Complete Functional Testing Guide With functionality And TestLodge

It's easy to get lost in the world of software testing. It's important to understand the software testing types and their value to the software development life cycle. There are many different methods available, such as functional testing, smoke testing, unit testing, acceptance testing, usability testing, and A/B testing; what do they all mean? When and what do you test? And who does the testing? The answers to these questions will vary depending on the type of testing you're doing. This article will discuss how to test an application's functionality and why.

Defining Functional Testing

The primary objective of functional testing is to validate that the software system's functionalities are working as required. Testing against the business requirements examines all features making sure that they function as expected. This type of testing is performed based on the user's perspective and confirms the software performs the way users expect. Black box testing is typically involved because the concern is what the software is supposed to do, not how it is achieved. The system's structure is disregarded, with only the functionality and behavior of modules being assessed. Following this process is vital to your software, as it verifies the software is ready for release.

Where functional testing focuses on software performance, non-functional is concerned with how well it behaves. Non-functional testing includes performance testing, security testing, load testing and is executed after assessing functionality. Together, these approaches confirm the quality of your software.

How Do We Assess Functionality?

This form of testing uses the specifications regarding how the software should function, supplied by the client or design team. There are five key steps to functional testing. You must:

1. Understand the requirements.
2. Identify test input data.
3. Determine the expected result.
4. Execute the test cases.
5. Compare actual and expected results.

This testing method includes positive and negative tests. Positive testing is often called "happy path testing," when the system validates against a valid input. Negative testing is when the system validates against an invalid input. In other words, negative testing the functionality makes sure the application behaves as expected with negative inputs. Both positive and negative testing is equally as important.

Functional Testing in TestLodge

TestLodge allows testers to write, store, and manage test documents for functional testing. In TestLodge, a series of test cases make up a test suite for use as test runs. When executing a test run, the tester compares the actual result with the expected result and marks the case as passed, failed, or skipped. Once testing is complete, reports detailing issues that need fixes and additional testing are available to the tester at a glance.

Testing functionality is an integral part of the software development life cycle. Without it, there's a risk of many surprises that introduce plenty of room for errors and unhappy users.