Web Testing

Web testing:Web testing is testing of Usability, Functionality, Security, Consistency and Performance of websites. It is unique because the number of users that a website can have can never be predicted. Difficult because of the technical complexities of a website and various types of browsers. Assuring website quality requires conducting of tests, automatically and repetitively. It is a challenge in software quality assurance.

Importance of Web Testing:It ensures Quality.It is quality that ensures the user to come back. It quality that give one website an edge over the another. Quality of a website directly reflects on the quality of the company and its products. Poor quality will cost a lot in poor customer relations, lost corporate image, and even in lost sales revenue. Unhappy users are sure to quickly depart to a different site.

When and where should Web testing be performed: Web testing is performed before going live or few months just before the website is launched.Certain automatic web testing scripts should be run periodically to verify consistency. It should also be performed during every major change. It is to be taken care that the testing activity should not impact user's performance.Hence ideally web testing should be done on a test website (test bed). All the development changes should be done on the test bed and when the testbed has been thoroughly tested, then it should be migrated to the live environment.This shall also ensure that there are no under construction pages in the live environment.

Web testing of B2B(Business to Business)sites:Testing should emphasize on features, time to fetch information, business processes, search facility etc. Aesthetics, looks etc should be taken up for testing toward the end of the testing phase.In other words their priority is low.Emphasis is on checking whether the user understands the process ans the way the website has mapped to the business process.Special emphasis is on User Access, Confidentiality of information, Authorization, Order Cancellation, Order amendment etc. Payment methods need thorough security testing.

Web testing of B2C(Business to Consumer)sites:Aesthetics(look and feel), Usability, Content etc.is a definite priority.Requires more emphasis on user friendliness, Navigation, search facility, predictability in terms of content distribution etc. Features that attract and retain the visitors like Chats, News, Newsletter, facility free email, Message boards,Forums, Online help, etc. need testing depending upon target group who could be anybody-children, adults, professionals, women etc. Help available on products, pages needs thorough content and usability testing. Also correctness and completeness of Disclaimer, terms and conditions, etc. should be checked. Special emphasis should be laid on accepting payments through credit card, handling of vendor paid parcels(VPP) etc

What to test in Web Testing:
Functionality and Content:Do all the critical Functionality, especially connection to legacy systems/databases work? Does the content of critical pages match what is supposed to be there? Does all dynamically generated content work properly?Do key phrases exist continually in highly changeable pages?Do critical pages maintain quality content from version to version?

Usability and Navigation:How well do all of the parts of the website hold together?Are all links inside and outside the website working? Do all of the images work? Are there parts of the website that are not connected? Is the structure simple for the user to understand?

Regression and Accuracy:How has one change to the website affect other parts? Are today's copies of the pages downloaded the same as yesterday's? Is the data presented to the user accurate enough?How much has the website changed since last upgrade?How have the changed parts been highlighted?

Performance/Stress:Does the website server respond to the browser request within certain performance parameters?How is the end to end response time after SUBMIT? Are there parts of the site that are so slow the user may discontinue working?Is the Browser--> Web-->Website-->Web-->Browser Connection quick enough.How does the performance vary by time of day, by load and usage?

Security/Integrity:How are Access rights being handled?How secure is the data input by the users? How secure is the website content itself?How are financial transactions, if any handled? How does the website encrypt data?