There was a time when the popular adage was that only engineers who were not confident about their code would indulge in testing their software. It was widely believed that a capable engineer would always write code that needed no testing and the software would work exactly as intended without a hitch. If you have been in the industry long enough, you know that the best engineers have had moments and times when they are not confident about their code. Or they were satisfied and yet something fell through. Testing wouldn’t have been invented if everybody was always confident about everything. The most impeccable code is also dependent on multiple factors like the environment it is run on, the systems it gets integrated with, the libraries it uses – all of this can be changed or broken.
Testing is indispensable and should be given its due importance. One could use the best architectural patterns, the most sophisticated pipeline tooling, hyperscaler cloud environments, and the most modern programming languages will at some point encounter a bug or failure if there is no rigorous testing.
Deploying a Multi-Faceted Testing Strategy
A fully automated functional and non-functional testing strategy makes the perfect multi-faceted testing strategy that yields the best results. Some of the testing strategies that can be leveraged include:
Unit Testing
The developer performs unit testing at the component level during the application deployment phase. Common tools used for unit testing are JUnit and TestNG.
Integration Testing
In integration testing, two or more modules get grouped and tested as one unit. Integration testing focuses on the communication, the interface, and the data flow among the different modules. Common tools used for integration testing include Karate and Selenium.
End-to-End Testing
As the name suggests, end-to-end testing involves testing in a complete application environment in situations as close to real-world scenarios as possible. Common tools used to perform end-to-end testing are Selenium and Cucumber.
Acceptance Testing
Acceptance testing involves testing the applications with real-world business scenarios. The idea behind this is to accept the code if all the features of the software function as expected. Acceptance testing is commonly done using tools like Karate, Selenium, and Cucumber.
Security Testing
This testing technique is intended to ensure that the code is secure against internal and external threat actors like malicious programs, viruses, etc. The commonly used tools for performing security testing are Aqua and Check Marx.
Performance Testing
Performance testing is done to check the application’s stability and response time under load conditions. It is commonly performed using tools like Gatling, JMeter, and LoadRunner.
API Testing
While it is extremely important to test the application in pieces and its entirety in different conditions, it is equally important to test the API. API testing is done to check if the API delivers what it promises about aspects like functionality, reliability, security, and performance. To perform API testing, one usually uses tools like Karate.
Compatibility Testing
Compatibility testing is done to validate the software’s behavior in different conditions and environments. This is especially important when migrating to a new tech or a new tech stack. All the testing tools mentioned so far can be used for performing compatibility testing.
Goals of Good Testing Frameworks
In the current fast-paced environment, good and thorough testing is indispensable. Some of the major goals of good testing include:
- Focusing on automation
- Facilitating rapid deployments
- Decreasing lead time to roll out changes
- Encouraging parallel testing
- Improving software reliability
- Improving software quality
- Reducing the work-in-progress
- Deploying intuitive and easy-to-use tools
- Testing early and frequently
- Becoming application-agnostic
- Operating across all API-based applications
- Delivering quick feedback on failed tests
- Providing the capabilities to determine if a test failure is a go or a no-go for deployment
- Achieving flexibility in test execution
- Ensuring the tests are storable & repeatable
Building a Successful Test Strategy
An efficient and comprehensive testing protocol is indispensable today. If rigorous and efficient testing is not done before deployment, the losses can be huge – both monetary and otherwise. This makes it essential for every enterprise to develop a successful and effective testing strategy.
A good test strategy needs to have four important attributes:
- Test early and often
- Move left, focusing on testing as early as possible and not waiting till deployment to do it
- Clear, so that the tests that failed can be easily identified and remedial measures taken
- Extensible, so the same platforms and techniques can be used for testing a multitude of applications
Using these pointers, one can build an effective and efficient testing strategy that can be used for testing everything built by the enterprise. It is always better to test as early in the development lifecycle as possible. If testing is done as an afterthought, just before deployment, the slightest test failure can lead to huge delays in deployment and an even bigger waste of resources.
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