Why you can’t Ignore Test Automation while Planning Website Testing?

December 14, 2014

Web testing, which includes the testing of all kinds of web applications, used to be a lot simpler back in the day. About a decade ago, most apps did not offer any complex functionality. The earliest web apps were mere forms-based apps that enabled users to fill and submit forms online. Over time, complex and sophisticated web applications have evolved. While manual testing was more than enough to identify and remove bugs earlier, the complexity of most modern web apps demands increased automation of the testing process.

Most web applications today are multi-tier, large-scale applications and hence manual testing can be time consuming, and the level of accuracy it offer may not be sufficient. Several complex web apps may be running on a single website, and it is not feasible to test a large number of web apps manually. The sheer amount of time and effort that would go into web testing makes manual testing unfeasible. This is the reason why most web developers and testers prefer automated testing.

If you want to make sure that the website actually helps in obtaining your online goal, a thorough website testing process, focus on several minute details, is crucial. Even a single error in one web app can cause glitches that frustrate users and drive them away from the website. Automating website testing helps you speed up the testing process and improve efficiency at the same time. But unless you plan a proper strategy for automated testing, you cannot get all its benefits.

Allow me to list out few things that are required to be checked in webpage testing. These points can act as a checklist for building successful test automation for your web applications.

1. Usability Testing

• It’s a method used to evaluate how easy using the website to use is.
• It includes navigation testing. You focus on how users surf the web pages, and how they use different controls like buttons, text boxes and links on the page.
• Validate all the tests related to usability to ensure that your web pages are intuitive and easy to use for the end users.

2. Functionality Testing

• This is quite a vast part of web apps testing and needs to be done very accurately.
• Check all the links (internal and outgoing) and make sure that there are no orphan pages.
• Test the application by enabling or disabling the cookies in your browser options and analyze the results.
• Validate your site for HTML syntax errors.

3. Automated Database Testing

• A database is a very crucial part of web applications and the most sensitive too.
• When it comes to performance testing, regression testing of a database can be done using a test automation tool.
• During database testing, you need to check data integrity and any errors in the data.
• There are several automation tools that simplify and speed up testing databases.
• Know More on Automated Database Testing for Web Apps

4. Compatibility Testing

• Compatibility of your website is a very important aspect of testing.
• You need to test browser compatibility, OS compatibility, mobile browsing compatibility, etc.
• Cross browser testing is the most significant part of website testing as most web applications are heavily dependent on web browsers.
• Test the web apps on major browsers like IE, Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome.
• Mobile browsing is increasing exponentially and if the website targets mobile users, you need to test mobile compatibility.

5. Load Testing

• Test application performance on varying internet speed.
• Site should handle simultaneous user requests. So, check how many users can access the same web page at the same time.
• Load test also requires database connection to be checked.

These are the major areas of website testing. The more complex a website it, the more time you will need to spend on testing. In addition, the specific features and functionalities of the website and the web apps may require you to perform tests to meet other criteria too.

But the ones we talked about cover all traditional web app testing criteria that are required to be carried out. Most of the processes described above can benefit immensely from test automation tools. Since most of these procedures are script based, automating your tests will help you save a lot of time, effort and money, and at the same time, help you increase the accuracy of your testing process.

To automate your website testing, download the Enterprise version of TestingWhiz now!