What is Application Testing?
Thomas Hamilton
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.
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
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Application Testing methodologies
Testing methodologies is a different way of ensuring that a software application is fully tested. 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
- Grey 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 strategy 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 strategy 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 in accordance to find Defect 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
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 Robot
- RFT (Rational Functional Tester)
- Load Runner ( HP Performance Tester)
- Apache Jmeter
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 application, 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 Sikuli, TestComplete, FoneMonkey, Robotium, etc.
Mobile application types are categorized into three section
- 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. Eg 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 increased number of mobile user and devices, testing 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
Conclusion
In Application Testing, the entire application is tested, for that different approach, tools and methodology are used. Performing Application Testing before go-live is crucial to software product success.
