In a software development process, testing plays a very crucial role. Software testing reveals the potential issues or bugs a system might have before it is launched. However, to make sure your software doesn’t have any vulnerabilities, you need to conduct very thorough testing.
For that, you have to consider numerous aspects of software and its use cases which can be challenging. Therefore, businesses tend to hire the best software testing company to ensure that they deploy high-quality, reliable, and fully functional software.
Expert testers and QA services providers follow a simple software testing checklist to streamline the entire testing process as well as manage the quality of the software.
In this blog, we are going to discuss the various types of tests this checklist consists of. But first, there are some things you need to consider.
What to Consider During Testing?
Before performing end-to-end software testing services, you need to determine the requirements of the end users. The software must be optimized for the following:
- Interactive User Interface (UI) – UI testing would ensure that users get better engagement and experience.
- Functionality – All the functionalities of the software must be streamlined and every function must work up to expectations.
- User-friendliness – Better usability of software improves customer retention rates.
- Bug-Free – Software becomes more reliable for a user if it is bug-free and functions as it is supposed to.
- Security – Protecting the user data is the top priority. Therefore making secure software is a necessity especially when cybercrimes are on the rise.
- Performance – Software must be fast because the attention span of a human is claimed to be lesser than a Goldfish. So you need software fast and robust enough to engage the users.
- Cross-browser compatibility – Different users utilize different devices, web browsers, and operating systems. So, if you create software that is platform, OS, or device-specific then it would be hectic for users to keep switching. Moreover, cross-platform software works seamlessly across all platforms and this feature is lucrative enough to bring in more users.
Also Read – What is Workforce Management Software?
Software Testing Checklist
Performing thorough software testing demands you to conduct various types of tests that can verify the fulfillment of different kinds of requirements.
These series of tests when compiled in a list becomes a software testing checklist, as discussed below:
1. Functional Testing
Testing the functional capabilities of software is the major goal behind performing functional tests. The operational behavior of the software along with all of its features and functionalities are tested to make sure that they are compatible and fit the project specifications.
Functional testing is not for testing the outcomes specific to any input nor does it check the internal mechanism. The only intention of functional testing is to verify whether all the functions of the product work up to expectations or as described in the development documentation.
The functionalities and performance are validated from the perspective of an end-user. The functionalities of the software are tested by considering the possible inputs from the users under various real-life scenarios. Automated test cases are used for more accurate testing and to provide a better user experience.
Follow the steps below to perform the functionality test;
- First of all, check out the list of all your functional requirements and make sure you clearly understand them all
- Now determine the test input based on the requirements
- Compute the outcome of the test based on your chosen inputs
- Execute all the test cases
2. Usability Testing
A usability test is conducted to check how user-friendly a software is. The flow of the software and how the user has to navigate through it are tested.
The standard practices of a usability test ensure that the software is easy to use. It is done by eliminating all the errors like a weak flow, punctuation, typos, and more. When such issues come together, they reduce the capabilities of the software which imprints a poor impression on a user’s mind.
The working of a usability test is the same as how a user would access and utilize the software. Therefore, studying the user personas and their needs is the primary requirement for the usability tests.
A step-by-step guide to a usability test;
- Build a product or a prototype for the test
- Create a user persona based on your ideal end-users
- Identify their requirements
- Now conduct a usability test
- Document the test
- Do a detailed analysis and suggest necessary changes
- Keep testing the revised products or prototypes until they meet the users’ needs
3. Interface Testing
Interface testing is to test how the software would interact with different interfaces like a server, an app, or a database. Many confuse this test with integration testing but both are different. Integration testing is about confirming whether two software systems can work together or not. And if yes then how well will they work?
Meanwhile, the interface test checks how software communicates with a server or a database.
Different interfaces need to be tested in interface testing. They are as mentioned below:
- Application: The test request is sent directly to the database and the client-side output is also displayed directly. In case any error is caught by the app the error will not be shown to the end user but to an administrator.
- Web Server: It is tasked with managing all app requests
- Database Server: It makes sure that desired outcomes are provided for all the queries.
Any software will be working mainly and mostly with two interfaces. So, the interface tests should be performed for the interfaces
- Between a software server and a web server
- Between the database server and the software server
To test these interfaces, interface testing would:
- Check if the servers are functioning up to expectation under various situations
- Check if any error pops up and if they do, are they handled properly?
- Analyzing the test results and checking the link to a web server.
4. Database Testing
Database testing is necessary to check how your software application store data and perform functions like:
- Executing queries if any error occurs during testing
- Regularly checking the response time of the queries
- Ensure that retrieved test data is displayed in the software application
- When any changes are made while creating, deleting, or updating the data in a database, must not have data integrity
Conduct database tests accordingly;
- First, set up a test environment for database testing of your software application.
- Now, run different test cases under the test environment
- Analyze the test results and valid if the output matches the expectations
5. Performance Testing
Performance testing is conducted to evaluate the speed, scalability, and stability of a software system. It also analyzes if the system can efficiently deliver consistently with different user inputs.
Performance testing can confirm whether;
- The architecture of your software application can work under heavy load conditions or not
- The app can manage the maximum load and still deliver optimal performance
- Every new version of the software can offer fast response time
Performance test consists of the following steps:
- Identifying the tools and environment for the test
- Determining the performance criteria
- Planning and creating tests
- Preparing the test tools and environment
- Running the performance test
- Resolve and retest
6. Compatibility Testing
A software application might work only with some specific OS or browsers. Therefore it is crucial to perform the cross-compatibility test to determine which system, platform, device, and browser is compatible with your software.
In some cases, one might install and even start using a software application on another system or browser but some of the elements like text fields, images, buttons, and more change across platforms and browsers. so, it is essential to test all the elements of the software too.
It is highly recommended that to get accurate results, testers must conduct compatibility tests on real devices and browsers and not on emulators or simulators.
7. Security Testing
Every aspect of your software applications requires thorough testing, analyzing, and reporting. It is to ensure that your software is secure. Security administrators use both manual and automated testing methods to check the security level of your software.
During a security test, different functions are performed such as:
- Eliminating unauthorized access to secure pages or information
- Preventing the download of authorized pages or data without any approval.
- Automatically killing the sessions after a prolonged user inactivity
- Redirecting the website and web apps to encrypted SSL pages
- It kills automatic sessions after prolonged user inactivity
Security tests are performed as shown below:
- Prepare a risk list
- Prepare a test plan according to potential threats and risk lists
- Create a traceability Matrix for each vulnerability and error
- Pick the necessary testing tools
- Create a test case document
- Run the security tests
Conclusion
To deploy high-quality and reliable software, it must be tested thoroughly. And what we provided in this blog was your checklist for end-to-end software testing services. The different types of tests we discussed above cover all the aspects of software testing to confirm that the product is indeed reliable.
However, there is one important thing you need to remember: if you want to identify the vulnerabilities, and the bottlenecks then you need to test the software application under real user conditions. The more real the conditions, the more accurate results you will get, and the more you will be able to perfect and secure your software.
I hope this helps!
