Testing is one of the most critical elements that allow you to identify possible errors, which means making the product better. Today there are many varieties of this, and one of the most important is functional testing. It allows you to ensure that the product performs the previously announced actions.
Functional testing is an opportunity to check how your product can perform its stated functions. So, the specialist identifies what actions the software should perform, conducts a check, and compares the result with expectations.
So, for example, if your mobile application must perform the functions of a calculator, then during testing, it is necessary to check whether the application performs these functions and double-check how correctly the software performs all mathematical calculations. If it turns out that the program does not perform the declared functions, this can ruin the reputation of the developers.
This type of testing is performed in the first place, and if everything is normal, it makes sense to move on to other types of tests (Accessibility, Acceptance, End-to-end, Load, and another testing).
To perform testing, it is necessary to use a functional specification, which must be provided by the customer or software developer. It is a document that describes all the functions that the finished product must perform.
It involves black box testing. It does not test the source code but the user interface, API, database, security, client/server communication, and more.
So, functional testing aims to understand whether the client will achieve their goals through the use of your product.
Why conduct functional testing?
Functional testing allows you to determine how your product can perform the declared functions. However, this is not the only advantage:
- you can use only the manual type of testing, which helps to save;
- it is one of the most critical business requirements, which means that if the product successfully passes the test;
- the project can count on additional investments from partners.
Functional testing is one of the essential requirements for certification. This document proves the high quality of the product and increases the level of confidence on the part of investors and ordinary users.
How is functional testing done?
Functional testing involves the following steps:
- Identification of functions to be performed;
- Identification of test inputs or test data based on requirements;
- Compute expected results with selected test inputs;
- Execution of test cases;
- Compare actual and calculated expected results.
Functional testing https://testfort.com/functional-testing can be carried out both manually and automatically. In the first case, the specialist simulates an ordinary user’s behavior to check the application’s availability and performance of all buttons, links, and other things. It lets you make sure that a person can easily automate and perform the necessary actions.
As soon as the specialist finds errors or inconsistencies, he or she fixes them and writes recommendations on how to improve them. Further, these recommendations should be carried out by the programmer involved in creating the software.
Automatic testing cannot check the interface, but it can detect system errors, check the connection quality to the server, databases, and much more. In this case, the program finds errors, registers them, and gives recommendations for elimination.
After both types of testing have been carried out, the specialist analyzes the result, compares the manual and automatic testing results, and gives the terms of reference to the programmer to fix the problems. After all of the issues have been set, one more test should be done to ensure that all the edits were made correctly.
Basic Tools
Manual testing can be performed by almost any specialist who has computer literacy basics. It is the responsibility to view the interface and check the functionality of all keys. It takes quite a lot of time, but this kind of work must be carried out without failing to ensure that the system works correctly.
As for automatic testing, this involves using special tools that conduct a deeper analysis of the software. Among the most popular are: Selenium, QTP, JUnit, soapUI, and Watir.
Each of these tools has its benefits. So, for example, Selenium and soapUI have open sources, which help identify possible problems quickly and easily. JUnit was developed primarily for Java applications but is very effective for unit testing. Watir supports tests in a web browser and uses the ruby scripting language.
The choice of tools directly depends on what project you are working with and what functions you need to check. In addition, these tools may charge a fee for their services, so you need to consider the cost when choosing a tool.
How does functional testing affect business development?
A specialist hopes that ordinary users will like it when creating any IT product. Quite often, you can meet programmers in such a hurry to release a project on time that they did not perform functional testing. In most cases, this leads to a crash. The thing is that a person interested in your project in advance comes here, sees all the shortcomings, and refuses the idea of further cooperation. So, you lose customers and create a bad reputation, which becomes impossible to restore.
Also, functional testing should be done when introducing any new modules. It happens that a new module can block the work of another one that previously worked correctly. It can also negatively impact the user experience.
Recently, people have been less likely to succumb to advertising and follow only recommendations. So, if one customer likes your product, he or she will recommend it to their friend. Your task is to create a high-quality interface and functionality that users will enjoy, then you can count on profit.
Conclusion
If you want users to be able to perform some actions with your product and enjoy collaboration, you need to conduct deep functional testing. It will ensure that there are no significant bugs that can frustrate users. Ideally, both manual and automated testing should be carried out to cover as many errors as possible.
