Developers can use functional testing to ensure that the programme functions as intended when utilised by any user or system that interacts with it. It consists of usability, regression, sanity, integration, and unit tests. A solid foundation for guaranteeing the stability and development of a software system is provided by the full spectrum of these tests.
The testing of the system often begins after the development is finished in a conventional development paradigm, such as the Waterfall methodology. Agile development, on the other hand, involves the simultaneous development and testing of the program in sprints, with the release of incremental changes between each cycle.
In an agile model, the testers carry out functional testing to make sure that the present functionality isn’t impacted by the recently brought modifications, while the software developers concentrate on developing the product. Smoke, sanity, unit, component, regression, etc. are some of the most often used functional tests.
This post will examine the value and approach of functional testing in an agile setting, as well as some crucial factors to take into account while formulating testing scopes.
Functional testing’s importance in agile
Three benefits result from using the agile testing methodology: better quality, quicker delivery, and a happy team.
- Quality improvement
Software bugs are found significantly sooner in the development lifecycle thanks to the agile testing methodology’s ability to provide continuous feedback.
Additionally, as the testers have more time to completely test each software version, they also have more time for sanity testing, which increases the likelihood that regression problems won’t occur. Additionally, using this method maximizes the use of resources by allowing developers and testers to work concurrently.
- quicker shipping
The actual release could take months under a waterfall model, which frequently results in customers receiving useless features. Agile testing not only shortens the development cycle but also allows for frequent consumer feedback. This then makes it possible to deploy essential features more quickly.
- A happier group
Agile environments naturally promote tight communication among developers, testers, project managers, and product managers, which improves workplace productivity and makes work more fun.
Agile functional testing methodology
To guarantee good product quality, it is crucial to have a clearly defined approach for test planning, execution, and analysis. Let’s go through some essential phases in an agile functional testing strategy in this section:
- Gathering requirements
Gathering precise and comprehensive test requirements is the first step before your team can start testing. To bring the team up to speed with the requirements, the business team or product managers could set up presentations outlining the features in the upcoming release cycle. Additionally, keeping track of requirement changes is crucial so that test plans, test cases, etc. can be updated appropriately.
- Test Preparation
The first duty for the testers following the completion of the requirements is to develop a plan for test automation and determine what has to be tested and what can be skipped. To make sure there are no discrepancies between the test plan and the product requirements, the testers should also develop traceability matrices.
- Execution & Strategy
Formalizing a testing approach allows for maximum test coverage, which is the next stage in agile software testing. Verification of the test environment and setup is also a part of this process, which makes sure that the test execution will go without a hitch.
Additionally, testers must determine the crucial areas they will concentrate on when testing the product for the upcoming release cycle. The testing team can move on to the test execution phase, which takes up the majority of the sprint time, once the strategy has been formalized.
- Management of defects
The manner in which defects are communicated to the developers is crucial to the team’s overall productivity. Bug reporting must be done in a clear manner, with a self-explanatory explanation and explicit instructions on how to reproduce the bug. Additionally, the testers ought to be able to follow its progress till it is fixed.
- Reporting and metrics gathering
Finally, test reporting and metric collecting should be simple to understand and conducted in a uniform style for the benefit of all stakeholders. The business team can decide whether to release the product or push it to the following sprint by having a clear statement of the status and quality of each product feature.
Conclusion
We talked about the importance of functional testing in this article’s discussion of agile environments in order to ensure that the team is happy and that a high-quality product can be delivered to clients quickly.
Additionally, a comprehensive test suite gives the development team the assurance they need to release products without being concerned about production problems. Additionally, it gives the business team assurance that there is no gap between the software requirements and the delivered product.
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