According to Statista report, 23% of IT’s annual budget was spent on quality assurance and testing between 2012-2019.
The goal of investing in testing is to ensure the IT products delivered to the customers are secure and bug-free.
On that note, functional testing plays a pivotal role in testing any software, whether it’s performing seamlessly considering all the conditions according to the customer expectations.
If you have a business application and want to provide a seamless experience to your customers, you need to run your app through various quality tests. Functional testing plays a crucial part in making your application user-friendly and intuitive.
However, the lack of implementing the best practices could make your business application slow and outdated. In turn, you can lose potential customers.
Today, we will show you the best procedures of functional testing that will help you to reap more benefits.
Let’s delve deeper.
1. Set up the Environment
Functional testing needs the setup of a modern test lab consisting of real devices, including mobile/web browser emulators and simulators. Also, you need to maintain a balance between these things. Ensure you have an experienced team to manage the lab testing environment efficiently. You will have various advantages, including-
Access to various devices, browsers, versions and OS resolution
Test multiple mobile devices running on various OS, including iOS and Android.
You can perform parallel testing for the best results
Real-time testing of web applications.
2. Use Exploratory Testing
This particular testing method provides a lot of liberty for the testers. While performing exploratory testing, testers investigate an application to identify potential bugs. Testers get the freedom to run multiple tests, which is beneficial for functional testing.
Testers evaluate the software based on a real-world scenario to ensure that it performs the desired task as per expectations. By testing rigorously, you can deliver a fast and quality experience to your customers containing zero bugs. This will help you to bolster your business growth by 2X.
3. Create Test Plan and Test Cases
To perform the testing, you need to include your goals, testing scope, number of people, and tools that are to be involved during the testing. Also, you need to determine the test cases written during testing.
Test cases are the input data based on the specification of a functionality. These must be arranged to reduce risk and delay. Your team should review these test plans.
4. Make the Tests Short
Keeping the test length short will help you to execute the test faster, followed by detecting and fixing the bugs. Here are a few tips that you can use –
Eliminate the unnecessary elements that you don’t need for testing.
Split the tests into multiple parts
To increase the test execution time, use selenium request.
5. Automate the Process of Functional Testing
Automating the testing procedure will not only allow the testers to improve test coverage but also help them to decrease the test time. Here are a few benefits-
Allow testers to create the script structure quickly. It can be enhanced with a user interface, checkpoints etc.
Write the test scripts in a way that makes them independent for improved test execution.
You can write and run automated test scripts from frameworks like TestNG, Visual Studio etc. However, the result of those tests will show in the browser.
Although the price is slightly higher, it is still beneficial in the long run considering the test execution results.
You can save the test execution results on your computer to evaluate later.
You can create Requirement Traceability Matrix (RTM) to ensure all the requirements are tested. It will help you to discover potential bugs.
6. Choose the Right Automation Tool
An automation testing tool would be appropriate if you automate the functional testing process. You can use LambdaTest, which is one of the best automation tools. It helps the users to test their web app functionality across various devices and browsers. This tool is integrated with more than 2000+ browsers, devices, and OS. It helps you to execute functional testing over any browser.
You can also use tools like Cypress, Selenium, Playwright etc and the languages like Java, Python and C# to take a better strategy that is keyword, behavior and data-driven.
Similarly, you can also automate mobile applications using Selendriod, Appium etc. It will help to generate iOS and android virtual devices to analyze elements.
7. Manage a Centralized Data Storage System
A group of testers working on the same functionality may result in consistent defect reports. It can also lead to incorrect order of issue solving and wrong defects. To eliminate the same, centralized data storage would be sufficient for the testers. It can be referred to from time to time as per requirement.
8. Test Early
You need to test the functions early to catch the issues in the SDLC (software development lifecycle) stage. Doing the same will help you to save your hard-earned bucks by identifying the design issues in the initial stage.
For instance, you will lose potential leads if the “sign up” button fails. Similarly, if the checkout option is full of bugs, it will directly hamper your business revenue. Therefore, running the functional test early helps to mitigate these issues.
9. Use Suitable Browsers and Versions for Testing
During the functional testing, ensure you’re using the latest web browser version. Also, you must check cross-browser compatibility as all the visitors may not come from the same browser or version. You don’t need to verify every browser, but test the browsers to check the following-
Have the most usage trend in your target audience
Most used by your end users
Instead of prioritizing every browser, you can focus more on the testing process. That will be valuable for getting long-term results.
10. Test on Various Screen Sizes
Test the application’s UI on various screen sizes, especially mobile devices. Irrespective of the user’s screen size, the application should run seamlessly. Therefore, it is crucial to run the application through different screen sizes.
11. Use CI/CD Tools
CI/CD tools like Microsoft Azure, Jenkins, BrowserStack, etc., will help execute the test cases in the ideal virtual machine environment. Also, it eliminates the device dependence concern that testers frequently encounter.
Do you need help with functional testing services?
Functional testing could be a daunting task if the QA team doesn’t have clarity on how to do it efficiently. Knowing effective testing practices helps to produce a bug-free application and makes your application user-friendly and compatible with various platforms.
At GKV Soft, we have experienced functional testers who are well acquainted with the latest functional testing practices to improve the testing process. Are you ready to undergo world-class functional testing for your business application? Book a consultation call today and let our testers help you!