Software development teams are always looking for an edge to produce features more quickly while retaining a high level of software quality. Most software quality teams realize that it takes both automated and manual test efforts to keep pace with quickening release cycles but are not sure how to get the most out of their testing efforts.

This paper discusses the need for a balanced automated and manual test approach and describes how to optimize your efforts to obtain the highest quality releases in the shortest amount of time. The white paper focuses on these topics:

• Best practices for planning your automated test effort
• Best practices for planning your manual test effort
• Uniting your automated and manual test efforts
• Optimizing your test efforts during the QA cycle
• Using Retrospectives to improve future testing efforts