What are some common web application testing reporting and documentation practices?

I agree with the idea of Test Plan in an agile SDLC, but Test plan is not being used so much in an aggressive SLDC where the ticket flow is dynamic and the test strategies designed in the test plan are not followed in the same direction. A reduced test matrix for the sprint duration however, is a good idea in such situations.

In web application testing, comprehensive reporting and documentation are essential. This includes test plans detailing objectives and methodologies, test cases outlining specific scenarios, and test results summarizing findings. Additionally, bug reports should be thorough, highlighting issues with clear steps to reproduce and severity levels. Consistent documentation ensures transparency, facilitates collaboration, and aids in future reference and improvement efforts.

Implementing tests is crucial to verify if requirements are met, validate inputs and outputs, ensure data integrity, and the functionality of the system as a whole. Moreover, tests allow for early detection and correction of issues, easing code maintenance and enabling the safe implementation of new features. Don't overlook including tests in your development process to ensure software quality and robustness, testing all expected and unexpected cases.

As a QA engineer, it’s always a good practice to add as many details as possible while documenting a bug. This gives the developer who’s working on the ticket all the details they need to fix the issue. 1. Title: Briefly describe the issue. 2. Description: Explain the problem and where it occurred. 3. Steps to Reproduce: Provide clear steps to recreate the issue. 4. Expected Behavior: Describe what should happen. 5. Actual Behavior: Detail what actually happened. 6. Severity/Priority: Assess the impact and urgency. 7. Environment: Specify the system/environment details. 8. Attachments: Include relevant files/logs or screenshots.

Bug ticket, by ALL responsible for quality.Add the right context. Giving the engineer's info to either fix, start discovery, or archive/defer. More important to log the bug then find the root cause later, dependant on pri/sev of symptoms or you can waste time finding RC for a bug no one might prioritise. 1. Title and context 2. Steps to Reproduce if available, not all bugs are reproducible easily, you may need time to pair and reproduce again with someone and some bugs are a 'perfect storm' so might actually be expensive to reproduce. 3. Actual behaviour. 4. Expected behaviour 5. Sev/ Pri/ urgency if known, if not mark as needs refinement and do a 3 amigos session soon. DEV NOTES: Env/service/repo/system/logs.

In my experience, the infrastructure in which both, Automation and Manual testing is conducted on a daily basis, the test report can have more KPIs such as - Number of Test cases automated - Number of Test cases Automat-able - Number of Test cases that cannot be automated These KPIs would provide more visibility and clearer information on the upcoming and current regression cycles to the business people.

It’s a great idea to have a test documentation, especially if multiple QAs work on the same project and they need to know how the previous test run was executed and what was covered. Ofcourse they can verbally communicate and resolve any issues if any.