Can Functional Testing Get Your Enterprise Application Market-ready?

By Author: Michael Wade
Total Articles: 67
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Amongst the many tests undertaken by the QA team, Functional Testing is perhaps the most significant. Functional Testing Services check and validate individual features of the software by inserting data - both correct and incorrect, against specified outcomes.
Interestingly, in the emerging world of Internet of Things or IoT, Functional IOT Testing ensures the success or failure of this emerging ecosystem where ‘objects’ with embedded software communicate with each other via the Internet.

In today’s challenging IT landscape thousands of applications join the already cluttered pool of software almost on a daily basis. The chances of an application getting the attention of the customers are slim indeed. Against such overwhelming odds the attribute that keeps an application afloat is ‘quality.’ Now-a-days, customers do not necessarily take fancy to the ‘frills’ present in a software, but are guided by its quality in terms of speed, functioning and responsiveness.
A plethora of quality tests are required for every software before it is declared market ready. Amongst them, Functional Testing or User Acceptance Testing checks and validates the effectiveness, usability and responsiveness of various features, links, APIs, security, databases, and interfaces from the users’ perspective.

The tests are carried out by a select few group of people who can represent the actual end customers. They provide insights into issues that are likely to be faced by the end users such as latency, non working of a link, cluttered interface, or security. It is important to have users’ perspective more often, as developers are mistakenly convinced by the infallibility of their codes.

Moreover, in the emerging area of IoT where technology can be the pivot around which our lives will revolve in the future, IoT Testing Services can be beneficial. This type of testing can validate the functioning of individual devices that make the larger ecosystem of IoT. These individual devices can range from sensors, actuators, thermostats to high end integrated circuits that receive inputs to perform a particular task(s). Hence, through Functional IoT Testing process, inputs are fed into the devices to check if they perform as per specifications. These inputs can be erroneous, as testers check for any abnormal behaviour of individual devices or system attached to them.

Consequently, any abnormal behaviour or glitch is identified and addressed. Regression testing can also be a part of Functional Testing for it tests how features of newly attached software to the parent one function vis-a-vis the old one.

Functioning Testing can be of two types: Automatic and Manual.
Automatic Functional Testing Services provide faster validation of processes with utmost accuracy. It is critical when lots of processes, links, APIs, and interfaces have to be checked within time limits. The script can run without any manual intervention.

The few benefits are:
• Greater sweep of test cases and areas
• Quicker to detect irregularities
• Can work on its own with repeat testing
• Script can be reused for future testing
• Suitable to test complex processes with a variety of input parameters
Manual Functional Testing too can have a few benefits:
• Easier to check from the users’ perspective, especially how user interface functions
• Easier to identify errors, and send it back to the development team to address

Conclusion:
Functional Testing Services play a major role in determining the responsiveness and ease of navigation of an application from the users’ perspective. It ensures that the enterprise application is market ready.