Best Practices to implement while doing Web Applications Testing

In today’s fiercely competitive digital landscape, flawless web applications are the cornerstone of a successful online presence. However, achieving this ideal requires a strategic and often overlooked weapon: meticulous web application testing.

A recent study by the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) , a leading authority in software quality, unveils a compelling statistic: organizations with robust testing practices experience a remarkable 63% reduction in post-release defects. Let’s unpack what this means for your web app:

  • Reduced Costs: Fewer bugs after launch translates to less time and money spent fixing issues after deployment. Imagine the savings associated with catching and rectifying problems early in the development cycle.
  • Happier Users: A web application riddled with bugs and usability issues is a recipe for user frustration. Effective testing ensures a smooth and intuitive user experience, leading to happier and more engaged users.
  • Enhanced Brand Reputation: A web application that functions flawlessly and delivers a seamless experience builds trust and strengthens your brand reputation. Users are more likely to recommend a reliable and user-friendly application.

Having established the undeniable value of web application testing, let’s now equip you with the knowledge to construct bulletproof applications. Here, we’ll delve into the best practices that empower you to implement a comprehensive testing strategy:

Best Practices for Web Application Testing

Emphasize User-Centric Evaluation:

Usability testing assumes a pivotal role in meticulously appraising how users interact with your web application. Through a granular examination of factors such as interface design, navigational architecture, content perspicuity, and overall user experience, you can discern areas for improvement and refine your application to achieve optimal user-friendliness. Remember, a user-centric approach is instrumental in fostering user engagement and propelling conversions.

Evaluate Web Application Performance:

Performance testing meticulously assesses the responsiveness and loading speed of your web application under various conditions. This encompasses factors such as page load times, system stability under high traffic volume, and overall responsiveness. A web application exhibiting sluggish loading times or subpar performance can significantly impede user satisfaction. Performance testing empowers you to identify and rectify these bottlenecks, ensuring a seamless and efficient user experience.

Implement Comprehensive Security Testing:

Security testing is an indispensable facet of safeguarding your web application from vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors. This process involves meticulously identifying and rectifying potential security weaknesses to protect user data and maintain the integrity of your application. Robust security testing fosters trust with your users and shields your application from cyber threats.

Integrate Exploratory Testing Throughout the Development Lifecycle:

Exploratory testing embodies a dynamic testing approach where testers leverage their acumen and creativity to improvise test scenarios while interacting with the application. This method uncovers issues that might be missed by scripted tests and assists in identifying unforeseen user behaviors. By incorporating exploratory testing throughout the development lifecycle, you can proactively discover and rectify potential problems before they impact your users.

Prioritize Cross-Browser Compatibility Testing:

A cornerstone of web application testing involves verifying consistent functionality across a diverse array of web browsers and devices. Contemporary users leverage a heterogeneous assortment of platforms to access websites, thus compatibility with prominent browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, etc.) and devices (desktops, tablets, mobiles) is paramount. This meticulous approach guarantees a broader reach and a uniformly positive user experience for all.

End Note

In the ever-evolving digital arena, flawless web applications are no longer a luxury, but a strategic necessity. This guide has served as your compass, navigating you through the importance of web application testing and its impact on user experience, cost-effectiveness, and brand reputation. Now, armed with the best practices , you are empowered to transform your web application from a nascent concept into a robust and user-centric reality. Remember, exceptional web experiences are not born by chance, but meticulously crafted through the fires of rigorous testing.

Embrace this knowledge, embark on your testing journey, and unlock the full potential waiting to be unleashed. Let your web application become the cornerstone of your digital dominance.

<This is a guest post by Vijayashree Shinde>

Vijayashree Shinde is the Digital Marketing Executive. She has worked in a wide range of industries, including the software testing industry. Currently, she is a Digital Marketer at Testrig Technologies. In addition to as marketing expertise, Vijayashree enjoys writing articles on quality assurance for a larger audience.

A Beginner’s Guide to Web Application Testing

As we know that web apps are becoming more complex, testing them is also getting equally sophisticated. The stats show that 88% of online buyers are less likely to repeat the orders if the website has bad UI/UX. Hence, it is important to perform thorough testing of web apps to ensure that it has standardized user experience, functions, and security.

For the testing process, there are many automation testing tools available along with manual testing tools. Automation tools help in reducing the risk of making human errors while testing any system and also enhance the accurate consistency of the test results. In this article, we will see more about top web app testing tools to learn in 2023. So, let’s dive in!

What is Web App Testing?

Web app testing, or web testing is a process in the SDLC that ensures that the quality of the software and its functionalities are as per the intended requirements of the clients.

The web app testing process also allows you to find errors at any given time before the app or project is released.

Testing any project is quite important before it is released for users to use it. If it is not checked and tested properly, it might cause a heavy crash of that software and also cost you a hefty money expense.

To make the testing process easier, we rely on web app testing tools – that may be open source (free to use) or commercial (paid tools). There might be pros and cons to using each of these, the decision you make regarding the tools to be used is based on your team’s need, budget and resources.

Pros and Cons of Open Source Testing Tools

ProsCons
The primary advantage of having an open-source testing tool is the cost of entry. Open-source tools like Selenium can be used free of cost.
If your team is working with a client who is cost conscious, using free tools is an amazing alternative.
Another benefit is the flexibility that testers can get by using open-source tools. Some tools have a large user community behind them. And there are some cool libraries too that can be used easily.
Moreover, open-source tools also support different languages. For instance, Selenium offers support for different languages like Python, Java, C#, etc.
The foremost disadvantage of open source testing tools is the technical barrier of entry.

Quality is also an underrated con of continuing with different open source testing tools.

If you are the leader of the testing team who does not have any automation professionals, then open source testing tools can develop some problems. In such cases, a commercial testing tool is a better option.

Pros and Cons of Commercial Testing Tools

ProsCons
There are various advantages of Commercial testing tools, that is you do not need a robust in-house skill set to start and run. Different commercial tools use in-built workflows that can make striking the ground off much smoother.

Commercial testing tools also have in-built support and documentation that is huge. There is much documentation available in a well-written format which is easy to use for testers.
 
High team support is also an advantage of commercial testing tools. You can contact the team managing the tool, in case of any emergency arises while using the tool.

The in-built feature of reporting present in commercial testing tools is also considered as their main advantage. However, the custom reporting feature of open source tools is also useful.
One of the main disadvantages of using commercial testing tools is its cost. These tools are prohibitively expensive and users need to pay subscription rates to use them.
Either annually or monthly fees have to be paid for using the tool.

These tools are not flexible like open-source testing tools. Hence these tools are only used while testing particular tasks. If you try to test things that are out of the box for commercial tools, it may drastically fail.

Here we will discuss the best tools available for web app testing. These tools will help you find the hidden bugs and process them further until they are removed.

Web Application testing tools

Let’s discuss the list of top web app testing tools that are trending at the current time:

Selenium

It is an open-source web automation testing tool and is the most widely used tool in the modern era of critical testing. Selenium is one of the best tools which automates across different OSs like Mac, Linux, and Windows and also on browsers like Chrome, Firefox, IT, etc.

The test script of Selenium can be written in any programming language like Java, Python, C#, Ruby, PHP, JS, and Perl. This tool also offers record & playback features with a simple browser add-on named Selenium IDE. There’s a POWERFUL Selenium WebDriver that helps you develop more advanced and complex automation testing scripts.

Here are some features of Selenium:

  • It has multi-browser support
  • Selenium provides multi-language compatibility
  • Quick identification of errors and use of quality web elements
  • Good performance feature
  • It also provides dynamic web elements for the use
  • Selenium is open-source and free to use
  • It is portable, which means it works easily with different OSs
  • It also has a reusability feature for testing scripts

Katalon Platform

Katalon is a comprehensive automation solution for Web, API, Desktop, and Mobile app testing. With a strong user base of more than 0.5 million, both experienced and beginners test engineers can relish its practical and versatile features for an easy testing process.

Integration platforms: Azure DevOps, BrowserStack, Circle CI, etc.

Supported Platforms: Linux, Windows, MacOS

It also provides a 30-day free trial.

Here are the features of the Katalon Platform:

  • It is flexible in testing design. Beginners in automation testing can use playback and record functions for making tests quickly. While the experts can use in-built keywords for improved productivity along with advanced scripting capacities.
  • Easy selenium migration is possible with TestNG/JUnit framework
  • It can execute powerful tests and has cross-browser automation tests along with CI/CD pipeline integrations.
  • It supports testing methodologies like Page Object Model Testing, Keyword-Driven testing, TDD/BDD testing, etc.
  • It reduces test maintenance effort and cost
  • You also get a centralized report dashboard

Testpad

Testpad tool is a simple and more accessible manual testing tool that is a good option for testing web apps. It prioritizes pragmatism over the process and uses checklists like test planning that can be in the form of various ranges of styles like Agile’s manual testing side, exploratory testing, BDD syntax highlights, and also traditional test case management.

Integration platforms: Jira, GitHub, Pivotal, etc.

Supported Platforms: Linux, Windows, Web apps, etc.

It also provides a 30-day free trial.

Here are the key features of the Textpad tool:

  • Guest testers are invited by a simple email, and they do not need special accounts to handle the testing process
  • Simple to use even by non-testing professionals. Everyone can help in the testing process when required
  • It has drag and drop feature for test plans
  • There’s an editor that is Keyboard-driven with JS-powered UI
  • It is a lightweight tool with issue trackers and JIRA

Intruder

intruder is also a powerful error scanner that will assist you to uncover different weaknesses lurking in the web apps and underlying infrastructure. It offers powerful security checks, timely and continuous monitoring, and also it is an easy-to-use tool. Intruder tools will keep your web app safe from hackers.

Integration platforms: GitHub, ServiceNow, Slack, Teams, etc.

Supported Platforms: Windows

It also provides a 14-day free trial.

Here are the features of Intruder:

  • It has best-in-class coverage of threats that covers over 10,000 security checks
  • It checks for missing patches, configuration weaknesses, and app weaknesses like SQL injection, Cross-site scripting, etc.
  • Automatic prioritization and analysis of scan results
  • Automatic analysis and priority of scan results
  • It has an intuitive interface, easy to set up and execute your scans
  • It takes proactive security testing for modern vulnerabilities
  • AWS, Google Cloud, Azure connectors
  • API integration is easy with CI/CD pipeline while using this tool

testRigor

This tool assists you to express the tests directly as executable specifications are made in English. Users belonging to different technical firms can develop a full test case, small/medium/complex which converts web, mobile, and API in one test. Test steps are made as per the end-user level instead of just relying on details of XPaths, and CSS Selectors.

Integration platforms: TestRail, Zephyr, XRay, Jira, etc.

Supported Platforms: Windows, iOS, MacOS

It also provides a 14-day free trial.

Here are the features of testRigor:

  • It has a free-forever public version
  • Test cases are made in English
  • Recorder facility for web steps
  • Unlimited tests and unlimited users
  • testRigor is the easiest tool to learn automation
  • Easy integration with CI/CD
  • Helps in test case management
  • SMS & Email testing
  • Web, Mobile, and API steps in the test

Many More

The list is endless with fantastic tools like QA Wolf, TestSigma, and many more.. You can pick the one you like and that fits the needs of your team and project.

Final words

There are many web app testing tools present in the market that can greatly change the effectiveness and efficiency of the testing process. These tools ultimately offer a huge range of features and expertise that allows you to conduct comprehensive testing and ensures that the reliability and quality of your web app are not compromised.

Selenium is a well-known tool amongst testers as it is versatile and robust to use. The ability to automate the browser functions and support various programming languages makes it an easily flexible and suitable tool in many scenarios.

Moreover, tools like TestComplete, Appium, SoapUI, etc., are worth considering and depend on your particular testing needs. The final choice of picking any web application testing tool will depend on your needs, budget, and expertise. By using any of these top tools, one can streamline the testing process, search for bugs, solve them, and finally deliver high-quality web apps which provide a beautiful user experience.

<This is a Guest Post by Colin Rooney>

<Author Bio: Colin Rooney is a Technical Consultant at a reputed web development company. He has expertise in developing enterprise level web applications in various domains such  as PHP, Laravel, magento and React JS. He loves to share his bylines through blogs. You can find his blogs on many famous websites.>