Best Practices for Testing Web Applications
Deepa Prajapati
Jun 12, 2020
Currently, numerous Web applications are emerging in mobile, social media, and cloud technologies. Every hour hundreds of new websites and web-based applications are launched. For this increasing requirement, quality testing of Web applications has become crucial. Also, Cloud technologies are evolving rapidly and changing how we do business today. It is not enough to have functional systems and integrations in the cloud. Their performance, usability, security, etc., also bear equal importance. Learn more about Enterprise application testing
Website Testing Best Practices
To overcome most of the hurdles in the testing of web applications, testing teams can implement some of the best practices described below.
A. Focus on cross-browser and compatibility testing
1. Why is it important?
There are many instances where we come across issues like –
- Global search is not working on iPhones, iPad, and older Android phones
- Banner images are not moving on Firefox 3.
- Tables don’t load entirely on small-screen mobile devices
- HTML tags are not supported on Chrome 71
Such defects mostly arise from cross-browser testing. With the easy availability of various browsers with their various versions, mobile phones, tablets, and so many other gadgets, it has become inevitable for companies to make their web applications available on many of them, if not all.
It is important to give the same user experience across all browsers/devices. Of course, a web application would look and work slightly differently on a browser than on a mobile app. Still, we must maintain similarity in its core features, such as fonts, colors, backgrounds, popups, layouts, etc., on most browsers and devices. Without compatibility testing, your web application may show noticeable differences and issues across different devices/browsers, which may prove your application unreliable and unprofessional.
2. How it’s done?
Testing teams must strategically plan their test scenarios and activities for cross-browser and compatibility testing because this kind of testing can be one of the most tedious, especially for manual testers. It would be best if you finalized the scope – like what devices, browsers, gadgets, tools, and systems – your application should be compatible with. Also, when you compare your application running on different devices/browsers, you are looking for a comparison between different rendering engines. This helps you in deciding where and what kind of fixing is required.
Cross-browser testing or Compatibility testing can be done manually or with the help of automation tools. Although, some key questions you may want to ask before selecting a manual or automation approach for testing your application’s compatibility would be:
- How complex is your web application/website?
- How many browsers do you want your application/site to support?
- How many versions of each browser do you want your application/site to support?
- How many devices do you want your application/site to support?
- How many operating systems you want your application/site to support?
- What is your scope of performance on each device/browser?
This kind of testing is repetitive; hence, automation is usually preferable and cost-effective. Once you can answer the above questions, you have to design your test plans and start testing using the standard techniques on each browser/device in the picture: Sanity tests, Functional tests, and Regression tests to verify:
- HTML validation
- CSS validation
- Page validations
- Ajax related features
- Font size validation
- Page layout in different resolutions, etc.
B. Consider usability as the next most important factor
1. Why is it important?
Usability testing is a Black Box testing technique in which testing is done from the end-users point of view. It is done to determine how easy it is for the users to use the software application in various conditions. Imagine an application that is so complex for the users that it takes hours of training on simple functions and hundreds of questions after that. Usability testing is done to ensure that the end-user finds all items/functions in the applications easy to understand and use.
Nobody wants to spend time in lengthy training and demos. Instead, people want simple and easy-to-use applications. Take the example of social media apps or e-commerce websites trending these days. You will notice that they are designed for all categories of people, with any background and even the least knowledge of technology. Users are doing various activities on social media and buying from shopping sites. That’s the whole point of usability. Companies need to understand that a website’s usability directly impacts user experience and satisfaction, which further impacts the company’s reputation and business.
2. How it’s done?
Generally, usability planning is done through research, surveys, or comparisons. Users are asked to go through the website pages and see how user-friendly and self-explanatory each area on the website is. Sometimes, a survey is done to find what people want on a particular website or application. Or in other cases, doing some research on existing applications of the same domain and comparing what looks and feels best also helps finalize your application’s usability requirements.
Key areas to check in usability testing:
User-Friendliness
- The application is easy-to-use and navigates through
- Every control on the application is self-explanatory
- It doesn’t require a lot of training, but help documents are provided in necessary places
Accuracy
- The application provides all correct and up-to-date data
- There are no broken links
Accessibility
- Website’s loading time and rendering time are reasonable
- GUI of the application is as per the domain standards
C. Your application needs to “Perform” Well
1. Why is it important?
Is this even a question? What is an application of any use if it does not perform well? Who has time nowadays to keep waiting for pages to load and reports to generate? Researchers claim that most users will lose interest after 8 seconds of delay. Every year around 4.4 billion-dollar revenue is lost due to poor-performing web applications. Is there a need to say more?
Sometimes minor flaws in the system can affect the website’s performance severely. Therefore, it is required to perform load testing and evaluate how the application performs under varying loads.
2. How it’s done?
Performance testing is usually done to Investigate, measure, or verify Scalability, Reliability, and Resource usage. It is a measure of – Concurrency/Throughput, Server response time, Render-response time, Load Testing, Endurance Testing
Some high-level steps, which can be used for both manual as well as automation, to do performance testing on your application are:
- Analyze project requirements
- Identify Performance testing requirements
- Plan and design your tests
- Execute tests
- Report and Retest
C. Validate and maintain the application’s security
1. Why is it important?
Even in these times when cyber crimes are frequently emerging, the application’s security is overlooked by many companies. Your software meeting quality, functional, and performance requirements are not enough. In today’s era, where online banking, payments, social media, etc., deal with money or your personal information, how would you like web applications that leak such data?
In 2017 CSI Computer Crime and Security Survey analyzed the average cost of a web security breach. 46% of all businesses have identified at least one cyber security breach or attack in the year, not to mention billions of dollars lost worldwide in cyber crimes. Read relevant blog here: Mobile Application Testing: Challenges and Solutions
2. How it’s done?
The best way to ensure application security is that its development life cycle processes should rigorously conform to secure development, deployment, and maintenance principles and practices. The two major aspects of security testing are the protection of data and access to that data. If unauthorized access is granted to protected data, then it’s a security breach. The below steps can be used to perform Security testing of your application:
a. Password splitting:
Some of the authentication tests include a test for password quality rules, a test for default logins, a test for password recovery, a test for a captcha, a test for logout functionality, a test for password change, a test for security question/answer, etc. In short, password security is one of the most basic and important things to consider in Security testing.
b. URL Manipulation:
The HTTP GET method query string parameters can be modified by testers to check if the server accepts it. The method generally used by hackers is to change a parameter value in the query string, which would cause unintended behavior by the server. A security tester can do the same to see if the server accepts it.
c. SQL Injection:
Suppose the tester encounters database errors while testing. The application is vulnerable to SQL injections. Entering a single quote (‘) in the application’s text fields should be prohibited to protect the data in your databases. Moreover, all input fields in your application should have maximum lengths implemented.
d. Cross-Site Scripting (XSS):
In this method, security testers can validate if the application accepts XSS scripting. For example, tags like HTML or SCRIPT should not be accepted by the application; otherwise, the application will be prone to Cross Site Scripting attacks.
Conclusion
Even with all these best practices, Functional and Regression testing of the application should not be overlooked. But of course, some companies always focus on these two and neglect all the rest. Faulty and defective web applications look unreliable and adversely affect business efforts, leading to increased costs and loss of business reputation. By following the practices mentioned above for testing web applications, businesses can significantly reduce risks and deliver the best quality apps.
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