You might have come across products/apps/ websitesthat has a very good UI, but the functionality is bad. There could be many reasons behind it includinglack of quality, durability and there could be a number of unidentified bugs. Unless and until complete testing is performed, one cannot identify the multiple errors and glitches associated with that product. Therefore, in 2019, it has really become crucial to go for Automated Functional Testing in order to keep the software free from bugs.
In this digital age, there may be many reasons to launch the product quickly. It may be a product of great value for the user or simply the market is too competitive.However, keep in mind, testing a product or a version of the product before going live is very important so that the final product is user-friendly. Skipping the testing process will only hurt the reputation of your organization.
Ever since the days of the waterfall model, testing is done during the last phase of the development process. However, organizations in recent times are slowly moving towards the DevOps approach of continuous testing. Because they realize the importance of testing during the process of software development. With the introduction of shift-left testing, the testing process is now incorporated even before the development process is complete.
Why Functional Testing is important?
Functional testing plays a vital role in the software testing process. The purpose of functional testing is to check whether the functionalities are working the way it is intended to work as per the Software Requirements Specification and Business Requirements Specification.
The software tester has to validate the functionalities of the software from different perspectives and make sure the results are matching the requirements. In other words, the tester has to test the product as an end user. Yes, functional testing is always performed as a user. Whereas non-functional testing is performed keeping in mind the expectations of the users.
Contrastingto other testing types like unit testing where tests are done on a block, the functional testing is performed on the integrated product itself. The different issues that are identified post-integration testing may be different from other forms of testing.
The software tester can do an automated or manual functional testing or a combination of both. By doing a combination of both, the product only gets better.
Role of Automated Functional Testing
The role of a software tester is to identify the bugs by checking the functionalities of the product. There are limitations in manual functional testing like a bigger team is required if the product has a lot of features, the expense is more when you employ a lot of testers, tight deadlines to complete the project etc. This is where automated functional testing comes into play.
By automating test scripts, you can finish a product within the deadline. Moreover, these test automation scripts can be used to makeupdiverse test scenarios that can improve the overall efficiency and test coverage.
Automated functional testing is the best choice when you are on strict deadlines. Once you create the test scripts, all you have to do is to execute it, then sit back and relax. In these situations, automation saves you a lot of time.
Though automation may have plenty of advantages, you cannot ignore manual testing, as there are certain tasks that are best executed manually. Thusthe QA team should decide on the tasks that need to be tested manually and the tasks that need to be automated even before they start the testing process.
The testing team should have domain knowledge of the product to be tested. This will help them in writing effective test cases, which in turn help them to create a more scalable and robust test suite.
The most important of all is the automation tools. There are tons of tools available in the market including open source and commercial tools. By selecting the wrong tool, you could lose time, unnecessary rework and in the worst case, you could lose the project itself. You have to have the right tools in place in order to get the best out of automated functional testing. There are various criteria involved in choosing the right automation tool including the cost of the tool, scalability, teams experience with the tool and maintenance. After carefully assessing your need, you have to firmly decide on the right automation tool. In some cases, it may seem expensive to buy a tool, however, you should look at it as an investment always.
Conclusion
Functional testing should be performed during the product development stage. This ensures the product is released on time without any defects. It is best advised to perform functional testing at the very early stage of product development. As this will help in eradicating the bugs atthe right time. Depending on the type of software it is recommended to perform other types of functional and non-functional testing like compliance testing, compatibility testing, integration testing, load testing and more.
Image Credits: Automated Functional Testing from HQuality /Shutterstock