Challenges in Testing Web Based Applications

Introduction:

Web based Applications are increasingly becoming more feature rich, important and also the most
popular means for developing commercial systems. Most companies opt for developing web based
software wherever possible. This helps in catering to large number of end users. The deployment of
the apps (once the infrastructure is in place) is fairly easy.

The web based applications are powerful and have the ability to provide feature rich content to a
wide audience spread across the globe at an economical cost.

Hence it is a daunting task to test these applications and with more and more features testing these
apps is becoming even more complex.

Why testing Web Applications is different?

1. Testing web applications is different because of many factors scenarios affecting the
performance and user experience.
2. Web applications can typically cater to a large and a diverse audience. Web Applications can
also be exposed to wide range of security threats. Web applications may open up illegal points
of entry to the databases and other systems holding sensitive information.
3. To ensure that the web application works reliably and correctly under different situations
these factors need to be accounted for and tested.
4. Hence a lot of effort needs to put in for Test Planning and Test Design.
5. Test Cases should be written covering the different scenarios not only of functional usage but
also technical considerations such as Network speeds, Screen Resolution, etc.
6. For example an application may work fine on Broad Band internet users but may perform
miserably for users with dial up internet connections.
7. Web Applications are known to give errors on slow networks, whereas they perform well on
high speed connections.
8. Web pages don’t render correctly for certain situations but work okay with others.
9. Images may take longer to download for slower networks and the end user perception of the
application may not be good.

Factors effecting Testing of Web Applications:

As mentioned above Web Applications can have a lot of variables affecting them such as:

Numerous Application Usage (Entry – Exit) Paths are possible:

Due to the design and nature of the web applications it is possible that different users follow different
application usage paths.

For example in an online banking application a user may directly go to “Bill Pay” page and other
users may check account balances, view previous transactions and then “Pay the Bills”.
Generally a large number of usage paths are possible and all are supposed to work well.
All these Permutations and Combinations need to be tested thoroughly

People with varying backgrounds & technical skills may use the application:

Not all applications are self explanatory to all people. People have varying backgrounds and may find
the application hard to use. For instance a Business Intelligence application with “Drill-Down-Reports”
may work out for certain users but not for others.

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Although this affects the design of the applications, but these factors should be tested in usability
testing of the applications.

Intranet versus Internet based Applications:

• Intranet based applications generally cater to a controlled audience. The developers and
architects can make accurate assumptions about the people accessing the apps and the
hardware / software / technical specifications of the client machines.
• While it may be difficult to make similar assumptions for Internet Based Applications Also the
intranet users can generally access the app from ‘trusted’ sources whereas for internet
applications the users may need to be authenticated and the security measures may have to
be much more stringent.
• Test Cases need to be designed to test the various scenarios and risks involved.

The end users may use different types of browsers to access the app

Typically for internet based applications users may have different Browsers when accessing the apps.
This aspect also needs to be tested. If we test the app only on IE then we cannot ensure if works
well on Netscape or Fire-Fox. Because these browsers may not only render pages differently but also
have varying levels of support for client side scripting languages such as java-script.

Even on similar browsers application may be rendered differently based on the Screen
resolution/Hardware/Software Configuration

Network speeds:

• Slow Network speeds may cause the various components of a Webpage to be downloaded
with a time lag. This may cause errors to be thrown up.
• The testing process needs to consider this as important factor specially for Internet based
Applications

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act):

It may be required that the applications be compliant with ADA. Due certain disabilities, some of the
users may have difficulty in accessing the Web Applications unless the applications are ADA
compliant. The Application may need to be tested for compliance and usability.

Other Regulatory Compliance/Standards:

Depending on the nature of the application and sensitivity of the data captured the applications may
have to be tested for relevant Compliance Standards. This is more crucial for Web Based Applications
because of their possible exposure to a wide audience.

Firewalls:

As mentioned earlier Applications may behave differently across firewalls. Applications may have
certain web services or may operate on different ports that may have been blocked. So the apps
need to be tested for these aspects as well.

Security Aspects:

If the Application captures certain personal or sensitive information, it may be crucial to test the
security strength of the application. Sufficient care needs to be taken that the security of the data is
not compromised.

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Why technology platforms affect testing?

Technology platform upon which the Web Application was built also creates different strengths and
weaknesses. Different Test Automation tools & packages are available for different Technology
Platforms. This can influence the Test Strategy and the way in which Test Execution is done.

Challenges in Testing Web Based Web Applications:

To ensure that sufficient Test Coverage is provided for Web Based Applications and to provide a
secure, reliable application to the user the above factors need to be considered.

For internet based applications accessibility and security can be important issues.
On one hand Organizations would like to cater to their users around the world on the other hand
they could end up exposing their security holes all over.

Testing could be the last chance to ensure the safety of the data and the organization.

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