The Website testing is most confusing topic amongst many testers. On website testing lots of queries are downpour over the internet. Most of the readers were asking different questions on Website Testing Checklist. So instead of answering individual I thought writing an article on Complete Checklist For Website Testing.
If you ask me about Website testing – What should be tested, how should be tested, which thing must be tested, what should not be tested and continue.
You should keep in mind that there is no such golden rule that fit your Website Testing. If one rule is suitable for testing of one website is not true for other website. In this article I am listing the Web Application Testing Checklist. This does not mean that you should follow this Website testing cheat-list for all types of Website Testing. This is the kind of checklist to remember while testing your website. The chance of Success (or failure) is deeply depends on the particular context!
Let’s start with the Web Application Testing Checklist:
[1] Functionality Testing:
The following testing must be carried out while doing Website Functionality testing:
A) Validation testing:
» You should make sure that if the valid HTML is used for your website. To check this you can use W3C validator.
» In functionality testing the different fields used in the website should be validated like Textboxes, dropdowns, radio options, check boxes, Combo box inputs, links etc.
» Now a day’s most of the website preferred to use CSS means Cascading Style Sheet. In the market many CSS validator tools are available, one of the good tool is W3C CSS validator which will help you to validate the CSS used in your site user test.
B) Links/URL Testing:
This testing is very much interesting and can be helpful for SEO of you r page. Following types of testing should be carried out for Link or URL testing:
- Internal links: The link which are pointing to the pages of same websites. This testing make sure that the internal links are properly linked to expected pages of your websites link like Home page, Contact Us, About Us etc.
- External links: The link which are pointing to the pages of external websites. This testing makes sure that the internal links are properly linked to expected pages of external websites.
- Email links: Such link need to make sure that the if user clicks on the email link then default email client should open with To address should be pre-filled.
- Broken links: Broken links are also called as Dead links. Such links are not linked to any of the pages either internal or external pages of the website. Such link generated with the spelling mistakes in the link URL or linked page is removed or no more exists. To check broken link you can use online tools to validate the broken links in the website.
C) Web Forms Testing:
In Website Testing Checklist the web forms are the most commonly used in the websites, so it is one of the most important part of the website testing. Consider a scenario where user fills an enquiry form and click on Submit button, now what next or they just fill in the form and do nothing, the details do not get captured correctly and so are lost. While doing forms functional testing make sure that they should be consistent and should contain the required input and output controls. The data should be captured properly.
D) Database Testing:
Now days with the new technologies like android and smart phones computer applications are more complex.
If the front end is more complicated then the back ends are also convoluted. As a result, introduce more complex database schema to support such intricate computer applications. So it’s more important to validate the databases to make sure the quality and website able to handle the data processing effectively.
E) Cookies Testing:
A Cookie is information stored in text file on user’s hard drive (client side) by web server. This information is used later by web browser while accessing the website. Ideally the cookie is used to store the personalized user information or data in encrypted or secured manner. This is small size files which act as unique identifiers and allow websites to remember a particular user for a given time. These files are not harmful for users. Sometimes if the user’s personal information is stored in the cookie and if hackers stolen the cookie then hacker can get the confidential information which leads to security issues. That’s why the testing of Cookie is most important. There are two types of cookies Persistent Cookie and Non-Persistent Cookie.
F) Testing of Error Messages:
In the well developed website the error messages are very much helpful to guide users for success and erroneous conditions. While navigating through application if poorly designed error messages will easily misguide the end users. Many of the websites are used different interesting pages when 404 error is displayed.
G) Required field and optional field validation:
The proper handling of required and optional fields should be efficiently handled. Ideally the application should not be submitted unless and until all required fields are filled properly. The required error message should be displayed when user proceed with not filling the mandatory fields. It should not restrict you for proceeding further if the optional fields are not filled.
H) Client-side Testing:This type of testing is subset of Security testing. In this testing need to check if the sensitive data is not stored in the temporary internet files or stored in encrypted format like passwords, credit card information, bank number etc.
[2] Performance Testing:
Software Performance testing is type of testing perform to determine the performance of system to major the measure, validate or verify quality attributes of the system like responsiveness, Speed, Scalability, Stability under variety of load conditions. The main aim of Performance testing is not to find the defects in the application but to get rid of bottlenecks and find out the amount of load/stress the site is able to sustain. Performance testing is used to understand the scalability of application under test, response time means time required to send request from client machine to time required to reply by the server under different varity of load conditions which mimic the real world use.
Performance testing can be applied to understand the website’s scalability, any loopholes in the load balancing and to test the response time between a request (from the client) and the reply (from the server) and the amount of load/stress the site is able to sustain.
[3] Web Usability Testing:
The Usability Testing is comes under a Black Box Testing Technique where testing is to be carried out with users point of view. It is a technique implemented in user-centered interaction design to evaluate a product or service by testing it with representative users. On the Web page the usability is a most important and required condition for survival. If the website is difficult to use then peoples will not stay on the page. Also if the content or details of the page are difficult to read or understand then also peoples will not stay on the page. So Usability testing plays an important role which assesses how easy user interfaces is to use.
The Usability testing is categories in different categories – Accessibility, Identity, Navigation and Content. You should keep in mid few points while testing of web application for Usability testing:
A) Accessibility: (Add Bullets)
- Site Load-time should be reasonable.
- Site font size and spacing between lines should be easy to read.
- Carefully use of Flash & Add-ons in website.
- Proper ALT Tags should be used for all images present in website.
- If any internal link is broken then website should be presented with 404 error page or Not Found page.
B) Identity:
- The placement of website logo should be at prominently place like right top side of the page.
- Proper tagline should be used which clearly states the purpose of the website.
- Company and Contact Information must be clearly mentioned which helps to identify the company information.
C) Navigation:
- Main Navigation should be easy to find, read and use. If more than navigations are used then make sure that user should clearly understand why multiple navigations are used.
- Clear & Concise navigation labels should be used in website.
- Reasonable use of links and button in website so user will not confuse while navigating the pages.
- As a common practice the Company Logo should be linked to website Home page.
- The Site Search facility should be present on the website and make sure that the Site Search button simple and easy to access like top right of the page.
D) Content:
- Headings should be clear and descriptive and SEO use of proper heading tags like H1, H2 etc.
- Make sure that the critical content should be displayed on the first screen in average screen resolution i.e. 1024×768.
- Use of consistent font styles and colors across the website help user to understand that they’re still on your site.
- Use of user friendly and meaningful keywords for URLs will help both user and search engines to understand navigation.
- Meaningful and self explanatory titles (in the <TITLE> tag) should be used for pages. These titles are used by search engines to display in the Search result by search engines. If the improper titles are used then user will skips the your website pages link and proceed further.
[4] Compatibility Testing:
In Website Testing Checklist, the Compatibility Testing make sure that the web pages are properly rendering different browsers like IE8, IE9, IE10, IE11, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera etc. Also verify if it is working properly on different Operating systems like Windows XP, Windows 7, Vista, Linux, Mac etc on different hardware configurations.
Here is the most typical compatibility tests should be considered while testing your application:
» Check on different browsers and its versions.
» Check on different Operating systems and its versions.
» Check on different hardware configurations
» Check on different network environments.
» Check on different screen resolutions
[5] Web Security Testing:
Security testing is one of the most important types of software testing that make sure that the vulnerabilities or weakness of the software application. The main objective of security testing is to find the vulnerabilities of system & determine that its data and resources are protected from possible intruder. Security testing allows us to identify the confidential data stays confidential or not. This type of testing is also known as Penetration Testing.
Some of the major aspects of web security testing are:
» Penetration Testing
» Password cracking
» Vulnerability
» URL manipulation
» SQL injection
» Cross Site Scripting (XSS)
If you want to learn more detailed then please refer article: “Security Testing approach for Web Applications”
Over to you: In Testing Checklist For Web Application article we have seen on points to be covered while doing website testing. Do you think if I missed anything in this Website Testing Checklist? Feel free to share your views by commenting below.
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