Functional testing is an integral part of the software development life cycle which guarantees that the program functions as required according to the functional requirements. Functional testing helps shield from those issues that affect the user experience or the overall performance of the system by making the focus on the validation of the system’s core features. This blog explores the different parts of functional testing, its advantages, and how it helps software quality assurance.
What is functional testing?
Functional testing is a type of software testing that validates an application’s functionality. It guarantees that each feature runs as specified and does what it should. In testing, many functions, such as the functionality of the user interface, APIs, databases, security, and the overall user experience, get checked by the tester. The purpose is to test that it does what it is supposed to without wading into the inner workings of code structure.
Benefits of functional testing
Functional testing is also one of the benefits of functional testing as it can catch the gap between actual functionality and the expected output before a significant amount of time and development resources are wasted. Detecting these issues allows the development team to resolve them before the software is released, thereby reducing the odds of feedback from users or system failures. Moreover, functional testing tests that all the features are working as it should increase the overall quality of software and increase user satisfaction.
Types of functional testing
Different types of functional testing exist that focus on different aspects of the system. Some common types include Smoke testing, which verifies if the basic function of an application works, or regression testing, which is the verification of new code changes that have not affected existing functionalities. Integration testing verifies how different components work together, while user acceptance testing (UAT) makes sure that the software fulfills the requirements of users.
The process of functional testing
Typically, the functional testing’s process starts with the authoring of test cases reflecting the application’s functional requirements. These cases will be executed by the testes manually or through automated tools to verify that the system functions properly. On testing, the failed bugs or discrepancies should be tracked and then reported to the development test to be resolved. When the issue is fixed, testers re-run the tests to make sure the fix is all that is needed.
Why functional testing is important to software quality
Functional testing’s is used to be able to maintain the quality of the software as all the features are tested for them to work as intended. In applications with critical tasks like banking, e-commerce or healthcare software, even a minor malfunction can be catastrophic — and that is the main reason why it is so important. Organisations that have functional testing’s procedures in place in their development cycle will be able to produce more reliable, efficient, and user-friendly applications, leading to an increase in customer trust and satisfaction.
Conclusion
Functional testing’s is critical to ensure that applications gain the trust and expectations of users and will function according to their design. It enables early detection of issues and provides valuable feedback to developers, leading to high software quality. However, reducing development cycles makes automated functional testing’s critical to deliver reliable, scalable and customer-focused software. With its no-code platform and AI features such as Self-healing, Impact Analysis and Test Mining, Opkey makes test automation simple. The testing type is supported and seamlessly integrated with CI/CD pipelines for faster releases and better software quality. If you want to streamline your functional testing’s and better your software development process, it is recommended that you use Opkey.
