Testing e-Commerce Sites - Some Guidelines

With the commencement of internet, one of the fastest developing phases of the same are the e-commerce platforms which help people buy anything and everything they want, sitting right on their couch. However, with the massive advantages provided by the e-commerce sites come various risks and problems which can cause havoc if not dealt with on time. This is why it is absolutely important to test these sites before they are released for public use.

Security Tests: When a person is buying something online, in most cases they tend to pay with the help of their credit or debit card or with the help of a net banking procedure. While they do it, they trust the particular e-commerce site with the details of their banks and hence it is absolutely important that their details are protected by the admin of the site. Hence security testing becomes very important in case of such sites to make sure that breaching he parameters are next to impossible

Usability Tests: The prime purpose of the e-commerce sites is to provide the customers with desirable product which they can add to their cart and shop. Hence the sites must be easily uploaded with new products in order to keep the customers updated with the latest items as well as the old ones that were available previously. Thus the usability testing is to be performed regularly on such websites.

User Friendly Interface Test: No one will waste their time on understanding the complicated work structure of the e-commerce site and hence will move on to a site with a simpler interface. Thus, as and when the features of the e-commerce sites are being upgraded, tests must be conducted to check that the user interface is still simple and it can be handled with utmost ease.

Performance Tests: The traffic on an e-commerce platform on a particular day is completely unpredictable. Hence the sites should be prepared for zero traffic as well as a huge surge of customers trying to buy products concurrently at the same time. This makes performance testing along with stress testing an absolute vital part of the software testing life cycle when it comes to the e-commerce sites.

The following tests can be conducted in order to make sure that the e-commerce sites are up and running at all times and are providing the customers with a superior experience while using the same.

1.    The accelerated functional test cycle should be conducted with QA strategies and various business process libraries which can be customized according to organizational needs, paying special heed to reusable test scenarios.
2.      With the help of performance modelling frameworks, performance-critical business flows and Service Level Agreement (SLA)-based performance reporting, the improvement in the performance issues should be checked.
3.     Features of the e-commerce sites like data security testing, legal compliance checks, and compliance with Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) should be thoroughly tested with the help of Effective Test Data Management services.
4.      As the customers are capable of using various types of browsers as well as different devices and OS to access a particular e-commerce site, hence the compatibility of the site with these features must be checked.
5.      In-house solutions like Functional Test Case Generator should be used to form test cases from customised libraries.

New Trends to Watch Out for in QA Testing

Be it population or globalization or cutting age technology, business is facing a major change almost every year and QA testing is no different. Over a mere few years, QA testing has undergone major changes. It is showing certain trends which will further alter it in the near future. The following are a list of such trends which are steadily gaining importance in the QA testing industry.

1. Integrating QA through Agility and TCoE: Testing Centers of Excellence (TCoE) along with agile testing is going to play an important role in incorporating the QA department as one of the major part of the business. Companies are investing money in QA to avoid after cost production and enhance customer satisfaction.
2.  Greater Focus on New Technology: Although there has been a sharp rise in the mobile app development from 31% to 55%, yet when it comes to testing the mobile software, organizations are at a loss of skilled testers. Cloud computing has made advancement, but security and performance is still an issue and is going to be the focus of IT industry in the near future.
3.  Higher Automation Levels: As agile testing keeps reducing the time required for the testing procedure, organizations are opting for automated testing facilities to save time as well as money. The automatic testing facilities have made a marked progress in the field of development and will continue to do so in the future. It is exerting its importance in the regression testing, unit testing and load testing.
4.   Greater Focus on Security: With the emergence and growing importance of cloud computing, security has appeared to be a major issue. Organizations are putting in stress to increase the security features of the cloud computing as well as mobile facilities to stop security breaches so that testing facilities can be safely moved to clouds and accessed at all times.
5. Context Driven Testing: With the increased amount of mobility as well as social media, the whole world seems to be integrated with the help of software. Business owners are now looking for a method to increase the test coverage to a maximum level in order to prevent central hubs of hardware, middleware and test environments. Context driven testing provides the businessmen with the power to do so.
6.  Continuous Integration Testing: Continuous integration testing ensures that the software is being tested of bugs, performance and security issues right from the beginning of the developmental phase in short intervals. This ensures that the defects do not pile up at the end of the process and reduces the load on the developers. This is trending a lot in current days as it saves both time and hassle of the developers
7.  Independent Software Testing: As the importance of QA testing is becoming clearer day by day, companies are now seeking the help of individual organizations which are experts in the QA testing jobs. Many organizations are popping up which are emphasising on hiring individuals with great skills for testers and are focused in the QA testing of software only.

These are some of the most noticeable trends of the QA testing industry, which is going to be of major importance in the future and will be changing the course of software testing industry.