Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 4

- Application Testing

- Categories of Applications
- Application Testing Methodologies
- Application Testing Tools
- Software Test Plan
- Application Testing Cycles
- Application Testing Best Practices
Application Testing is an activity that every software tester performs daily in his career. These
two words are extremely broad in practical aspect. However, only the core and most important
areas will be discussed here. The purpose of this article is to touch all the primary areas so that
the readers will get all the basic briefing at a single place.

Categories of Applications
Whether it is small calculator software with only the basic arithmetic operations, or an online
enterprise solution; there are two categories of applications.
a. Desktop
b. Web
For desktop applications, testing should take into account the UI, business logic, database,
reports, roles and rights, integrity, usability and data flow. For web applications, along with all
these major areas; testers should give sufficient importance to performance, load and security of
the application. So AUT is either desktop software or a website.

Application Testing Methodologies


This is a well-known and well discussed aspect; there are only 3 universally accepted
methodologies;
a. Black Box: In black-box testing, the AUT is validated against its requirements considering the
inputs and expected outputs, regardless of how the inputs are transformed into outputs. Testers
are least concerned with internal structure or code that implements the business logic of the
application. There are four primary techniques to design test cases for black box testing;
i. BVA (Boundary value Analysis)
ii. EP (Equivalence Partitioning)

iii. Decision Tables


iv. State Transition Tables (and diagrams)
a. White Box: Primary focus of this methodology is to validate, how the business logic of
application is implemented by code. Internal structure of the application is tested and the
techniques available to do so are;
i. Code Coverage
ii. Path Coverage
Both the above listed techniques contain several other strategies that may be discussed in some
other article. Some techniques are discussed in Test Case Design Techniques topic.
a. Grey Box: Practically speaking, this is a mixture of black box and white box. In this
methodology, mainly the tester tests the application as in black box. But, for some business
critical or vulnerable modules of application; testing is done as white box.

Application Testing Tools


According to the best of my knowledge, there are at least 50 testing tools available in market
today. These include both paid and open source tools. Moreover, some tools are purpose specific
e.g. UI testing, Functional Testing, DB Testing, Load Testing, Performance, Security Testing
and Link validation testing etc. However, some tools are strong and provide the facility of testing
several major aspects of an application. The general concept of Application Testing is its
functional testing. So, our focus will be on functional testing tools.
Here is the list of some most important and fundamental features that are provided by almost all
of the Functional Testing tools.
a. Record and Play
b. Parametrize the Values
c. Script Editor
d. Run (the test or script, with debug and update modes)
c. Report of Run session
Different vendors provide some specific features that make their product unique to other
competitor products. But the five features listed above are the most common and can be found in
almost all the functional testing tools.
Following is the list of few widely used Functional Testing tools.
1) HP QTP (Quick Test Professional)
2) Selenium
3) IBM Rational Robot
4) Test Complete

5) Push to Test
6) Telerik

Software Test Plan (STP)


For any activity, some planning is always required and same is true for software testing. Without
proper plan there is always high risk of getting distracted during the testing. If this risk becomes
a fact, the results could be horrible.
Following are the 5 main parts of a good Test Plan:
a. Scope
i. Overview of AUT
ii. Features (or areas) to be tested
iii. Exclusions (features or areas not to be tested) with reason
iv. Dependencies (of testing activities on each other, if any)
b. Objectives: This section describes the goals of testing activity e.g. validation of bug fixes,
new features added or revamp of AUT etc.
c. Focus: This section describes what aspect of application will be included in the testing e.g.
security, functionality, usability, reliability, performance or efficiency etc.
d. Approach: This section describes what testing methodology will be adopted for which areas
of AUT. For example, in the STP of an ERP application; the approach section may contain the
information that black box testing will be approach for payroll. On the other hand, for reports the
approach will be grey box testing.
e. Schedule: This sections describes that who will be doing what and where on the AUT, when
and how. Schedule section is, in fact, a 4Ws and H of the STP. Normally it is a simple table,
but every organization may have its own customized format according to their own needs. Once
the test plan is ready and application is under development; testers design and document the test
cases. In the Application Testing Methodologies section above, I have listed the TC design
techniques.

Application Testing Cycles


Once the AUT is ready for testing, the practical phase of testing cycle starts in which testers
actually execute the test cases on AUT. Keep in mind that here the testing cycle is discussed
regardless of Testing Levels (Unit, Module, Integration, System and User Acceptance) and
Testing Environments (Dev, QA, Clients Replica, Live).
a. Smoke Testing: The very first testing cycle that is wide and shallow in approach. The purpose
of smoke testing is to verify that there are no crashes in the application and it is suitable for
further testing.

b. Sanity Testing: The second testing cycle that is narrow and deep in its approach. Its purpose
is to verify that a specific module is working properly and is suitable for complete testing.
Tip: Usually there is not ample amount of time available to run these two cycles separately. So, a
mixture of both these cycles is adopted in practical.
c. Functional Testing: The proper and full fledged testing of application is performed in this
cycle. The primary focus of this activity is to verify the business logic of the application.
d. Regression Testing: This is the final cycle of testing in which the bug-fixes and/or updates
are verified. Moreover, regression testing also ensures that there is no malfunctioning in other
areas of AUT due to fixes and changes.
Bugs are logged in every testing cycle. There is no distinct border line between the testing
cycles. For example, in Regression the Functionality is also verified and it may also require
smoke, sanity or their merger first.

Application Testing Best Practices


I think, hundreds of articles are available about this on internet. Every article suggests different
number of best practices ranging from 7 to 30 (that I have seen so far). However, I have just 5
tips for readers.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Plan Properly
Test Keenly
Log the bugs Clearly
Do Regression Test Efficiently
Improve above four skills Continuously

Conclusion: Application Testing is a vast subject and the primary activity of any software tester.
In this article, I have provided the overview of some most fundamental and necessary areas that
fall under this topic. Application Testing involves strategies, phenomena, approaches, tools,
technologies and guidelines. However, I have addressed the conceptual and practical insight of
its salient concerns.

Вам также может понравиться