What is Application Testing?

What is Application Testing?

Application Testing is defined as a software testing type conducted through scripts with the motive of finding errors in software. It deals with tests for the entire application.

It helps to enhance the quality of your applications while reducing costs, maximizing ROI, and saving development time.

In Software Engineering, Application testing can be done in various categories like GUI, functionality, database (backend), load test, etc.

For Application Testing, the testing lifecycles involve various phases which include requirement analysis, test planning, test analysis, test design, test execution & bug reporting, etc.

Those phases resolve into a short, repeatable lifecycle that every application follows.

How to Test an Application?

Software applications and products have a number of variations in terms of features they support as well as processes they implement. So application Testing ensures that a particular program or application functions properly.

A lifecycle for Application Testing involves four stages.

• Stage 1) Design test plans based on application requirements
• Stage 2) Develop manual test cases and automated test scripts
• Stage 3) Execute functional tests to validate application requirements
• Stage 4) Execute load tests and tune application performance

The type of Tests executed depends on the type of application under test. Application Testing is categorized into 3 segments.

• Web Application testing
• Desktop Application Testing
• Mobile Application Testing

Application Testing	Types of Testing Executed
Web Application Testing	Functional and Performance Testing Cross-browser Testing Load and stress Testing Regression and Compliance Testing User Acceptance Testing Beta Testing Exploratory and Smoke Testing Multilanguage support and compatibility Testing
Desktop Application Testing	UI Testing Usability Testing Performance Testing Compatibility Testing (Software/ Hardware) Functional Testing Security Testing
Mobile Application Testing	UI Testing Rule based Testing Regression Testing Functional Testing Security Testing

Web, Desktop, and Mobile Application Testing Compared

The three segments share a lifecycle but differ sharply in what actually breaks. Knowing where the risk concentrates tells you where to spend the testing budget.

Point of difference	Web	Desktop	Mobile
Runs on	A browser over a network	One installed machine	A handset or tablet
Main variable	Browser and version	Operating system and hardware	Device, OS version, and screen size
Network dependence	Always connected	Often offline	Intermittent, and must survive loss
Biggest risk	Cross-browser rendering and load	Installation and compatibility	Fragmentation across devices
Interrupt handling	Rarely relevant	Rarely relevant	Calls, notifications, and low battery
Update path	Server side, instant for all	User installs a patch	App store review, staged rollout

Mobile carries the most uncontrolled variables, which is why it is treated separately later in this page.

Application Testing methodologies

Testing methodology is the structured way of ensuring that a software application is fully tested. An unorganized and poor testing methodology can lead to an unstable product.

There are three ways Testing is carried out.

• Black Box Testing
• White Box Testing
• Gray Box Testing

Black Box Testing

Black Box Testing technique is commonly used for testing Functional testing, Non-functional testing, and Regression Testing. In black box testing, the strategies used are

• Equivalence Class Testing
• Boundary Value Testing
• Decision Table Testing
• State Transition Tables

White Box Testing

White box testing is typically used for testing the software code to check Internal security holes, broken or poorly structured paths, functionality of conditional loops, etc. In white box testing, the strategies used are

• Code Coverage analysis
• Path Coverage

Gray Box Testing

This testing technique is a combination of both Black Box Testing as well as White box testing. It is carried out to find Defects based on improper structure or application use.

Test Plan for Application Testing

The Test Plan document is derived from the Product Description, Software Requirement Specification SRS, or Use Case Documents. The focus of the test is what to test, how to test, when to test, and who will test. Test plan document is used as a communication medium between test team and test managers.

A standard test plan for Application Testing should define following features;

• Define the scope of testing
• Define objective of testing
• Approach for testing activity
• Schedule for testing
• Bug tracking and reporting

Entry and Exit Criteria for Application Testing

The test plan lists formal entry and exit criteria as a best practice, but they are worth spelling out. Without them a test phase either starts against an unstable build or drifts on with no agreed finish line.

Entry criteria must be satisfied before execution begins.

• Requirements and the SRS are reviewed and baselined.
• The test plan and test cases are written and approved.
• The build is deployed to a stable test environment and passes a smoke test.
• Test data and the required accounts or devices are available.
• A defect tracking tool is configured and the team has access.

Exit criteria show the phase has met its purpose.

• All planned test cases are executed and results recorded.
• No critical or high severity defects remain open.
• Agreed coverage against requirements is achieved.
• Remaining low severity defects are documented and accepted by the business.
• The test summary report is signed off.

Application testing Tools

There are various testing tools for Application Testing. Selection of tools depends on what type of testing you want to perform. For different platform different tools are recommended. Application testing tools ensure performance, usability and functionality of applications across a variety of devices.

Here are few of them.

• Selenium
• IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT)
• LoadRunner (now OpenText LoadRunner, previously HP and Micro Focus)
• Apache JMeter

💡 Note: IBM Rational Robot, long listed alongside RFT, has been withdrawn from marketing. Rational Functional Tester is the current IBM offering, so new projects should not plan around Robot.

Key Metrics for Application Testing

Executing tests proves activity, not effectiveness. A small set of metrics shows whether the testing is actually finding defects and whether the application is converging on release quality.

• Test coverage: The share of requirements with at least one mapped test case. Low coverage means untested behaviour, whatever the pass rate says.
• Defect density: Defects divided by size, usually per thousand lines of code or per module. It points at the components that need rework rather than more testing.
• Defect leakage: Defects found in production divided by total defects found. Rising leakage is the clearest signal that pre-release testing is missing something.
• Defect removal efficiency: Defects found before release as a share of all defects. A figure above ninety percent is a common target.
• Test execution rate: Cases run against cases planned, tracked per cycle so slippage is visible early rather than at the exit gate.

Track the trend rather than a single reading. One cycle in isolation says very little.

Testing best practices for Application Testing

Selecting the right strategy for Application Testing is a guaranteed way to detect defects in the application. So, it becomes extremely important that QA team follow a set of standard process to detect more errors and with less amount of time.

For application testing, some of the best practices include

• Define functional specifications
• Reviews and Inspections
• Formal Entry and Exit criteria
• Functional test variations
• Multi-platform testing
• Automated test execution

Application Testing Challenges

While testing an application, a tester may encounter many challenges

• Issues only identified when user calls
• Inability to anticipate impact of change
• No visibility into application and operational errors
• Time consuming

Mobile Application Testing

Like web application testing, Mobile application testing is also based on same test strategy and methodology. The difference could be in the tools used for testing, some common tools used for mobile application testing are Appium, TestComplete, Robotium, and Espresso.

Mobile application types are categorized into three sections

• Web Application- It is accessed by users over a network like internet or an intranet
• Native Application- It is developed for specific platform and installed on a computing device
• Hybrid Application- It combines elements of both Web and native, for example Facebook.

For most of the mobile platform, you can use simple CSS, HTML, JS, etc.

Example Test Cases for Mobile Application Testing

A complete mobile testing application strategy includes device and network infrastructure, selection of target devices, and an effective combination of manual and automated testing tools to cover both non-functional and functional testing.

For mobile application, things to be tested are

• Installation
• OTA
• Wi-Fi
• Data Cable
• Bluetooth
• Uninstallation
• Application logo
• Splash
• Low Memory
• Visual Feedback
• Exit Application
• Start/Restart of Application

Mobile Testing Challenges

With an increased number of mobile users and devices, testing a mobile app becomes more and more complex. Testing a mobile application is significantly different from that of a desktop-based web application. The common challenges faced during mobile testing are

• Comprehensive test coverage
• Managing fragmentation ( different O.S version, processor, memory)
• Lack of test plan
• Time Pressure
• Lack of Physical devices
• Diversity in platform and OS

FAQs