When it comes to your business, you want to know what certain outcomes are likely to be before you put items into production, and they reach the market. This point in the value chain is where functional testing comes into the picture. It is a way of determining what is going to be acceptable and what is not. When you do this type of testing, it is similar to developing a document that dictates what any given user is going to be allowed to do. Once you have done that, you can then decide which application or system is best suited to that action. In the end, functional testing is a way to validate specific business scenarios, which will help you to be more effective in the end.

 

Popular Techniques

Two popular techniques are most commonly utilized when it comes to functional testing tools. You can describe these two techniques as follows:

Requirement Based Testing

When you engage in this type of testing, you will gather up all of the functional specifications that you have in regards to an anticipated outcome. These will then form the basis by which all tests are carried out. You will be looking to determine how to meet the various requirements.

Business Scenario-Based Testing

As its name implies, this type of testing will include specific information that details how various business operations are going to perceive the system in place. It is a way to input certain outcomes that may occur and then test them to find out what actually happens.

Testing should be done alongside a strategic quality assurance process to make sure that maximum effectiveness is achieved. To ensure that testing is working properly, the individual or team doing the testing should be aware of the various types of tests that are available. It does not matter if such tests are actually encountered daily. For functional testing to really work in a business setting, a variety of tools should be employed.

Types of Functional Testing

There are several main types of functional testing that can be used in a business setting. The one that is most useful will depend on the scenario that is going to be tested. Following is a brief overview of several of the most commonly used testing types.

Unit Testing

This type of testing will typically be conducted by a developer who is responsible for writing varying units of code. These modules of code can either be related directly or indirectly to a particular functionality. To best determine the effectiveness of the code, certain tests will be written and designed. This design is to validate whether or not specific necessary parameters have actually been met and that the anticipated return value is delivered. It is important to remember that unit testing involves three main types of code coverage:

• Line
• Code Path
• Method

Each of these should be present in any unit test that is written.

Sanity Testing

Sanity testing is useful to a business as it works to make sure that all of the major functionalities of any given application or system are actually working as they should be. You would generally perform this type of test after a smoke test has been conducted.

Smoke Testing

After each build has been completed, a smoke test should be done in order to assess the stability of the application or system. Many people will refer to this as verification testing. It is an essential part of the testing process and should not be overlooked.

Regression Tests

There are times when you will want to add new code to an existing application or system. Before you do so, a regression test should be performed to make sure that such enhancements will not cause some type of instability. You want to make sure that the system is still going to function as it is specified to do.

Integration Tests

You might have a system that requires many different modules to be functional. While each individual one might work as it should, they need to be able to work together in order for the system to work properly. This is what integration testing will help you determine, and that is why it is so useful within a business context.

Beta and Usability Testing

You do not want to deliver a product to the customer without first testing it in a real-world, simulated environment. That is what beta testing is designed to accomplish for you.

Functional testing consists of a variety of tools designed to help businesses ensure that everything is working as it was designed to. You will want to use these different types of tests as checks and balances. Use them properly, and your chances of succeeding will increase manifold.