Exploring the Depths of Software Testing: From Functional to Performance

Web developers’ work is hard to overestimate. Because the developers’ team is primarily responsible for new web solutions with a dynamic, responsive frontend and a reliable, efficient backend appearing in the Internet space. However, before project release, the team needs to make sure a web project meets all the modern quality standards. That’s why testers are hired to check some of the finished projects and their segments.

In this new blog post, we’ll explain the definition of software testing, explain the different types of testing, and what stages a tester goes through in their work.

The Power of Software Testing

Software testing is a check of a finished or semi-finished web solution for its effectiveness and the presence of various deviations. The main purpose of software testing is to make sure that all the project’s main functions work properly, and that there will be no errors or difficulties for the end user. That is why verifying the web project by a tester or a developer plays an even more important role than code writing and creating various features. Without a well-thought-out test, no web solution is worth releasing, especially if it contains errors in the code and often fails.

Developers usually start the testing process by checking critical parts of an application focusing on its security. Like, the authorization layer and all other types of web forms, for example. In the aftermath, they check its functionality according to Technical Documentation requirements. They receive technical documentation through project managers who have previously agreed on a work plan both with the team and with clients.

Testers locally test the functionality in the basic set of user cases for operability upon its development completion. Then they push it all to the staging server, to the development environment, and check if everything works properly. Even though the staging and production environments are the same, there is a possibility that something can go wrong in production. Only after this stage, the QA tester can come in and start working.

Decoding Software Testing Types

Unit Testing

Unit testing, also known as module testing, is a process that is aimed at checking the functionality of individual segments or modules of a web project. This testing is performed in isolation and checks the operation of segments independently of the connection with other parts of the project.

Usually, unit testing is managed by the developers. They write Unit Tests, which, in turn, are run during application deployment, to find bugs by comparing expected and received results. Mechanisms of unit tests, as a rule, are built into the frameworks themselves, based on which developers write codes.

Functional Testing

Functional testing usually means testing the software functionality and checking its ability to meet the development standards and criteria of a particular function. During functional testing, such features as the ability for the user to log in to the site with credentials, whether new data is successfully entered and saved, etc., can be checked.

After the functional testing stage, the project gets a consistent API and a logically constructed user interface.

Integration Testing

Integration testing is designed to check the interaction of different units or modules and how well these components are integrated into a web project. Like unit testing, integration testing is also usually done by developers in their code. Also, integration testing is performed immediately after unit testing, where the developers make sure that individual segments of the program work flawlessly and are ready for integration.

Performance Testing

In this segment, experts test the loading speed, responsiveness of the web solution, and the stability of the program under various circumstances. This is usually done by QA testers and developers.

Developers usually use appropriate tools like “PageSpeed Insights” for performance analysis. Sometimes it is also required to write benchmarks for performance-sensitive parts of the application.

The Crucial Role of QA Testing in Software Development

QA testing (Quality Assurance Testing) is a direction of software testing in which the tester checks web projects and discovers serious and minor errors in program operation that may affect further interaction with live users. In addition to searching for bugs and errors, the responsibilities of a QA tester include checking the operation of the UI/UX and the logic of the application itself. In general, the main task of the tester is to make sure that the company creates quality projects that meet quality standards and user expectations. QA testing is managed through Jira, where there are defined columns for development. After the developer has done their work, they send all the information to a column called Ready for QA or Merged to Dev. This means the changes have been pushed to the staging server and the QA tester will see them. If the developer has developed the functionality but has not yet placed his task in the column, a QA tester cannot start, because they don’t see anything. When a task is moved to QA Ready/Merged to Dev, it will be assigned to a QA tester so they can see the task. For the tester, Jira also has two columns – QA ok and QA fail. If something goes wrong, they send it to QA fail, adding comments. If the testing was successful, it goes to the done column. Project managers see everything that is good or bad on the staging server. If the task is transferred to QA ok, then they transfer it to the Merged To Prod column. A QA tester can test it on the production server, and the QA ok or QA fail columns are used again. When the task is in QA ok prod, it means that it has been fully tested, and a client can either test it or use this functionality finally. The application or platform testing process is carried out in the following stages

Usability testing. It usually includes checking the site navigation, its comprehensibility, and intuitiveness. The tester also checks whether all pages, buttons, and fields on them are clear to use and whether access to the main page and menu from all other pages is possible.
Automated testing. The tasks are prescribed for a certain user case with the help of specific software like Selenium, LambdaTest, etc.
Manual Testing For manual testing, the Testomat program is used, which is visually much easier to work with than Google Sheets. With the statuses in the program, you can see what has been tested and what doesn’t work in a particular task.
Content testing. The tester checks the absence of grammatical/spelling errors, informativeness, and structuring of content, images, and headings that have suitable sizes and are placed correctly.
UI testing. It includes design compliance, testing with different resolutions on smartphones and tablets, and also correctness of localized versions of a program.
Regression Testing. It’s software retesting after the first scope of bug fixing. Regression testing is considered the penultimate stage of testing.
Smoke Testing. This is a brief test of a certain number of browsers and user cases to make sure everything is working properly. This type of testing is applied to high-priority cases that are put into production.

Breaking Down the Testing Process

The Art of Planning in Software Testing

Planning includes writing an initial plan with all the tasks that will be carried out during testing. Usually, the project manager is responsible for creating the initial plan, and a tester explores this plan. You can read more about project management and the main responsibilities of PM here.

Requirement Analysis in the Context of Software Testing

This stage includes checking the plan and calculating the time to complete the check. A tester reads the documentation (if any), and studies a web application and the benefit it will bring to the end user. The tester identifies the critical functionality and defines the area of testing.

Implementing Effective Test Design in Software Testing

This refers to the direct creation of test cases and stressful situations for a web solution. At this stage, the tester can draw a decomposition of the web application to understand the functionality better. For this, the tester can use platforms like Miro. Also, testers use state transition diagrams for greater coverage of possible system behavior and use case diagrams for understanding and possible division of permissions for different users. Next, the tester writes test case drafts or checklists in Testomat.io, for example, and then edits them already in the process of testing.

Harnessing Effective Software Test Execution

The next stage is test execution and evaluation of the results and possible detected bugs. It also evaluates server request speed/server response speed which should be no more than 3 seconds, page load (no more than 2 seconds), and images (no more than 3 seconds). Also, one of the types of test cases is to create a load on a web project that can be created by a large number of users at the same time and check whether this project can work under load without failure. These tests are especially relevant for large projects such as social networks. For managing stress tests, for example, testers can use JMeter.

Mastering Defect Tracking in Software Development

Defect tracking means different types of bugs identification of and their inclusion in the relevant documentation. The tester notes system bugs using the Jira bug tracking system, as well as Testomat.io and Excel tables.

The Importance of Comprehensive Test Reporting

This stage means generating reports that indicate the results of the tests performed, as well as the presence (or absence) of system bugs. Reports can be internal and external. An internal report is shared within the team. In this report, after the end of the working day, QA writes three types of tasks: QA ok (fully tested tasks), fail (tasks that haven’t passed testing), and new tasks (tasks that have appeared after what went wrong in functionality). Also, testers drop links to their tests in Testomat – a platform where you can enter data on each task, which cases are passed, and mark them there. The team sends an external report to the client, which practically does not differ from the internal report. However, he can read about the causes of system bugs and functionality in Jira and Testomat if he wishes.

The Role of Test Closure in Software Testing

This is the final stage of testing where the web project or its segment evaluation is carried out. The tester checks whether the requirements in the documentation coincide with the actual result. Next, the tester verifies the closure of all bug reports and provides a test report to interested parties. After the main work on the project has already been completed, the test data is archived. Conclusions from the last testing procedure can be used to improve further testing of subsequent projects. Although code writing is the cornerstone of web development, you should not forget about software testing either. Software testing is an absolutely important component of the development of a web solution at many stages: from the creation of a project’s separate segment to final testing of a fully completed project. Software testing is a serious, responsible process, during which even the smallest web project malfunction shouldn’t be missed. Otherwise, it will hurt the end user’s work with the project. Therefore, testers’ work is especially important if the company wants to create high-quality and reliable projects for customers, which will correctly perform all the necessary functions to achieve business success.