Simplifying Manual Testing with clear concepts

Manual Testing:
Manual Testing is the process of testing software where testers manually check the software without using any automation tools. Manual Testing plays a Crucial role in ensuring Quality and Stability.
Manual Testing builds the foundation for application and it helps in

1. Understanding the Application- Helps testers explore workflows and user behavior.
2. Identifying Stable scenarios- Manual Testing filters the right test case to test.
3. Catching Early Defects- Quick validation during frequent requirement/UI Changes.
4. Cost-Effective in Early Stages- No need to invest in heavy frameworks until the product stabilizes.
5. Exploratory and usability Checks-Human intuition finds what the scripts cannot

SDLC vs STLC - How Manual Testing Fits
SDLC- Software Development Life Cycle

SDLC is a structured process for delivering high-quality software efficiently. The main phases include:

1. Requirement Gathering – Understanding what the business and users need
2. Design –Architecting the solution
3. Development – Writing and building the code
4. Testing – Ensuring quality and identifying defects
5. Deployment – Releasing software to production
6. Maintenance – Ongoing support and updates This structured approach reduces risk and ensures predictable delivery.

STLC — Software Testing Life Cycle
A subset of SDLC focusing only on testing. Here Manual Testing helps throughout STLC .The main phases include

1. Requirement analysis (testing perspective)
2. Test planning
3. Test case design
4. Test Environment setup
5. Test execution
6. Test Closure This Structured approach ensures quality at every stage.

Terminologies every Manual Tester Must Know:
Test Design and Planning:

1. Test Scenario-High Level condition to be tested
2. Test case -Step by step process to verify functionality
3. Test Suite -Group of test cases for a module
4. Test Data -Input values used during Testing
5. Test Plan -Strategy ,Scope and Schedule of testing
6. Test Coverage-Mapping of requirements to test cases

Types of Testing
Functional Testing:
It Validates expected functionality in the application.
It involves

1. Integration Testing -Checking interaction between modules.
   Example: Test whether the Login module correctly passes user data to the Dashboard module after successful login.

2. System Testing -Checking complete integrated system.
   Example: Test whether the entire e-commerce site—from browsing products to adding to cart, making payment, and receiving order confirmation.

3. Smoke Testing -Checking basic build Verification.
   Example: After receiving a new build from the development team, check if the application opens, login works, and main pages load—just to ensure nothing is broken.

4. Sanity Testing -Checking quick check for specific areas.
   Example: A bug was fixed in the Login page, so test only the Login page to ensure the fix works and nothing else in that page is broken.

5. Regression Testing -Checking new code doesn't break existing features.
   Example: After adding a EMI feature in payment method, retest product selection, cart, checkout, and payment to ensure everything still works.

6. User Acceptance Testing -Checking end-user validation of requirements.
   Example: A real customer tests the Email notification to get the purchase details to confirm product confirmation details happen as expected.

7. Exploratory Testing-Learning and checking system without scripts
   Example: Freely navigating a new application, trying different buttons, combinations, and workflows to discover unexpected issues.

8. Ad-hoc Testing-Testing without scripts through random exploration
   Example: Randomly click around a application and uploading and downloading large files, switching networks—to find unusual crashes.

9. Unit Testing-Checking each unit performs as expected. mostly done by developers not manual testers
   Example: Developer tests a single function calculateTotal() to ensure it was adding prices correctly and returns the right total after submission.

Non Functional Testing:
It checks performance, Security and usability in the application.
It involves

1. Performance Testing-Testing under various loads
   Example: Checking how fast a website loads when 100, 500, and 1000 users access it.

2. Load Testing - Testing under expected load
   Example: If a Income tax site expects 500 users, you test the system behavior with exactly those 500 users.

3. Stress Testing-Testing under extreme loads beyond expected capacity
   Example: Checking the system by pushing the same Income tax site to 2500 users to see if it crashes or recovers during the financial year end.

4. Scalability Testing-Testing system how well it handle increased workloads ,user or data volumes without performance degradation.
   Example: Increasing users from 500 → 1000 → 2000 and checking if the system can scale by adding more servers or resources.

5. Usability Testing -Testing the user friendliness of the application.
   Example:Giving real users a E_commerce application and observing if they can use easily:

6. Login

7. Add to Cart

8. Checkout
   If users struggle, usability issues exist.

9. Security Testing-Testing a system's ability to protect data and functions from unauthorized access and attacks.
   Example: Checking the application with trying to login with multiple wrong passwords to check whether is account locked or verifying that payment data is encrypted.

10. Endurance Testing- Testing system performance and stability over a prolonged period.
    Example: Running an Emergency hospital services site under normal load for 24–48 hours continuously to see if memory leaks or slowdowns occur.

11. Reliability Testing- Testing system under continuous and repetitive conditions.
    Example: Checking the application for running the same payment transaction repeatedly for several hours to ensure it processes correctly every time without failure.

Some of the Test case Design Techniques in Testing:
Boundary value Analysis:
BVA is used when inputs have ranges, limits, thresholds .Instead of testing random values from the center, BVA directly target the limit values-the edges.

Example 1: Age must be 18–60
Value Result
17 Below the boundary ❌ Fail
18 Exact boundary ✔ Pass
19 Just above the boundary ✔ Pass
59 Below the boundary ✔ Pass
60 Exact boundary ✔ Pass
61 Just above the boundary❌ Fail

Use of BVA:
Fewer test cases, more coverage
Catch the most common defects
Makes the rules extremely clear(valid vs invalid)

Decision Table Testing:
It is used when the output depends on multiple conditions. It covers complex rules combinations with structured logic.

Example 2: Login
Condition:
Password correct?
User blocked?

Password correct User blocked Login
No No Fail
No Yes Fail
Yes No ✔ Login
Yes Yes Fail

Uses of DT:
Ensures complete Coverage of conditions
Helps in requirement validation
Handles complex business functions

Future of Manual Testing in the age of AI:
The Future of work is transforming before our eyes, AI is transforming by offering new opportunities and challenges such as automation testing tools. AI will eliminate boring, repetitive tasks, but it won't replace thinking, Judgement and responsibility. Manual testing remains essential for exploratory work, usability checks and scenarios where human intuition is irreplaceable.
Although AI in testing is emerging and providing smarter test case generation, Predictive defect detection to focus on high valued tasks. Manual testing brings creativity and real world thinking of business scenarios that algorithm can't stimulate. AI can execute tasks it should not be able to communicate with stakeholders or understanding customer needs.
Manual testing will be helpful in Collaboration between development and real end-users. In the future, Manual testers will collaborate with AI focusing more on complex problem solving in a structured way.