Your team has just finished developing a web app and is ready to take it to market. You're confident your product meets the highest usability, functionality, security, and performance standards. There's no need for testing, right? Not quite. Web app testing is essential to ensure the quality and security of your web applications.
There are two kinds of testing: manual and automated. Manual testing involves a team running tests to catch any errors, while automated testing uses algorithms. With the increase in the scale and scope of testing in DevOps, the need for automated testing for web apps is greater than ever.
What is web app automated testing?
Web app automated testing is the process of using software tools to execute pre-scripted tests on a web application before it is released into production. This approach ensures that the app performs as expected, functions correctly, and remains bug-free even after updates or changes. Automated testing can save time and resources by quickly identifying issues that would be hard to find manually.
Benefits of Web app test automation
Here are key benefits of web app test automation:
- Speed: Executes tests much faster than manual testing, significantly reducing the time required to validate new code.
- Efficiency: Allows multiple tests to run simultaneously, optimizing resource use and minimizing delays.
- Consistency: Ensures repeatable test execution, eliminating variations caused by human error.
- Coverage: Enables testing of a broader range of scenarios and functionalities, ensuring comprehensive validation.
- Reusability: Test scripts can be reused across different projects and versions, saving time and effort.
- Early bug detection: Identifies issues early in the development cycle, preventing costly fixes later.
- Scalability: Easily scales to accommodate testing of large and complex applications.
- Cost-effectiveness: Reduces long-term testing costs by minimizing manual labor and expediting test cycles.
- Rapid feedback: Executes tests faster on multiple devices, providing quick feedback to developers for immediate corrections.
Web app automated testing types
Let’s go through automated testing types and their goals that you can perform for your web applications:
- Ensures seamless operation of web pages, forms, database connections, and call-to-action forms.
- Validates fields, default values, and cookies.
- Checks form filling options and HTML/CSS for errors.
- Ensures smooth navigation and user-friendly experience.
- Tests clarity of popups, messages, and tooltips.
- Assesses content for clarity, conciseness, and meaning.
- Tests interactions between app server and web server.
- Checks compatibility of software, hardware, network, and database.
- Validates interactions between web server, application server, and database server.
Website Compatibility testing:
- Ensures compatibility across different browsers (IE, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera).
- Checks performance on different operating systems (Windows, Mac, Linux).
- Uses cross-browser automated testing tools.
- Assesses website performance under load.
- Conducts web load and stress testing.
- Evaluates scalability and stability with third-party products.
- Ensures website accessibility for people with impairments (visual, hearing, cognitive, motor).
- Complies with regulations (WCAG 1.0/2.0, Section 508, etc.).
- Uses automated tools to check accessibility standards.
- Identifies and mitigates security threats and vulnerabilities.
- Protects customer data and website availability.
- Utilizes automated security testing tools and ethical hacking.
- Verifies that new code changes do not adversely affect existing functionality.
- Ensures stability after updates or enhancements.
- Uses automated test scripts to retest existing functionalities.
- Measures how the application performs under heavy load conditions.
- Simulates multiple users accessing the website simultaneously.
- Uses automated tools to generate virtual users and analyze performance.
Stress testing:
- Tests the application's ability to handle extreme conditions.
- Identifies breaking points and robustness.
- Uses automated stress testing tools to apply stress and monitor response.
Best practices for Automated website testing
Effective automated website testing requires a well-structured approach and adherence to best practices to ensure efficiency and maintainability. Before you start automating your web application tests, draft a test automation strategy to keep you on track.
Define specific requirements
Clearly outline the specific requirements of your web application to ensure your testing aligns with the application's goals and functionalities. Understanding these requirements helps in designing relevant test cases that cover all necessary aspects of the application. This step is crucial for identifying key areas that need thorough testing and avoiding unnecessary tests.
Example: For an e-commerce web application, identify specific requirements such as secure payment processing, seamless navigation between product categories, and responsive design on mobile devices. These requirements guide the creation of test cases to ensure critical functionalities work as intended.
Identify types of tests to automate
Determine which tests are most beneficial to automate, such as regression, performance, and functionality tests. Automating the right types of tests ensures you maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your testing efforts. Focus on repetitive, time-consuming tests that benefit most from automation.
Example: For the same e-commerce application, automate regression tests for the checkout process, performance tests for page load times under high traffic, and functionality tests for search and filtering features. These tests provide the most value by ensuring core functions remain reliable.
Choose the right automation tool
Select a test automation tool that best suits your requirements, goals, and team resources. Ensure the tool integrates well with your existing processes and supports the technologies used in your web application. Consider factors like ease of use, community support, and scalability when choosing a tool.
Plan for maintenance
Consider the maintenance requirements of your automated tests to avoid accumulating unmanageable test cases. Opt for a tool and strategy that supports easy updates and modifications. Regularly review and update test scripts to keep them relevant and effective as the application evolves.
Example: Schedule regular reviews of automated test scripts to update them based on changes in the application. For instance, if a new payment gateway is integrated, ensure test scripts are updated to include validation for this new feature, preventing outdated tests from causing false positives or negatives.
Start small and scale gradually
Begin with a small set of automated tests and expand as you gain confidence. This approach helps prevent the burden of maintaining an excessive number of test cases. Gradually scaling your efforts allows you to refine your processes and ensure stability before taking on larger automation projects.
Balance automation levels
Aim for a balanced level of automation to achieve optimal return on investment.
- Automate too little: The benefits diminish and the ROI on tool costs and onboarding is too high.
- Automate too much: Maintenance becomes overwhelming and time-consuming.
- Sweet Spot: Find the middle ground where the benefits are maximized and maintenance efforts are manageable.
Ensure team communication
Maintain clear communication within the team to align testing goals and ensure everyone is informed about the automation processes and updates. Regular meetings and updates help keep the team on the same page and facilitate collaborative problem-solving. Documentation of processes and changes is also essential for transparency and knowledge sharing.
Optimize test scripts
Regularly review and optimize test scripts to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. Remove redundant tests and update scripts as the application evolves. Efficient test scripts reduce execution time and improve the overall performance of your automated testing suite.
Example: Regularly analyze test execution reports to identify and remove redundant or obsolete tests. For instance, if multiple tests cover the same login functionality, consolidate them into a single, efficient test script, reducing execution time and maintenance effort.
Utilize continuous integration
Integrate automated testing with continuous integration (CI) pipelines to ensure regular and consistent testing with every code change. This practice helps in early detection of defects and ensures that new code integrates smoothly with the existing application. Automated tests running in a CI pipeline provide immediate feedback to developers, allowing for quick corrections.
Access educational resources
Stay informed and continuously improve your test automation strategy by accessing educational resources, such as guides and tutorials on web automation. Keeping up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices in test automation helps you refine your strategies and make informed decisions. Leverage online courses, webinars, and industry publications to enhance your team's skills and knowledge.
Testing an existing web application
Integrating automated testing into an existing web project involves several crucial steps to ensure comprehensive coverage and efficient testing. Here’s how to start creating automated tests for software that currently lacks automation.
Explore the Web App
First, familiarize yourself with the website and its features. This involves navigating through the site and understanding its structure and functionality. Creating a mind map of the site's layout, including its pages and features, can be highly beneficial for visualizing the testing scope.
Collect data
Gather data from the marketing or analytics team to understand user behavior and common navigation paths. Tools like Google Analytics can provide valuable insights into how users interact with the site. This data helps prioritize which test scenarios to automate first, focusing on maximizing efficiency and impact.
Key scenarios
Start by automating the most common end-to-end use cases. For instance, in an e-commerce application, a typical user journey might include:
Homepage -> Search Results -> Product Information -> Customer Login/Registration -> Payment Information -> Order Verification
The initial goal is to ensure the purchasing flow is seamless, rather than testing every page in detail. By focusing on the primary user paths, you can build a "smoke regression pack" that covers the most critical functionalities.
Increase coverage
Expand the smoke regression pack by incorporating more detailed functional regression scenarios. Use mind maps and the state transition testing approach to identify additional features and their interactions, ensuring broader feature coverage rather than just test coverage.
Entry points and initial state
Identify potential entry points such as the homepage, product detail pages, or SEM-specific landing pages. Analyze each page to understand its initial state and how users might interact with its components. Mind maps can help visualize these interactions and plan the test cases.
Triggers and assertions
Define triggers that change the state of the application, such as submitting a form or clicking a button. Alongside each trigger, specify assertions to verify that the application behaves as expected. For example, after a successful login, assert that the user is redirected to the dashboard.
3 Tips for Better QA in an Automated World
While manual testing remains crucial, leveraging automation saves time, money, and resources. It enhances feedback cycles, expands test coverage, and helps bring products to market efficiently and cost-effectively.
1. Balance automation with human input
Combine automated tests with manual methods like exploratory and functional testing. Human oversight ensures a high-quality user experience and deepens team members' understanding of the product.
2. Incorporate external testers
Outsiders can spot bugs that in-house teams might miss due to their familiarity with the application. External testers offer objective insights, are cost-effective, and fit well with agile methodologies, allowing DevOps teams to focus on development.
3. Leverage crowdsourced testing
A diverse community of professional testers can uncover subtle, unique bugs. Crowdsourced testing provides extensive coverage, quick turnaround times, and a user-centric perspective.
Wondering where to start? If your team lacks expertise, outsourcing web app testing is a viable option. At Global App Testing, our global network of testers is ready to provide a comprehensive solution, including both manual and automated testing. Sign up and schedule a free call today!
Keep learning
Automated Testing - Which Tests to Automate [+ Examples]
What is Automation Testing? - Everything You Need To Know
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