6 Best Practices for Web App Testing
Due to increase in the number of users worldwide, testing web applications has now become essential and challenging. Factors such as the browser’s expanding matrix, third-party applications, plugins and new programming languages are making web application testing more complex.
To overcome this challenge, here are some best practices that businesses and testers can follow:
Test the cross-browser compatibility.
For a web application to deliver quality user experience, it must run on different types and versions of web browsers seamlessly. To assess the cross-browser compatibility of the application, testers need to use specialized tools. Businesses should choose the right automation tools for testing the application’s functionality across various browsers efficiently.
Select criteria for usability testing.
The usability of a web application is directly proportional to the user experience. If your application has great usability, you can keep your visitors engaged and even convert them into customers.
To execute usability testing effectively, businesses should select key criteria such as:
Accessibility
Content readability
Ease of navigation
Performance
Speed
User interface design
Amount of time to perform a specific task
Perform incremental load testing.
To load test web applications effectively, businesses should identify and eliminate all issues related to hardware and system configuration in the test environment. Incremental load testing involves replicating a small number of distributed users on initial tests and then increasing the number of users little by little. This practice will ease the process of identifying the exact point where the application overloads. It also involves performing load tests in cycles. In this way, you can analyze the test results in each cycle and assess how your application performs under differing user loads accurately.
Keep tests simple.
If possible, testers should avoid testing multiple features or functionalities of a web application using a single test as it will only complicate the process of identifying the root of the problem. Thus, testers should write simple tests for checking particular features or functionalities. By dividing the workflow into multiple tests and writing each test to assess a certain aspect of the application rigorously, the testing process will be simplified.
Invest in automation tools.
Testers should not do the same testing on an application repeatedly. They can use a lot of free web-based automation testing tools for those repetitive tasks. The general rule is to automate all major issues that may not be acceptable for regression testing. Through this practice, testers can focus on more important testing aspects.
Check the traffic.
When testing a web application, do not forget to analyze the web traffic. Conducting the analysis will help businesses test Google Analytics tags and similar third-party tracking tags used by the web page. To assess each user request and response precisely, check the traffic thoroughly from the browsers to the server. Testers can also use specialized tools to ensure that each tracking tag includes correct values.
Businesses and testers should have a comprehensive testing strategy to ensure that all aspects of a web application will be tested thoroughly. Once you have a strategy, the next step is to implement that strategy. Using the tips above, you will surely be able to create a strategy that fits your web apps.
