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Functional Testing — An Overview

Functional testing forms an integral part of the software testing process. The US Government says that $59.5 billion is lost due to software bugs every year, out of which $22.2 billion could have been saved if the applications were properly tested.

Author: Hemal Shrimanker

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In today’s hi-tech world, application environments and platforms are getting more and more complicated than ever. To address the risk while managing one’s limited testing resources, companies are increasingly inclined to implement automated functional testing. Though, functional testing is not known much as a process, but experts advise its use to make the application bug-free with regards to its functions.

Functional testing is a verification type of testing which tests that the application according to specifications. Functional testing also handles erroneous code and tries to code it correct version. Automated functional testing involves use of automated software to test the applications.

Functional testing also involves the test of perfection with which the system executes the program functions and as it is supposed to execute. The program functions to be tested include different user commands, manipulation of data, relevant business processes, and integrations with different functions. The software testing process also pays attention to the surface layer of the functions and also back-end operations which includes the security procedures and the effects of application upgrades on the system.

Functional testing is mostly done at the fag end of the software development life cycle, but experts suggest that the process should be done much earlier and when needed. Various testing models like the V-Model and methodologies like Agile have become popular and hence facilitated functional tests to be carried out at earlier stage and thereby defects can be traced out earlier. The cost of software quality ultimately goes down helping the achievement of desired ROI. Experts also say that even though it is not possible to cover functional testing for the whole application, at least its components and attributes need to be tested from time to time. As per the experts, the goal of any functional test should be to ensure that the business cases have been successfully implemented by the Application Under Test (AUT).

Additionally, it has been observed that software applications require constant upgrading and bug fixes along with redeployment. According to several experts, functional testing has a significant positive impact on overall software quality and timely delivery of completed application.

Functional testing is pivotal to the process of software Web development. Without functional testing, the software development process becomes just a guessing game full of error-prone deployments, haphazard work, and refactoring.

Many experts argue to make functional testing to be incorporated in the testing process with due importance, as that of unit testing. It is also necessary to test all applications whether WEN or COTS with functional testing which are destined to be deployed in a cloud computing environment. Functional testing if done without is a definite no-no, taking into regard, the ease of use of functional tools like QTP, Rational Tools, SilkTest, Selenium, Windmill, or Twill. As reliability and predictability become even more important for cost cutting procedures, functional testing becomes increasingly important to be practiced in software development companies. Cloud computing will take many things out of the developer’s control which prompts repeated functional testing to be done to make the application error-free.

About Author

Hemal Shrimanker - Business Development Executive at Indusa Technical Corp. Indusa Technical Corp. (www.indusa.com) is an SEI - CMM Level 4, ISO - 9001:2000; ISO - 27001 Certified, 150+ people Custom Software/Web Development and IT Consulting Company. We have been providing services since 1989. Please visit www.archive-plus.com to learn more about our Database Archiving Solution.

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