Functional testing is a quality assurance method that verifies the proper operation of a system or its parts following predefined standards. Developers use functional testing to examine software functionality and its constituent parts. This test checks if the application satisfies the company’s needs by comparing inputs and outputs. This kind of testing is also known as specification-based testing because it is predicated entirely on the requirements of the target system. During this testing phase, quality assurance (QA) specialists compare the system to predefined performance benchmarks and double-check the functionality against predefined requirements.
Functional Testing is Crucial in Agile
Traditional testing models separate the software development and testing processes, with testing beginning only after the program development phase is complete. Developers produce and test the product in ‘sprints’ – short periods – before the findings are made public.
See also:
In Agile settings, however, developers add new features and upgrade code and the software while testers run functional tests.
After some time has passed in an Agile setting, the developers will upgrade the software, add new features, or upgrade the code, while the testers will perform functional software testing. Following any software-related changes, developers perform a backup test to validate the program’s capacity to operate as usual.
Unit, Smoke, component, and sanity testing are all functional testing that developers can perform on a software environment. Functional testing is a time-saving and efficient software testing method that can help enhance collaboration amongst developers, reduce overall testing time, and find problems sooner.
Functional Testing Is Vital To DevOps
DevOps aims to speed up creating, testing, and releasing software. DevOps streamlines and automates the entire software delivery life cycle by integrating it with the Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration pipeline. DevOps is a continuous and automated process that spans the entire software lifecycle.
The DevOps CI/CD pipeline ensures software quality by performing automatic performance testing at each stage. Developers often run unit tests during the development process to ensure the code is up to par. It is common practice for developers working in the DevOps space to make changes to the code base and push those changes to the central repository. With regression testing, you can be sure that tweaks to the code won’t break the program.
Developers perform testing continuously throughout the integration process to ensure that all modules and scripts function as intended. Automated functional testing guarantees the software’s efficacy by conducting tests that mimic real-world conditions. In this way, functional testing contributes to the DevOps ecosystem and helps businesses acquire superior products.
Functional Testing Methods
Select the proper test cases: Intelligently selecting the test cases for automation is vital. Automating tests that need setup and configuration before or during execution is not recommended. Automate the following types of examinations:
- Tests that you must execute repeatedly.
- Performing identical tests with differing data.
- Test cases that are time- and labor-intensive.
- Automate tests that are prone to human error.
- Automate tests that are the same on various web browsers, OS, devices, and more.
Specialized Automation Group: Automation requires not only time and energy but also a specific level of proficiency and skill set. Only a small fraction of your QA team may have the skills to create automation scripts and effectively use automation tools. You should take stock of your QA team’s skill level before implementing automated tests. You should delegate automation tasks to people with the appropriate skills.
Data-Driven Tests: Data-driven testing requires developers to build test cases that they may use with different data. The information can be retrieved from a database or saved in various file types (XML, text, and property files). Making a database for automation makes the framework more manageable. As a bonus, it allows for more effective use of preexisting test scripts.
Be alert for test-related breaks: A flexible user interface (UI) is essential, as is an automation tool and test suite that can easily accommodate alterations. For example, an older version of Selenium recognizes page elements by location. Changes to the user interface that move certain components out of their current places can cause serious problems with existing tests. Create test cases that you can easily update in the event of UI changes.
Examine frequently: Create a simple automation test suite and a schedule for running it regularly. This step could help QA experts improve the reliability of the existing test automation infrastructure. They can find more bugs using this technique.
Conclusion
Modern companies use DevOps and Agile practices to speed up software development without sacrificing quality. Depending on how well the program works, these companies can use end-to-end performance testing to guarantee software quality. Firms gain from this testing in several ways, including better software performance, happier customers, and lower costs. To create high-quality software in a shorter time, firms should utilize automated software testing platforms to perform functional testing.
