A Detailed Guide to Functional Testing

Software testing is imperative for assessing the quality of your software. A defect-free codebase allows you to build useful features and high-quality products quickly, helping you gain a competitive edge. It also reduces the time-to-market and increases customer satisfaction. Although there are many different software testing techniques, functional testing is one of the most important phases of the lifecycle of any software product. 

What is Functional Testing?

Functional testing is an effective way to validate an application against the functional requirements/specifications. The main purpose of functional testing is to test each function of a software application by providing appropriate input and verifying the output against the functional requirements. However, in this method, the functionality of an application is examined without peering into its internal structures or workings. It is a continuous process that is performed every time developers build a new feature.

What Do You Test in Functional Testing?

The primary goal of functional testing is to check the functionality of a software system. It mainly focuses on testing an application’s mainline functions, usability, accessibility, and error conditions. It also checks whether suitable error messages are displayed.

Types of Functional Testing

Unit Testing

This is a thorough software testing approach where the functionality and behavior of individual software or application units or their components are tested. This type of testing is carried out to confirm that each piece of software operates as intended.

Component Testing

Unlike unit testing, component testing is done to verify if each component of an application works as intended, individually, without being integrated with other components. This method is also known as module testing, which is primarily performed to verify the input/output behavior of each individual object.

Regression Testing

Regression testing is performed to ensure that newly-added codes or any changes made to a code have not affected the existing features and functionalities of the application.

Smoke Testing 

Smoke testing is typically done after receiving a software build to make sure that the program's essential features are operating as intended. The other name for it is "build verification testing." The main purpose of this testing is to find out whether or not a build is stable.

Integration Testing

In integration testing, individual units are consolidated and tested as a group. The purpose of this type of testing is to identify defects in interactions amongst the integrated units.

User Acceptance Testing

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a way of testing an application from the end-user perspective. In this approach, testers usually check the usability and accessibility of an application before moving on to the production environment. UAT is mainly carried out in the final phase of testing to validate the end-to-end business flow. It is usually performed by business analysts and clients.

Benefits of Performing Functional Testing

Simply put, functional testing ensures that an app meets all functional specifications.

In the functional testing method, testers not only test mainline functions, but also verify whether the failure paths work as intended. This improves the quality and security of a product. The users can relax, knowing that no private information will be disclosed in the event of app failure.

For example, if the login component fails, the system should be able to handle such failures and show an appropriate error message. If you don’t validate this scenario, you might end up with defective software. 

And lastly, performing these tests guarantees that all functionalities work as planned. By considering all the above aspects, you can ensure that the end-users get reliable and functional software.

Best Functional Testing Practices for Mobile Devices

• Understand the system requirements and have clarity on what needs to be tested. This will help you develop a robust test plan.  
• Develop a comprehensive functional test plan including the objective, time frame, and parameters.
• Automate testing as much as possible to get rid of repetitive tasks and reduce time-to-market. Automation often makes it easier and more efficient for Quality Assurance (QA) teams to find and fix app bugs.
• Deploy a robust mobile test management system along with an issue-tracking system to find, record, report, manage, and track bugs efficiently.
• Use software testing metrics to evaluate the progress, quality, productivity, and health of software, and make better decisions.

How does 42Gears’ AstroFarm play a vital role in software testing?

AstroFarm by 42Gears is built specifically to help companies build a secure, virtual platform where all devices can be brought under one roof for software development and testing purposes. The platform helps testing and DevOps teams by giving them access to every device remotely at any time and from anywhere. This translates into increased productivity and optimal device utilization.