTest will allow you to easily integrate various issue-tracking tools like Jira, Trello, and GitHub.
Using these integrations you can not only log bugs directly from the LambdaTest platform but also attach annotated screenshots and test logs to easily track these bugs within the infrastructure of the application. This integration will also play a very important role in assigning the issues directly to the respective team members with real-time notifications for the resolution process.
3. Cloud-Based Test Execution with Parallel Testing
Modern applications consist of thousands of different elements that require thorough testing. If we use the traditional approach and execute these test cases manually, it will take multiple months to wrap up the entire test suite. However, platforms like LambdaTest will use multiple devices and configurations at the same time to run these tests automatically in a parallel configuration.
This will not only help reduce the overall test execution time but also allow the teams to share their individual environments without any additional setup or workflow. Other advantages of this setup include real-time logs, video recordings, and network logs for the team members to keep track of and review.
4. Team Management and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
Modern enterprises will require a team’s structured approach in the testing environment. To solve this issue, LambdaTest offers team management and role-based access control. You can use this feature to define the user roles, set permissions for accessing specific environments, and manage multiple projects and resources seamlessly.
Role-based access control will help implement proper data security while preventing unauthorized modifications to the test results. This is very important in a cloud testing environment as you will be transmitting sensitive user information through network configurations.
5. Collaborative Test Reporting and Dashboards
A centralized reporting system is very important for proper collaboration. LambdaTest will provide detailed test reports and dashboards automatically after running the test cases. These reports will consist of multiple vital information like visual insights, performance metrics, custom reporting options and trend analysis.
The primary role of all these metrics is to help you understand the functioning of the application while being able to easily find the faulty elements to implement the required debugging and troubleshooting steps.
You also have the option to easily share all these reports through e-mail or other integrated messaging services directly with reporting tools like Power BI.
6. Cross-Functional Collaboration with CI/CD Integration
Cloud platforms support the integration of CI/CD pipelines. You can implement this with the help of tools like Jenkins, Travis CI, Circle CI, and GitHub Actions. This integration will allow you to trigger automated tests upon code commits. You can also receive immediate test feedback directly within the testing workflow.
The proper implementation of this entire approach will help you to massively reduce human involvement in the entire testing process.
7. Automated Test Scheduling and Shared Workspaces
With testing platforms like LambdaTest, the testing teams can automatically schedule the test execution at predefined intervals. The main benefit of this approach is the reduction of manual effort and shared workspace features.
The teams can also use this option to organize the test scripts and reports in a centralized location. You can also collaborate on multiple frameworks like Selenium, Cypress, and Playwright. Finally, this feature will also help you to maintain the test history and version control, in case you want to implement an easy rollback.
8. Video Recording and Session Replay for Collaboration
While using LambdaTest for executing the test cases on your cloud infrastructure, you can implement automatic video recordings of every testing session. This feature will be very important to reproduce the failed test cases for deeper analysis. You can also share the recorded sessions with developers and respective stakeholders to reproduce the issues and understand what triggers them.
Finally, the video recordings will also provide proof of testing to stakeholders regarding the tests. It is a very important parameter to keep all the people within the company on the same page about the current status of the application testing process.
Best Practices in Advanced Cloud Testing Platforms like LambdaTest
Finally, let us go through some of the best practices that we suggest the testers incorporate in their cloud testing platforms like LambdaTest. These practices will not only help streamline the entire development workflow but will also help you improve the quality of the applications that are currently working on:
- It is very important to choose your target devices, operating systems, and browser versions. This is because, with thousands of configurations available, even a cloud testing environment will make it a very complex process. If you narrow down the options based on your target audience preferences, you can massively reduce the testing costs and time.
- Did you come across artificial intelligence and machine learning? It is very important to start incorporating them into the testing workflow. For instance, you can consider using predictive test analysis and future risk mitigation by analyzing the historical data available within the infrastructure of the application.
- Although automation testing will be a very important part of cloud-based testing environments, you must not eliminate manual testing completely. This is because various testing areas like exploratory testing, will rely on the expertise of a human developer. So, the proper balance between manual and human testing is the key to achieving testing success.
- Although cloud-based testing completely eliminates the hassle and expense of maintaining a physical device lab, it also has its own expenses. For example, platforms like LambdaTest will require a subscription to access the remote device labs. Although these expenses are very minimal compared to other options, you must plan for them accordingly.
- It is very important for the testers to maintain detailed logs, version history, and access control to ensure regulatory compliance. You also must properly document all the errors, bugs, and issues that have been found in the infrastructure of the application. This will help keep track of the known issues and also seamlessly release future updates to the app.
- Finally, you must keep yourself updated with all the upcoming trends, innovations, and inclusions in the segment of cloud-based application testing. This will help you utilize all the new and advanced features to provide the best end-user experience to your customers. Factors like these are very important to create and maintain a positive brand reputation.
The Bottom Line
Based on all the factors that we put forward in this article, we can easily say that collaborative features in cloud testing platforms like LambdaTest will completely change your software development workflow. This is because it will help implement more efficient, transparent, and accessible testing practices.
All the features and best practices that we discussed in this article will help empower your teams to deliver high-quality software at a faster speed. You can also utilize these tools to overcome traditional testing challenges, improve coordination, and drive faster product releases.
Moreover, with the growing popularity of cloud testing features and advanced artificial intelligence integration, all these practices will be very important to maintain the position of your company in this competitive segment of the industry.
