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Alt test levels. ALT Blood Test: Understanding Liver Health Through Enzyme Levels

What is an ALT blood test. How does it indicate liver health. What are normal ALT levels. What causes elevated ALT. How to interpret ALT test results. When should you get an ALT test. How to lower high ALT levels.

What is an ALT Blood Test and Why is it Important?

The Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) blood test, formerly known as the Serum Glutamic-Pyruvic Transaminase (SGPT) test, is a crucial diagnostic tool for assessing liver health. ALT is an enzyme primarily found in liver cells, and its presence in the bloodstream can indicate liver damage or disease. This test is considered one of the most reliable methods for identifying liver issues.

Why is the ALT test so significant? When liver cells are damaged, they release ALT into the bloodstream. By measuring ALT levels, healthcare providers can gauge the extent of liver damage and potentially identify the underlying cause. This makes the ALT test an invaluable tool in diagnosing and monitoring liver conditions.

The Role of ALT in the Body

ALT plays a vital role in the body’s metabolic processes. Its primary function is to catalyze the transfer of amino groups from alanine to α-ketoglutarate, forming pyruvate and glutamate. This process is crucial for protein metabolism and energy production. While ALT is found in various tissues throughout the body, its concentration is highest in the liver, making it an excellent marker for liver health.

Normal ALT Levels: What’s the Benchmark?

Understanding normal ALT levels is crucial for interpreting test results. Generally, normal ALT values range between 7-55 units per liter (U/L). However, it’s important to note that these reference ranges can vary slightly depending on the laboratory and the specific testing method used.

Are there differences in normal ALT levels based on age or gender? Yes, there can be. Some studies suggest that men tend to have slightly higher ALT levels than women, and that ALT levels may increase slightly with age. However, these variations are typically minor and fall within the general normal range.

Interpreting ALT Test Results

Interpreting ALT test results requires considering the specific value in relation to the normal range. Here’s a general guide:

  • Values within 7-55 U/L are typically considered normal
  • Values between 56-220 U/L may indicate mild to moderate liver damage
  • Values above 550 U/L often suggest severe liver damage or acute hepatitis
  • Values below 7 U/L are generally considered medically insignificant but may warrant further investigation when combined with other test results

It’s crucial to remember that ALT levels should always be interpreted in the context of an individual’s overall health status and other diagnostic tests.

What Causes Elevated ALT Levels?

Elevated ALT levels can be caused by various factors, ranging from temporary conditions to chronic liver diseases. Understanding these causes is essential for proper diagnosis and treatment.

Common Causes of High ALT

  • Viral hepatitis (A, B, C)
  • Alcoholic liver disease
  • Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
  • Medication-induced liver damage
  • Cirrhosis
  • Liver tumors
  • Autoimmune hepatitis
  • Heart failure (in severe cases)
  • Muscle damage or intense exercise

In some cases, elevated ALT levels may be temporary, caused by factors such as recent alcohol consumption, strenuous exercise, or certain medications. However, persistently high ALT levels often indicate ongoing liver damage and require further investigation.

When Should You Get an ALT Test?

An ALT test may be recommended in various situations. Healthcare providers often order this test as part of routine health screenings or when liver disease is suspected.

Indications for ALT Testing

You might need an ALT test if you:

  • Have symptoms of liver disease (e.g., jaundice, abdominal pain, fatigue)
  • Have been exposed to hepatitis viruses
  • Consume alcohol heavily
  • Have a family history of liver disease
  • Take medications known to affect liver function
  • Are being monitored for existing liver conditions

Additionally, ALT tests are often included in comprehensive metabolic panels during routine health check-ups, making them a valuable tool for early detection of liver issues.

The ALT/AST Ratio: A Deeper Look at Liver Health

While ALT levels alone provide valuable information about liver health, comparing ALT with Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST) levels can offer even more insights. The ALT-to-AST ratio is a useful tool for healthcare providers to assess the severity and potential causes of liver damage.

Understanding the ALT/AST Ratio

In a healthy liver, the ALT/AST ratio is typically close to 1. However, this ratio can change in different liver conditions:

  • ALT/AST ratio > 1: Often seen in viral hepatitis and drug-induced liver injury
  • ALT/AST ratio < 1: May indicate alcoholic liver disease or cirrhosis
  • ALT/AST ratio > 2: Commonly associated with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

It’s important to note that while the ALT/AST ratio can provide valuable clues, it should always be interpreted in conjunction with other clinical findings and tests.

How to Lower High ALT Levels: Lifestyle Changes and Treatment Options

If you’ve been diagnosed with elevated ALT levels, there are several steps you can take to improve your liver health and potentially lower your ALT levels. The most effective approach often involves addressing the underlying cause of liver damage.

Lifestyle Modifications

  • Limit alcohol consumption or abstain completely
  • Maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise
  • Avoid unnecessary medications and supplements
  • Manage underlying conditions like diabetes or high cholesterol
  • Protect yourself against hepatitis by practicing safe sex and avoiding sharing needles

Medical Treatments

Depending on the underlying cause of elevated ALT, your healthcare provider may recommend specific treatments:

  • Antiviral medications for viral hepatitis
  • Weight loss interventions for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
  • Medications to manage autoimmune hepatitis
  • Liver-supportive supplements (under medical supervision)

In some cases, clinical data suggests that therapies like YHK (Yo Jyo Hen Shi Ko) may help support liver recovery and potentially lower ALT levels, especially when the underlying cause is difficult to remove. However, it’s crucial to consult with a healthcare provider before starting any new treatments.

Beyond ALT: Other Liver Function Tests

While the ALT test is a valuable tool for assessing liver health, it’s often used in conjunction with other liver function tests to provide a more comprehensive picture. Understanding these additional tests can help you better interpret your overall liver health status.

Common Liver Function Tests

  • Aspartate Aminotransferase (AST): Often measured alongside ALT
  • Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP): Can indicate bile duct problems
  • Gamma-Glutamyl Transferase (GGT): Sensitive to alcohol use and certain medications
  • Bilirubin: Elevated levels can cause jaundice
  • Albumin: Indicates the liver’s protein production capacity
  • Prothrombin Time (PT): Measures blood clotting function

These tests, when interpreted together, provide a comprehensive assessment of liver function and can help identify specific liver conditions.

The Future of Liver Health Assessment: Beyond Traditional Tests

As medical science advances, new methods for assessing liver health are emerging. These innovations promise to provide more accurate and comprehensive evaluations of liver function, potentially leading to earlier detection and more effective treatments for liver diseases.

Emerging Technologies in Liver Health Assessment

  • FibroScan: A non-invasive method to assess liver fibrosis and steatosis
  • Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE): Provides detailed images of liver stiffness
  • Liquid Biopsy: Analyzes circulating tumor DNA for early cancer detection
  • Metabolomics: Studies metabolic profiles to identify liver diseases
  • AI-assisted Imaging: Enhances interpretation of liver scans

While these technologies show promise, traditional blood tests like ALT remain crucial for routine liver health monitoring and disease detection.

Understanding ALT levels and their significance is an important step in maintaining liver health. Regular check-ups and lifestyle modifications can go a long way in preventing liver damage and ensuring overall well-being. If you have concerns about your liver health or ALT levels, it’s always best to consult with a healthcare professional for personalized advice and treatment options.

Alanine Aminotransferase (ALT) Test and Results (aka SGPT Test)

Comparing ALT with AST levels gives your doctor more information about the health of your liver. The ALT-to-AST ratio can help your doctor figure out how severe the liver damage is and what might have caused it.

ALT is an enzyme found in many parts of the body, but the liver contains the highest concentration. This enzyme, formerly known by the name serum glutamic-pyruvic transaminase, or SGPT, is used by the body to break down food into energy. ALT levels normally remain fairly low, but rise when your liver is damaged. Because of this, a high ALT level are usually a straightforward indication that there is something wrong with your liver.

Alanine transaminase, also known as ALT or SGPT, is an enzyme made by the liver to metabolize proteins. ALT is released into the bloodstream when liver cells are damaged. An ALT test measures the amount of ALT in the blood to assess if the liver is damaged. The most common reason to take an ALT test is to detect liver injury and to screen for/or help diagnose liver disease, as it is considered to be one of the best methods to identify liver issues.

What Do My Blood Test Results Mean?

Normal values in the ALT SGPT blood test are between 7-55 units per liter. Many results are given as the number only. Anything within this range is treated as a lack of liver, muscle, or organ damage occurring. Values may be low or high and each respective result may mean something different.

When there are extremely high ALT levels that are above 550, then the most common reason for this test result is the presence of an acute hepatitis infection. Certain viral infections of the liver not related to hepatitis have also been known to produce similar results. It may take up to 6 months before ALT levels will begin returning back to a normal range.

Medication, illicit drugs, and other substances that may cause acute liver damage have been known to create ALT SGPT blood test results that are higher than 5,500. This result may also be an indicator that there is a decreased level of blood coming to the liver.

Most people who have high test results, however, will have a reading that is in the 56-220 range. This may indicate the presence of a chronic hepatitis infection, a bile duct obstruction, or the presence of liver cirrhosis. Tumors on the liver, heart damage, and alcohol abuse have also been known to cause results in this range.

Low test results that are 6 or below are typically considered medically insignificant, but when combined with other tests could indicate an issue that may need to be addressed. Low ALT SGPT blood test results must be compared with an individual’s medical history in order to determine the issue.

Your doctor might recommend ALT if you have symptoms of liver disease or damage, such as:

  • Stomach pain or swelling
  • Nausea
  • Vomiting
  • Yellow skin or eyes (a condition called jaundice)
  • Weakness
  • Extreme tiredness (fatigue)
  • Dark-colored urine
  • Light-colored poop
  • Itchy skin

Here are some reasons you might get this test:

  • You’ve been exposed to the hepatitis virus.
  • You drink a lot of alcohol.
  • You have a family history of liver disease.
  • You take medicine that’s known to cause liver damage.

The ALT test can be done as part of a blood panel during a regular exam. If you’ve already been diagnosed with liver disease, your doctor can use the ALT test to see how well your treatment is working.

ALT (Alanine Aminotransferase / SGPT) is an enzyme that is mainly found in liver cells. The level of ALT in our bloodstream is the primary indicator of liver health.

What does high ALT indicate?

ALT enzymes are normally contained within liver cells when the liver is healthy, but when the liver cells are injured or damaged by whatever means, ALT enzymes are released into the bloodstream, causing levels to go up. Therefore, by measuring the concentration of ALT enzymes in the blood, we can determine the degree of liver damage. The higher ALT number indicates more severe damage to the liver. [1]

How can we lower ALT level?

High ALT or liver damage can be caused by various reasons, some of these common causes include: hepatitis B/C, fatty liver, NASH, alcoholic liver disease, medications, and heavy metals. The usual treatment for high ALT is to first determine the cause, and then remove it, e.g. to use anti-viral medications, go on a weight loss diet or stop drinking, etc. As the liver has good self-recovery ability, quite often when the cause is removed, it heals itself and ALT level lowers.

But in some cases, removing the cause might be difficult or even impossible. In these cases, the liver will require extra support to help its recovery, to reduce liver damage and to lower ALT level. Clinical data shows that YHK therapy is an effective solution to treat high ALT. With anti-inflammation and anti-fibrosis properties, YHK can lower and improve ALT level within 10-30 days. YHK offers fast liver recovery and protection for those who struggle to bring down ALT level. [2]

Why is normal ALT level crucial?

Having a small amount of ALT in the bloodstream is normal for healthy individuals. The normal values are around 10-40 units per litre. This range might vary according to different countries or laboratories, but the upper limit is usually between 35-45. [1]

If high ALT occurs for more than 3 months, it is considered as chronic liver disease, as the situation is likely to persist without treatment. Persistent high ALT level means long term liver damage, which is the main cause of liver fibrosis, cirrhosis and liver cancer.

Lowering ALT level and maintaining it within the normal range ensures liver health, prevents liver fibrosis and cirrhosis, and most importantly reduces the risk of liver cancer. If you are experiencing high ALT, and are interested in YHK therapy, you are welcome to contact our support team.

With the help of YHK, normalising ALT level has never been easier.

  1. What is ALT: http://www. webmd.com/digestive-disorders/alanine-aminotransferase-alt (accessed 2016-02-16)
  2. YHK, A Novel Herbal Remedy with Effective Antifibrotic Action, in Chronic Liver Disease: A Pilot Clinical Study Aiming to a Successful Integrative Medicine Development https://www.kyotsujigyo.net/document/yhk/13_clincial.pdf (accessed 2016-02-16)

Sources:

https://www.healthlabs.com/liver-test-alt-sgpt
https://healthresearchfunding.org/alt-sgpt-blood-test-results-explained/
https://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/alanine-aminotransferase-test
https://www.yhktherapy.com/en/manage-your-liver/detail/143/what-is-alt-sgpt-and-how-to-lower-it

Blood tests – Examples – NHS

Blood tests can be used in a number of ways, such as helping to diagnose a condition, assessing the health of certain organs or screening for some genetic conditions.

This page describes some common blood tests.

For more information about a wider range of tests, search the blood test A-Z index on Lab Tests Online UK.

Blood cholesterol test

Cholesterol is a fatty substance mostly created by the liver from the fatty foods in your diet and is vital for the normal functioning of the body.

Having a high level of cholesterol can contribute to an increased risk of serious problems such as heart attacks and strokes.

Blood cholesterol levels can be measured with a simple blood test. You may be asked not to eat for 12 hours before the test (which usually includes when you’re asleep) to ensure that all food is completely digested and won’t affect the result, although this isn’t always necessary.

Find out more about getting tested for high cholesterol and read about cholesterol tests on Lab Tests Online UK.

Blood culture

This involves taking a small sample of blood from a vein in your arm and from 1 or more other parts of your body.

The samples are combined with nutrients designed to encourage the growth of bacteria. This can help show whether any bacteria are present in your blood.

At least 2 samples are usually needed.

Read more about blood cultures on Lab Tests Online UK

Blood gases test

A blood gases sample is taken from an artery, usually at the wrist. It’s likely to be painful and is only carried out in hospital.

A blood gas test is used to check the balance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood, and the balance of acid and alkali in your blood (the pH balance).

A pH imbalance can be caused by:

  • problems with your respiratory system, such as pneumonia or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
  • problems affecting your metabolism (the chemical reactions used by the body to break down food into energy), such as diabetes, kidney failure or persistent vomiting

Read more about blood gas tests on Lab Tests Online UK

Blood glucose (blood sugar) tests

A number of tests can be used to diagnose and monitor diabetes by checking the level of sugar (glucose) in the blood.

These include the:

  • fasting glucose test – where the level of glucose in your blood is checked after fasting (not eating or drinking anything other than water) for at least 8 hours
  • glucose tolerance test – where the level of glucose in your blood is checked after fasting, and again 2 hours later after being given a glucose drink
  • HbA1C test – a test done at your GP surgery or hospital to check your average blood sugar level over the past 3 months

Blood glucose test kits may be available to use at home. These only require a small “pin prick” of blood for testing.

Read more about glucose tests on Lab Tests Online UK

Blood typing

This is done before donating blood or having a blood transfusion, to check what your blood group is.

If you are given blood that doesn’t match your blood group, your immune system may attack the red blood cells, which can lead to potentially life-threatening complications.

Blood typing is also used during pregnancy, as there’s a small risk the unborn child may have a different blood group from their mother, which could lead to the mother’s immune system attacking her baby’s red blood cells. This is known as rhesus disease.

If you don’t already know your blood type, your blood will be tested at least once during your pregnancy to determine if there’s a risk of rhesus disease. Read more about diagnosing rhesus disease.

If testing reveals there is a risk of rhesus disease, an injection of a medicine that stops the mother’s immune system attacking her baby’s blood cells can be given. Read more about preventing rhesus disease.

Read more about blood typing on Lab Tests Online UK

Cancer blood tests

A number of blood tests can be carried out to help diagnose certain cancers or check if you’re at an increased risk of developing a particular type of cancer.

These include tests for:

  • prostate-specific antigen (PSA) – this can help diagnose prostate cancer, although it can also detect other problems such as an enlarged prostate or prostatitis
  • CA125 protein – a protein called CA125 can indicate ovarian cancer, although it can also be a sign of other things such as pregnancy or pelvic inflammatory disease (PID)
  • genes which increase your risk of some cancers, such as the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes – certain versions of these genes can greatly increase a woman’s chance of developing breast cancer and ovarian cancer; this test may be carried out if these types of cancer run in your family

Chromosome testing (karyotyping)

This is a test to examine bundles of genetic material called chromosomes.

By counting the chromosomes (each cell should have 23 pairs) and checking their shape, it may be possible to detect genetic abnormalities.

Chromosome testing can be used:

  • to help diagnose differences in sex development (DSD), such as androgen insensitivity syndrome
  • for couples who have experienced repeated miscarriages, to see if a chromosomal problem could be responsible

Coagulation tests

A coagulation test may be used to see if your blood clots in the normal way.

If it takes a long time for your blood to clot, it may be a sign of a bleeding disorder such as haemophilia or von Willebrand disease.

A type of coagulation test called the international normalised ratio (INR) is used to monitor the dose of anticoagulants, such as warfarin, and check that your dose is correct. Read more about monitoring your anticoagulant dose.

Read more on Lab Tests Online UK about coagulation factors and international normalised ratio.

C-reactive protein (CRP) test

This is another test used to help diagnose conditions that cause inflammation.

CRP is produced by the liver and if there is a higher concentration of CRP than usual, it’s a sign of inflammation in your body.

Read more about C-reactive protein on Lab Tests Online UK

Electrolyte test

Electrolytes are minerals found in the body, including sodium, potassium and chloride, which perform jobs such as maintaining a healthy water balance in your body.

Changes in the level of electrolytes can have various possible causes, including dehydration, diabetes or certain medicines.

Read more about electrolytes on Lab Tests Online UK

Erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)

This test works by measuring how long it takes for red blood cells to fall to the bottom of a test tube. The quicker they fall, the more likely it is there are high levels of inflammation.

An ESR is often used to help diagnose conditions associated with inflammation, such as:

  • arthritis
  • endocarditis
  • Crohn’s disease
  • temporal arteritis (giant cell arteritis)
  • polymyalgia rheumatica

Along with other tests, an ESR can also be useful in confirming whether you have an infection.

Read more about erythrocyte sedimentation rate on Lab Tests Online UK

Full blood count (FBC)

This is a test to check the types and numbers of cells in your blood, including red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets.

This can help give an indication of your general health, as well as provide important clues about certain health problems you may have.

For example, an FBC may detect signs of:

  • iron deficiency anaemia or vitamin B12 deficiency anaemia
  • infection or inflammation
  • bleeding or clotting disorders

Read more about full blood count on Lab Tests Online UK

Genetic testing and screening

This involves extracting a sample of DNA from your blood, then searching the sample for a specific genetic change (mutation).

Genetic conditions that can be diagnosed this way include:

  • haemophilia – a condition that affects the blood’s ability to clot
  • cystic fibrosis – a condition that causes a build-up of sticky mucus in the lungs
  • spinal muscular atrophy – a condition involving muscle weakness and progressive loss of movement
  • sickle cell disease – a condition that causes a shortage of normal red blood cells
  • autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease – a condition that causes fluid-filled sacs called cysts to develop in the kidneys

Genetic screening can also be used to check if someone carries a particular gene that increases their risk of developing a genetic condition.

For example, if your brother or sister developed a genetic condition in later life, such as Huntington’s disease, you may want to find out whether there is a risk that you could also develop the condition.

Read more about genetic and genomic testing

Liver function test

When the liver is damaged, it releases substances called enzymes into the blood and levels of proteins produced by the liver begin to drop.

By measuring the levels of these enzymes and proteins, it’s possible to build up a picture of how well the liver is functioning.

This can help to diagnose certain liver conditions, including hepatitis, cirrhosis (liver scarring), and alcohol-related liver disease.

Read more about liver function tests on Lab Tests Online UK

Thyroid function test

This test is used to test your blood for levels of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), and, where needed, thyroxine and triiodothyronine (thyroid hormones).

If you have low or high levels of these hormones, it could mean you have a thyroid condition such as an underactive thyroid or overactive thyroid.

Read more about thyroid function tests on Lab Tests Online UK

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Page last reviewed: 08 August 2022
Next review due: 08 August 2025

Alternatives to “Manual Testing”: Empirical, Supervised, Exploratory

Alternatives to “Manual Testing”: Empirical, Supervised, Exploratory

07.12.2021 00:00

Author: Michael Bolton
Original article
Olga Alifanova

You can’t sit in front of a computer and accidentally compile a working program, so people – intuitively and quite rightly – assume that programming is difficult. But anyone can sit in front of a computer and stumble upon bugs, which is why people – intuitively and fundamentally wrong – believe that testing is easy!

Testers who take testing seriously find it difficult to explain to others how it works.

The problem here is in a particular case of the insider-outsider problem, which manifests itself in all aspects of human experience: in most cases, those who are outside the social group (societies, cultures, groups with certain experiences, countries, fan clubs) do not understand the insider’s point of view . Insiders don’t understand outsiders either.

We don’t know what we don’t know. This, of course, should be obvious, but if we don’t know something, we have no idea how little we understand about it, and our experience or lack of experience can lead us in the wrong direction. “Driving is easy! Just shift into gear and go!” It might work fine in your current context. And now I propose to drive in Bangalore.

What does this have to do with testing? But what:

You can’t sit in front of a computer and accidentally compile a working program, so people – intuitively and quite rightly – assume that programming is hard. But anyone can sit in front of a computer and stumble upon bugs, which is why people – intuitively and fundamentally wrong – believe that testing is easy!

There is a belief in the world of software development that if everyone is enthusiastic and really tries hard, then everything will be fine. If you believe this, there is no need to look for deep, hidden, rare, floating, sudden problems; the dignity of people magically prevents such problems from appearing. This is, to put it mildly, an extremely optimistic view of the risks. All this is great if the product is not so important. But if our product is meaningful, we must look for problems, and to deliberately look for deep problems, it would be nice to have experienced testers!

However, the role of a tester is not always welcome. The problem is that to create an innovative, complex product, you need a huge margin of optimism, the attitude “nothing is impossible.” However, as my friend Fiona Charles once told me, to paraphrase Tom DeMarco and Tim Lister, “In an environment where anything is possible, risk management is a criminal offence. ” I would say more, in such an environment, even the recognition of risk is a criminal offense.

In Book Waltzing With Bears DeMarco and Lister write: “A direct result of the “everything is possible” approach is to discourage any analysis that assumes that not everything is possible. By implementing a risk management structure, you enable people to think negatively at least sometimes “The companies that do this understand that negative thinking is the only way to avoid missing risk as the project progresses.”

Risk Denial is well illustrated in the excellent documentary General Magic, which talks about the development team of the same name. In early 19In the 90s (!!), General Magic was working on a device that, in terms of power, design and ambition, was almost indistinguishable from the iPhone that came out 15 years later.

The documentary is worth watching. In one part, project leader Mark Porat recalls why General Magic went bust before it even got close to launch. “We were fearless and confident that we were doing everything right; the question “Could I be wrong” did not even arise. This is what it takes to get off the Earth – an incredible set of speed obtained by suppressing thoughts about the possibility of failure.”

This approach still dominates software development. The development business systematically resists critical thinking about problems and risks. Unfortunately for testers, this is the area where we work.

Developers have excellent skills, experience and implicit knowledge about linking the world of people with the world of machines. What they don’t have – and not just them, but almost all of them – is the intention to find problems. The developer is interested in solving the problems of mankind. Testers have a socially problematic role: to look for problems and report them wherever we go. Unlike everyone else on the project, testers focus on unresolved problems or problems generated by our product. This point of view, creators naturally tend to resist.

Resisting thoughts of problems leads to many useless and false ideas. Some people believe that the only type of bug is a code error. Some are convinced that the main thing is to meet the intentions of the creators regarding the product. Someone is sure that all important problems can be found by writing mechanistic checks. These ideas reflect the natural distortions of the optimistic creator. These ideas make it possible to believe that testing can be automated.

The false and nonsensical idea that testing can be automated leads to the division of testing into “manual” and “automated”.

Listen here: no aspect of software development (or any other social, cognitive, intellectual, critical, analytical, or research work) is so shared. There are no “hand programmers”. There is no “automated research”. Managers do not manage projects “manually” and there is no “automated management”. Physicians can use very powerful and sophisticated tools, but there are no “automated doctors” and there are no “manual” doctors, and no doctor would allow himself to be categorized as such.

Testing cannot be automated. Dot. Some tasks in and around testing can benefit greatly from the use of tools, but forcing the machine to press virtual buttons and compare the result of a product to a predetermined result is just as much “automated testing” as spell checking is “automated proofreading”. Enough already, please.

It is also useless to cram all non-mechanical testing tasks under the “manual testing” heading. It’s like calling the craft, social, cultural, aesthetic, chemical, dietary, or economic aspects of cooking “hand cooking.” No person who creates food with care and concern for people – or even animals – will say that the most important thing in cooking is food processors, microwaves and blenders. Stop.

If you’re worried about understanding the status of a product, you won’t leave out testing it. You will want to test to see if you got the product you wanted. If you care about this, then you must understand a number of important aspects of testing.

If you want to understand the important aspects of testing, you need to consider what is commonly swept under a patterned carpet in the form of “hand testing”. Thinking about these things, you may have to come up with names for aspects of testing that have hitherto been nameless to you.

Think of empirical testing where the tester’s interaction with the product and the actions the tester performs are indistinguishable from the likely user’s experience. After all, a product is not only code, and not just virtual objects on the screen. Software is the experience we provide to people as they try to complete a task, fulfill a dream, enjoy a game, earn money, connect with people, get a loan, learn new things, go free…

Contrast empirical testing with instrumental testing. In instrumental testing, some intermediary (tool, technology or mechanism) is between the tester and the natural interaction with the product. The use of tools changes, accelerates, alters, distorts; sometimes it’s helpful, sometimes it’s not. We need to be aware of the desirable and undesirable effects that the use of tools has on our testing.

What did you say, “manual testing”? Perhaps you are referring to aspects of involved testing, supervised testing, where the tester directly and instantly observes and analyzes aspects of the product and its behavior at the time that behavior occurs. This can be contrasted with the algorithmic, autonomous things that machines do – what some people call “automated testing”, except that testing cannot be automated. The test requires design before the implementation of automated behavior, as well as subsequent interpretation. These parts of the test depend on social competence to make decisions and are not automated.

Did you say “manual”? Perhaps you are referring to the transformative activity of a tester, when something in a test changes the tester in some way – he has an insight, he learns something, he projects new ideas. Contrast this with transactional procedures: cramming, routine, filling out a questionnaire. Transactional things can be done mechanically. What is happening does not affect the machines, and somehow they cannot learn meaningfully. But people can.

Did you say “manual”? Perhaps you are talking about research work, which, oddly enough, is different from the empirical work described above. Exploratory in the terminology of Rapid Software Testing means agency; who or what is responsible for making decisions at any given time. There is something to read about this.

Wait a minute… Why are empirical and exploratory testing different things?

You can explore – make a free choice – in a way that is completely different from the usual user interaction with the product. You can generate large amounts of data and interact with the product by doing a stress test; you can explore the product, trying to exhaust its resources. You can take an action and then analyze the data generated by the product to find problems, with full control over your decisions and not being subject to a formal scenario.

This means that you can research a product to learn about it. It’s great, but you’re learning it as a tester, not as a user. It would be nice to be aware of the difference between the two approaches and to be able to play on their advantages without mixing them up.

You can conduct empirical testing by following strict steps and taking a less exploratory path: for example, following a user manual and going through all of its steps in order to identify inconsistencies between the manual and product behavior. From the point of view of outsiders, you will look like a user; you interact with the product in a natural way, for the most part – in addition to the moments when you fix observations, bugs, problems, risks and test ideas. However, most people not involved in testing will not notice this.

Of course, these two approaches overlap. The key difference here is that the tester, having encountered a problem, investigates it and reports it. The user is unlikely to do this (note this phenomenon when trying to enter a link through the LinkedIn article editor: the Apply button is invisible and hidden behind the right side of the popup. I discovered this while interacting with LinkedIn as a user, but I hope I would have found it with intent, exploratory testing).

“Manual testing” has other dimensions. For a long time, we considered “speculative testing” to be what people mean when they talk about “manual”; “what if?” We contrasted it with “demonstrative” testing, but then we reasoned that a demonstration is actually not a test at all. At least she doesn’t have that intention. For an action to become testing, it must be initially speculative.

And here’s the highlight: some of the bullshit fed to testers is that “automated” testing is somehow “better” than “manual” testing because the latter is “slow and error prone” – as if people don’t make mistakes by automating tests . No, they do, and automation makes these mistakes bigger and faster.

Of course, automated checks start quickly and are very cheap to run. But they have enormous costs of developing, maintaining, interpreting (dealing with what went wrong can take a long time), and transferring (explaining their essence to those who are not their author).

There is another cost associated with the previous ones. It is well hidden and is not recognized: it can be called the cost of interpreting or analyzing . A fairly large set of automated checks impenetrable ; it cannot be penetrated without a costly review. Do those green checks do anything at all? Who knows!

Red checks often attract attention, but many of them are “unstable”; they should be green, but they are falling. How many checks out of the thousands that are successfully passed should actually fail? Understanding this is a very costly business, so people constantly ignore this question .

And all these costs represent another hidden cost – opportunity cost . A cost that prevents us from doing something of equal or more useful value. This is a huge overhead, because interface automation takes a lot of time and effort – and at that time we could just interact with a damn product.

There’s something even weirder here: instead of teaching non-techies how to code and having direct API experience, we put them in front of the API front-end GUI. Experienced programmers try to automate the interface, and at the same time non-technical testers use Cypress to avoid interacting with the API at all! The experience of working with an API through Cypress is vastly different from the experience of a developer using the API.

And none of these testers are encouraged to analyze the costs and value of the chosen approach. Techno-chauvinism (a great word; see Meredith Broussard’s book Artificial Intelligence) instills the illusion that software testing is a routine, factory-made, mechanistic task that is just waiting to be automated. It’s a lie. Testing can benefit from the use of tools, but it is not mechanized.

Testing should be seen as a social, cognitive, risk-focused, critical (in many ways), analytical, exploratory, professional, empirical, experimental, scientific, honorable arts. And not as “manual” and “automated”. Let’s send these false definitions on a long vacation to a desert island until they die of indifference.

Testing should focus on finding problems that harm or make people unhappy. Why? Because optimists who create a product tend to ignore the problems lurking in it. When authors are aware of these issues, they can do something about them. This way they look good, make money, and help people live a better life.

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7 approaches to testing — Development on vc.ru

Hello everyone! My name is Igor Nitochkin, I am an IT director with over 10 years of experience in the field. At the moment I am in charge of a testing agency and I want to share my observations.
We will analyze 7 main approaches to testing and tell you how to make it complete and of high quality. A kind of evolution of 7 steps. Go!

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Approach 1: Testing is handled by a developer or manager.

It is difficult to single out this stage as a separate approach, since, in fact, this is the absence of professional testing. Instead of a professional with an objective assessment, the project is tested by the developer himself or by the receiving manager.

Often this happens for several reasons: lack of budget, desire to save money, inability to hire a professional tester, or simply a lack of understanding of the importance of testing.

Sure, it’s better than no testing at all, but not by much.

  • The developer has what is called a “blazed eye” and checks only those functions that should work as he originally intended, and those scenarios that he implemented. That is, it does not pay due attention to all user scenarios. The subjective attitude to the project and the desire to finish it faster create a temptation to turn a blind eye to many nuances.
  • The manager, due to his workload, superficially checks whether everything is working, without checking each module separately. This is intuitive testing, which is far from professional. He does not have expertise: he can detect obvious errors, but many nuances are overlooked.

As a result, all bugs in the system surface already at the end users, which reduces the credibility of the company, scares away customers, and damages the brand’s reputation.

Approach 2: Testers are hired at the completion stage.

A typical method in the waterfall model of software development, when the project is divided into stages. A professional tester who appears only at the stage of project delivery or each stage is the first step in the evolution of testing.

The main disadvantages of the method:

  • When testing the system at the very end, significant errors at the architecture level will be found too late, you will have to rewrite a large piece of code or redo it from the very beginning. This is, at the very least, disadvantageous.
  • This is free intuitive testing, which in turn entails ignoring a number of alternative user scenarios.
  • The project underwent changes during development, the original documentation no longer corresponds to the final result, which complicates the analysis of bug reports.

Bottom line: at first glance, a logical approach to testing initially does not take into account the detection of global errors.

Approach 3: Testers check all developer tasks to see if the result matches the original problem statement.

This approach allows you to find bugs “as they come” with an agile development methodology. The tester is integrated into the development team. Each function is consistently and repeatedly tested. In this case, testing is still not detailed and structured, it is still more intuitive. The main disadvantage: the approach is unsystematic.

The tester gets tired of manually checking typical tasks every time, for example, authorization on the site, and after a while he begins to lose sight of these “little things”. Alternative scenarios may also be overlooked.

Approach 4: Testers do test design.

It is at this stage that conscious professional testing appears. That is, this is not a random check based on intuition, but a systematic process, supported by the necessary documentation.
Conscious attention is paid to the analysis of all requirements. All work is divided into test blocks.

The design and creation of test cases will be carried out taking into account the specifics of the project and the requirements for it in accordance with the previously defined quality criteria and testing goals. Test documentation is prepared, including test plans, checklists, bug reports, regressions and requirements specifications.

There are no obvious shortcomings of this approach. With the right approach to testing, this is already the proper level. But it can be better:

Approach 5: A test management system is implemented.

This is the stage at which there is already testing planning: a clear understanding of when the regression will be carried out, at what point smokes are held, there are testing regulations.

When a company grows, it is necessary to store and systematize your achievements. Test case storage systems and testing tools are being implemented. For example, we use TestRail at Qualitica. It is a tool that is used for general test management, storing all requirements and test cases on a project.

This tool generates test reports. Improved control over the testing process gives a new level of product quality. The system accelerates the introduction of new participants into the project.

Approach 6: Test automation emerges.

Developers and testers write autotests: unit tests and ui tests. That is, all regular checks are automated. The human factor is excluded: I forgot or was too lazy to check the same thing “for the hundredth time”.

For the simplest test cases: authorization, registration, publication of records, etc. – write auto-tests. Not manual testers are connected, but automatists. The simplest features that are not likely to change are automatically checked every time a release is checked. There are many technologies for automating testing.

Over time, we have identified the following for ourselves:

  • Testing framework – TestNG/JUnit.
  • Programming language – Java, Python.
  • Project builder – Maven/Gradle.
  • The library for ui-tests uses the library – Selenide, PyTest.
  • The RestAssured library is used for back tests.
  • Generating reports through Allure.
  • Jmeter is a tool for organizing load testing.

Autotests significantly reduce time costs and improve product quality.

Approach 7: Hierarchy becomes more complex, new roles appear in the testing team.

The top of the evolution of testing can be called the emergence of a hierarchy and narrow specialists: test manager, test lead, test analyst, test designer, and so on. Each person is responsible for his own area of ​​work.

  • The test manager has all the information about the product, sees the “big picture”, organizes work, and manages the testing team. His functions include communication with the customer and the development team.
  • Test Lead coordinates testing and distributes tasks within the team.
  • Test analyst analyzes requirements, prepares documentation.
  • Test designer transforms requirements into checklists and test cases.
  • There are testers who test directly by hand and are integrated into the development team.
  • Automators write autotests for those functions that no longer change.

Output

Not every project requires a large team of testers, somewhere it will be enough to integrate 1-2 testers into the project team at the initial stage, and somewhere it will be necessary to organize a systematic approach to quality control with maintaining all the necessary test documentation.