In this second blog of the QA Testing series, we’re keeping the information flowing as we delve into the essential components of testing types. With this knowledge and understanding, you’ll have greater assurance that systems aren’t merely operational but are functioning flawlessly and at their peak performance.
Testing is not a one-size-fits-all approach; it encompasses various methodologies and strategies to ensure the quality of software products and sometimes integration within different systems. From verifying the functionality of specific features to evaluating the system’s performance under different conditions, understanding the distinctions between functional and non-functional testing is helpful.
Now let’s explore these fundamental categories, shedding light on their significance in QA Testing.
There are 2 Main Types of Tests...
The most basic division for testing types includes functional and non-functional testing.
Types of Functional Tests
- Unit Testing: This testing is conducted during the development phase. The purpose is to ensure that each individual unit or component performs as expected. Ensures that test cases have code coverage.
- Integration Testing: Integration testing verifies that individual functional modules operate as expected when combined, ensuring the end-to-end system meets necessary standards.
- Regression Testing: Verifies that adding new features or updating features have affected any existing functionality or not. It is change oriented testing aimed at determining whether previously existing functionalities still work after updates.
- Smoke Testing: This is conducted post-release of each build or deployment to verify software stability and detect anomalies. It involves doing simple tests on core functions of the system.
- Usability Testing: Actual customers test the software in a production environment. Focuses on user friendliness of the system and validates if end users can complete the action, face any UI issues, product is intuitive, etc
- Sanity Testing: It’s a simplified version of regression testing. And usually done after smoke testing, to verify major functionalities of the system is working properly both by itself and combination with other components.
Non-Functional Testing on the other hand, dives into the stuff you might not notice right away but are still super important. It’s like checking how the system behaves under pressure and if it’s user-friendly, reliable, and secure. We’re talking about things like how fast it runs (performance), how easy it is to use (usability), if it can handle a ton of users at once (maximum workload), and how safe it is from hackers (security and resistance to unauthorized access!). So, it’s all about ensuring the system is not just working, but working smoothly and securely behind the scenes.
Types of Non-Functional Tests
- Performance Testing: It tests the software under various workloads like speed, responsiveness or reliability. For example, when 1000 users access the system simultaneously, the load should not exceed 10 secs.
- Load Testing: It tests the system’s loading capacity. It checks how well the system can handle the increasing number of users of its loading capacity. For example users trying to download a large number of files or OTT platform where multiple users are accessing the same series or episodes.
- Stress Testing: It tests the maximum level of load before the application crashes. It is to test how application behaves under loads and how it recovers from failures.
- Security Testing: Ensuring software safety by validating it for vulnerabilities that could compromise data security. This testing is carried out looking for design flaws and mindset of an attacker.
As we wrap up our exploration into the essential components of testing types, it’s clear that ensuring software quality involves a nuanced understanding of functional and non-functional testing. If you have any questions about testing or any other operational queries, don’t hesitate to reach out to chat. We’re here to help!
Let's chat!
