One of the most important steps to cope with time and resource constraints and competing priorities is to plan ahead. Planning involves defining the scope, objectives, and deliverables of the testing project, as well as identifying the risks, dependencies, and assumptions. Planning also helps you to estimate the time, effort, and cost of the testing activities, and to allocate the resources accordingly. A good plan should be realistic, flexible, and aligned with the stakeholders' expectations and the project's goals.
Another key step to cope with time and resource constraints and competing priorities is to prioritize wisely. Prioritizing involves deciding which testing tasks are more important, urgent, or valuable than others, and which ones can be deferred, reduced, or eliminated. Prioritizing also helps you to focus on the critical and high-risk areas of the software, and to ensure that the testing coverage is adequate and relevant. A good prioritization should be based on the business value, the technical complexity, and the user feedback of the software features.
A third essential step to cope with time and resource constraints and competing priorities is to communicate effectively. Communication involves sharing the testing status, progress, and issues with the relevant stakeholders, such as the developers, the managers, and the clients. Communication also helps you to collaborate with the testing team, to coordinate the testing activities, and to resolve the conflicts and challenges. A good communication should be clear, concise, and timely, and should use the appropriate tools and channels.
A fourth helpful step to cope with time and resource constraints and competing priorities is to automate smartly. Automation involves using tools and scripts to perform some of the testing tasks that are repetitive, tedious, or error-prone, such as regression testing, performance testing, or data generation. Automation also helps you to save time, effort, and cost, and to improve the efficiency, accuracy, and consistency of the testing results. A good automation should be scalable, maintainable, and reliable, and should complement the manual testing efforts.
A fifth beneficial step to cope with time and resource constraints and competing priorities is to learn continuously. Learning involves acquiring new skills, knowledge, and techniques that can enhance your testing capabilities and performance. Learning also helps you to adapt to the changing requirements, technologies, and trends in the software industry, and to keep up with the best practices and standards. A good learning should be proactive, self-directed, and goal-oriented, and should involve feedback, mentoring, and coaching.
In addition to constantly learning new testing techniques and methods, it is great to learn something about the realm of the end user of the platform you are testing, so you can think about testing things more like an end user as well as from a point of view of development-process awareness. This can especially help with risk prioritization, as you want to make sure the "happy path" processes the user will constantly exercise get priority testing, in addition to the paths for which failure is riskiest.
A sixth final step to cope with time and resource constraints and competing priorities is to balance quality and speed. Balancing quality and speed involves finding the optimal trade-off between delivering software that meets the quality criteria and the expectations of the stakeholders, and delivering software that meets the deadlines and the constraints of the project. Balancing quality and speed also involves managing the risks, issues, and defects that may affect the software quality or the testing schedule. A good balance should be based on the context, the scope, and the objectives of the testing project.