Why Test Users Are So Important

Anyone who has ever been involved in software testing processes knows that having a group of test users is an indispensable part of such a process. In general, you will not be able to log in to your site as a user due to real security problems, but in the test environment, there will be no such restrictions.

In this article we’ll see why the group of test users is so important, and how to manage them most profitably.

Test Users Simplify Manual Testing

Many web products have different levels of users (with a different lists of rights and accesses). For example, often there is a so-called “administrator” who can do whatever he wants with the product, which is not allowed for ordinary users (editors).

Also, users differ by the sets of settings. Maybe your product supports the feature of paid accounts which have a large number of special features available compared to trial access. Or users can configure their accounts in different ways – for example, apply a dark theme, limit the visibility of their posts, and so on.

It is extremely important to check the performance of such groups initially so that everything functions properly before starting real testing. No one wants to constantly configure all users when there’s a need for tests. This is a very big waste of time which is best spent on the really important work – software testing itself.

Test Users Enrich the Opportunities of Automated Testing

From all the above, it makes sense to build automated checks so that it is possible to instantly test some scenarios that are diverse in their content. A simple example, you can set up a test that will check if a certain element is on the page, and then run it 2 times – once for users with a paid subscription, and the second time for users with a free subscription. This will save you a lot of time for other, more meaningful work (for example, for the app testing service).

The more configuration options you have, the more important it is to set up automated tests for these configurations. Based on such a strategy, you will be able to catch the “trickiest” defects before they get into production.

Test Users Allow Quickly Handle Arising Problems

When real users of a product find a flaw in it, it makes sense to diagnose and fix it as soon as possible. Maybe authorization for the product is required but it shouldn’t use real information about users. To reproduce the bug, you should have a test user whose configuration is similar to a real visitor. After the bug is fixed, you will need a user with similar configurations to use it in your test environment and validate the changes. If you do not have such a group of users, you will spend time setting them up: the debug process will be slowed down, and real users will not notice fixes soon.

How to Properly Work with Test Users?

In short, it’s:

• Software testing companies should have a person responsible for configuring and maintaining the system;
• “Share” test users with colleagues;
• Having test users saves your time and company budget.

Speaking in detail, your team should have a person who will purposefully develop and support the performance of all groups of test users. If one person does not want to constantly engage in these processes, simply rotate this task from colleague to colleague every year or quarterly.

A little proper preparation and organizational efforts are enough – and you will be able to manage a whole bunch of test users, with the help of which it will be possible to check the developed products. Test cases will be created faster, bugs will be discovered faster, and there will be fewer problems in production.