Imagine the losses that errors or performance issues in software can cause fields like banking, healthcare, and education, etc. They can jeopardize entire processes leaving organizations in critical situations. Thus, software testing is the only way to avoid such problems and solve them before launching applications. Testing was not so important a few years ago but now it is an important component of the software development process.
Functional testing solutions are designed to test all features and functionalities of an application. Functional testing requires inputs, outputs, and comparison of the outcomes with speculated results. Let’s take a look at the best practices for functional testing:
- Collect Data for Performing Test
Planning a proper strategy for testing is important. Developers and testers have complete information about critical processes. Thus, data collection is vital for performing tests. This is also necessary for product development. Testers prepare proper documentation about requirements and test cases. This documentation can later be modified as per changing requirements.
- Devise Test Plan and Test Cases
Functional testing requires planning that includes the following:
- Goals and objectives of testing
- Number of testers
- Software tools
- Schedule of testing
- Test cases
All these requirements are crucial to the software development process. Test cases are all about specifications of an application’s functionality. They can be arranged and edited to avoid any delays. These plans are then viewed by development teams for clarity about how to carry out testing in later stages of development.
- Execute Test
The functionality of test plans should match with actual testing so that test execution is accurate. While writing test cases, testers should ensure that they can be modified at any stage to meet any client needs. All the errors or issues should be documented for analysis.
- Perform Automation Testing
Automation testing saves time and is one of the most important testing techniques that can improve the quality of software. However, testers do not prefer using automation testing where manual testing can serve the purpose well due to the high costs associated with automation.
- Store Data for Defects
If multiple users are working on testing the same functionality, some sort of errors can pop-up. Thus, to avoid this, a centralized data storage system is created to record and manage data by any stakeholder.
- Prepare Reports
Functional testing allows can provide final reports that summarize all test cases executed and time consumed during each stage, progress, and status of the application. It also lists down details of the errors found during testing. Simple and easy to read reports are available for the development team.
- Conduct Analysis
Another important aspect of functional testing is its ability to provide an analysis of test cases. If there are any defects detected during the analysis, they can be removed while the software is still being developed. This works efficiently to make an application error-free to a larger extent.
Although there are no hard and fast rules to achieve maximum results by using functional testing solutions. Yet, these practices can make functional testing very beneficial for organizations.