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Types of Web Application Testing

Having a final implementation of a product matching the user interface and the set requirements is a very critical step. The visual implementations, flow, and interaction of the product are what will give the end users the desired appropriate impression. These two types below will do their tests on the adequate parts of the test product.

Functional Testing​

The accuracy of a product’s functionality is crucial to its success. Functional Testing focuses on the most critical aspects of the software, on the integration between key components, or on the system as a whole. 

Functional testing evaluates a web application's core features to ensure they work as expected based on specified functional requirements.

Front-end functional testing focuses on verifying the functionality and behavior of the user interface. Back-end functional testing focuses on validating the functionality, logic, and data flow of the server-side components.

Examples:

  • Front-end: Verify that an Error message will be displayed if the user logs in with invalid credentials.
  • Back-end: Validate that newly registered user credentials are stored correctly in a database. Use API or SQL script to validate such data.

Types of Functional testing​

None of all the test types are exclusively performed only by QA. While QA professionals are typically the primary facilitators of most testing activities, many of these test types can also be performed by other stakeholders depending on the context, skill level, and collaboration approach.

Software development emphasizes cross-functional collaboration (e.g., Agile, DevOps). As a result:

  • Developers perform testing activities like Integration and even API testing.
  • End-users or business stakeholders participate in UAT and Exploratory testing.
  • DevOps teams automate Smoke and Regression tests as best practice, but also run manual execution in certain scenarios such as, 
  • Debugging failed automated tests
  • Tests requiring subjective analysis or UI/UX validation, by providing the necessary infrastructure or tools.

However, QA’s job is to:

  • Design effective test strategies.
  • Apply domain knowledge.
  • Uncover edge cases and provide a quality mindset.

1. System Testing: Testing the system as a whole. Once all the components are integrated, a rigorous test is executed to see that it meets specified quality standards. The thorough tests should verify and validate the specifications and requirements on a test, soon to be a devoted production environment.

Examples:

  • Validate the complete user path from registration to purchase, while testing the e-commerce web app.
  • Verifying the outcome by using valid test data (for happy path) and invalid test data (for exceptions and errors).

2. User Acceptance Testing (UAT): checks whether the product satisfies the client's requirements.

  • The key difference in any UAT test plan is between validation and verification, which is crucial because they focus on different aspects of ensuring the software meets the user's needs and requirements:
  • Verification is based on specified requirements, asking the question “Are we building the product right?”
  • Example: Login form must validate the email format
  • “Are we building the right product?” validating the user’s needs.
  • Example: Testing the login form to confirm it aligns with a given workflow.

3. Smoke Testing: Executed in the early stages of the SDLC (or, Systems development life cycle) to set out a foundation of bug-free and reliable core functionalities as possible.

Example: Once receiving a build with the fix for the Checkout functionality, Smoke Tests should verify that the existing features, such as Login and Adding items to the Cart, are functioning seamlessly in addition to confirming the resolution of the Checkout functionality bug.

4. Regression Testing: Regression testing ensures the software works correctly after adding new features.

Examples:

  • When an e-commerce website adds a new payment gateway, regression testing will ensure that other payment methods remain functional.
  • When developers modify apps database structure to improve data storage, regression testing ensures that existing data is not interrupted.

5. Sanity Testing: Sanity testing is the subset of regression testing, ensuring the newly added functionality's stability.

Examples: The E-shop website adds new functionality and a user receives a 10% discount on their birthday. Sanity testing will check if the user receives his discount on the correct day and does not receive it on other days; check that the user can add this discount to another discount on his birthday and other checks only around this feature.

6. Exploratory Testing: An approach where testers actively explore the software to identify issues and assess user experience without always relying on predefined tests.

  • Freestyle: Testers explore the app without strict rules, good for quick checks or familiarizing with the app. 

Example: You are performing exploratory testing of a food delivery web app and testing all features across the all website, trying different unexpected not pre-defined flows, scenarios, and inputs.

  • Strategy-Based: Experienced testers use various techniques to ensure thorough testing. 

Example: You are performing exploratory testing of a food delivery web app and focusing on end-to-end workflows of ordering food, with attention to edge cases.

  • Scenario-Based: Testing based on specific scenarios provided by users or created by the team.

Example: You are performing exploratory testing for an e-shop website, using the scenario “Black Friday shopping”. You will use conditions, like first-time guest user/old user with privileges; put a lot of products in the shopping cart; use different multiple promo codes at once, or use different international addresses.

7. Integration Testing: Testing where units/components are integrated and tested as a unified group

Example: You are conducting integration testing for an e-shop web application. The goal is to ensure seamless interaction between the shopping cart, payment gateway, and order management systems. This testing will confirm that these components work together effectively to process orders without issues.

8. Alpha Testing: The combination of system, unit, and integration tests, known as Alpha testing is executed in the early stages of the development.

Example: Using the staging environment, the development team, QA team, and selected company employees are testing an e-commerce web app to identify critical bugs and validate core functionalities like user registration, product search, shopping cart, and payment gateway integration.

9. Beta Testing: Beta testing is executed by a group of end-users, in a real environment, on a pre-release version, aiming for feedback and creating a better production version.

Example: A group of 500 educators, students, and professionals test an online learning web platform like real end-users, using different devices, browsers, and network conditions. The objective is to test the app's usability, functionality, and user satisfaction before launching it to the public.

10. API Testing: API testing evaluates whether the application's API meets the specified requirements for functionality, reliability, performance, and security.

Examples:

  • Check API response for invalid inputs.
  • Validate integration between API and database.
  • You can use the Postman application for manual API testing.

Non-Functional Testing​

What is important for the non-functional testing is, that the testing doesn’t check ‘if’ the software does the action, but ‘how’ it does it.

1. Usability Testing: Usability testing evaluates challenges users find when interacting with a product and provides insights to recommend improvements.

Examples:

  • Check if link texts are underlined below them.
  • Check if navigation is consistent throughout the website.

2. Compatibility Testing: Compatibility testing evaluates how the website performs across different browsers, operating systems, and devices.

Examples:

  • Test the web app on different browsers.
  • Validate performance on older browser versions.

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Check out more from the blog article - Compatibility Testing: Definition, Importance & Examples 

3. Responsive Testing: Responsive testing evaluates how a website or web application looks and behaves on screen sizes, resolutions, and orientations.

Examples:

  • Check the image and video responsiveness.
  • Test horizontal and vertical scrolling on mobile.

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4. Performance Testing: Performance Testing evaluates web app speed, responsiveness, and stability under a workload.

Examples:

  • Test page load time under normal traffic.
  • Test performance with limited network bandwidth.
  • How to set different connection speeds for load time checking

5. Security Testing: Security Testing evaluates web applications for vulnerabilities and ensures they are protected against potential attacks.

Examples:

  • Verify session management and expiry.
  • Validate authentication and authorization mechanisms.

6. Accessibility Testing: Accessibility testing evaluates whether the site meets accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG) and is usable by people with disabilities.

Examples:

  • Test screen reader compatibility.
  • Check color contrast ratios for text and background.

7. Localization Testing: Ensuring the quality of the product in a certain location, given a certain localization environment.

Examples:

  • Translation verification
  • Data format support for multiple continents

8. Stress Testing: Testing the software under abnormal conditions. Testing by overloading or removing resources, to identify a breakpoint. Examples: 

  • Disabling or restarting network ports randomly.
  • Starting or stopping the database.
  • Running various processes that consume CPU or memory