Top 8 Challenges in Web Application testing

Introduction

When we start doing testing of a web application, then we have this point in mind that how to do it better and how to achieve our goals and of course then the quality perspective. We tried to test the web application using different tools and technologies in order to meet our modern testing criteria.  Modern day web app testing should be improved in the terms of usability by some technologies and in the terms of high level of interactivity it provides to the users.

Factors that make Web Application testing challenging:

Apps should be ADA compliant:

It is a challenge for the ADAs (Americans with Disabilities Act) suffering from disabilities feel a problem in accessing web app except that the web application is compliant to the user. This feature of compliance should be there and the app should be tested according to this aspect.

Slow network speed and poor bandwidth:

With slow speed or poor bandwidth, it becomes hard to catch up with every error as web pages take time to load and thus the tester can suffer from exhaustion and can easily lost his/her interest.

Firewalls Aspect:

App can interact or respond with variations across firewalls.  We have to test the app keeping this point in the mind, i.e. current app may be having more than one web service applications or may work on different ports which are not working due to some issues or are considered as blocked. We should take care that none of these possibilities are being left out during testing.

Security of the data:

It becomes crucial at times to test the application if the app has got certain personal /sensitive information. You have to take care for this to make this surety that nothing has gone wrong with the security of the data and it is still safe.

Limited web testing schedule:

Sometimes with limited time and cost for web-based applications increase the complexity for most of the web apps. To test all the functionalities within a short time span becomes definitely tough with limited constraints, i.e. time and budget, particularly when the website is huge and when your concerns are related to “test for quality.”

Intranet versus Internet based Applications 

We all have this well-known idea for the intranet that it belongs to the precise and controlled audience so the correct assumptions can be made about the audience using the apps. But if we relate this thing with Internet applications will make the scenario challenging. We can see this fact that internet based apps need to be more stringent in terms of authentication and when it comes to security.

Several Application flows (Ins and outs) are possible:

People belonging to different background and skills can find the application hard especially when the app is having numerous paths so this could be the possibility that different user is going across different paths and flows in his own style and will. To follow the right path is challenging here because if the wrong path is chosen then this could take you to suffer from the bitter consequences.

Tips, techniques and tools for effective web app testing

The tips which should be in a mind of a tester while testing the web app are such as to have a safe and secure web application or whether it is working according to what the privacy policy claims. Whether this web app work in Australia or not are the general questions we can ask for the effective web testing. The user interfaces should meet up to the given standards. Performance tests such as load and stress should not be missed out according to the web application.

There are many tools which can also assist in web app testing such as we have

“Rational Functional Tester (RFT)“ having a lot of benefits in terms of recorded scripts which can be customize by using simply this tool. Then we have another tool used to check broken links and non- standard HTML and the tool is known as “Web Light”. The basic web app testing techniques are usability testing, functional testing, security testing, performance testing etc.

There are also other challenging issues which should not be ignored such as that the website should be able to give 24-hour availability. If the project has short and frequent releases life cycle then this could be a challenge for the tester again. Or another possibility could be that a lot of users are being attracted to the new website and so you have plenty of users at initial phase of website launch. Keeping all these challenges in mind, the tester has to test and must have an eager for the best quality.

So have you faced similar challenges? Share with us!