With the evolution of technology, the demands of businesses as well as users have changed across all industries. With internet on fingertips, the current market landscape and dynamic customer requirements drive the importance of having a web app or website for each organization.
“As of January 2021, there were 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide – 59.5 percent of the global population”, says Statista. And it is quite relatable as almost all of us make our day-to-day decisions by searching for information through the internet. Hence, it becomes extremely necessary for businesses to plan a web application that can showcase their products and services to the users in the best way possible.
Besides, it is vital that the enterprises should not hesitate when it comes to working on QUALITY! Quality Assurance and software testing not only helps to drive higher customer satisfaction but brings all the potential to increase in sales and profits for any business.
In this blog, we will aim at highlighting the importance of testing web applications while working through essential details of web app testing such as definition, process, best practices, benefits, and more.
Let’s get started!
What is web application testing?
In software testing, web application testing implies the testing which ensures that the functionality of a given web app is working as per the customers’ or business requirements. Web testing helps an organization to find bugs at any given time, prior to a release, or on a day-to-day basis.
Testing is a highly significant part of software development lifecycle. It comes handy when any change in the code made, no matter how small, could makes bugs appear somewhere else in the system. The cost of fixing these bugs also rises with time, so having effective web testing in place will ensure your time and money in the development of your application.
How to test a web application?
In software testing, the following testing types can be performed by looking at the requirements of your web application testing.
- Usability testing: Usability testing has now become an integral part of any web-based project. In this type of testing, the test is carried out by a small group of testers who have a similar focus to the target audience of the web app. Here are some checks included in usability testing. In this, you can check:
- The simplicity and ease of use of the web app compared to its competitors.
- The attractiveness or the overall look of the web app.
- Check whether the help link or content is good to go or not
- Functional testing: A web app owner or developer always has a set of specifications that they look for in their app. In functional testing, we make sure that the app meets the set standards or requirements as documented by owners. Here, testing activities include checking all the positive and negative statements or cases written by a QA team member.
- Interface Testing: This is the process of testing the interactions between the application, the Web server, and the database server. This type of testing includes checking the communication processes as well as making sure that error messages are displayed correctly.
- Compatibility Testing: As there are several browsers available today, it is important to ensure the web application works well across all the browsers. In this case, the role of the compatibility test arrives. This can be further classified in three ways.
- Browser compatibility
- Operating system compatibility
- Mobile compatibility
- Performance Testing: Performance testing keeps in focus the responsiveness and stability of a web application under a particular workload. In load testing, the application is tested under normal and peak loads to determine its stability in varied conditions such as different hardware configurations, with a greater number of users, and with low Internet speed.
- Security Testing: Today, when cybersecurity remains a huge concern, therefore security testing for web apps holds importance. Security testing includes the following activities:
- Testing whether secure pages can be accessed without authorization.
- Checking that open sessions are closed after ongoing user inactivity.
- Verifying the application’s SSL.
- Monitoring the download of restricted files
Effective Practices For Web Application Testing:
- Focus on Cross-browser testing: It is important to ensure that the website or web app is accessible on every available version of web browsers. This would ultimately increase the user experience and reliable results.
- Evaluate the app’s performance under all scenarios: it is important to perform load testing to ensure that the application works under varying loads.
- Emphasis on usability testing: Usability testing is very crucial for any web app as it involves checking various parameters like UI design, speed, accessibility, etc.
- Maintain security: Even a single mistake in security-related things can lead to a massive data breach. This in turn will lead to the loss of loyal customers along with a bad brand reputation. So, adhering to web app security testing remains a must.
- Use of exploratory testing: By implementing exploratory testing one can produce more reliable test results while also saving the testing time.
Key Benefits Of Web App Testing:
- By testing web applications, we make sure that the applications are compatible across all the browsers.
- Web application testing overall improves the performance. Testing makes sure that the app functions well and meets all the standards or requirements that are set by businesses and even clients.
- Users don’t stick to the app or website that takes time to load. In this case, testing helps the web apps to resolve the load time delay that can be caused due to numerous problems like graphics, codes, etc.
- Testing helps to secure your app from all the threats and vulnerabilities. Catering to the increase in threats like hacking, cyber security has become a major concern.
- Web app testing ensures the high quality of the application by enhancing the performance and functionality of the app. This way the app would be free from all the bugs at the earliest.
- As there is early detection of bugs through end-to-end testing, it automatically reduces time and cost consumption.
Conclusion
As we witness a surge in the use of web applications, therefore it is important for enterprises to hire good web app testing service providers. Especially, when every other organization is focusing on offering top-notch software development services, focusing on protecting the quality can help businesses to sustain in long term.
Besides, the development companies need to monitor the upsurge in data breaches and consider implementing the best web application testing mechanisms to create and secure the web experience for users.
