Importance of Non-Functional Testing
In March 2020, the adult video streaming website CAM4 leaked 10.88 billion records. Among the leaked records, there was sensitive information containing full names, email addresses, sexual orientation, chat transcripts, email correspondence transcripts, IP addresses, password hashes, and payment logs.
In September 2017, Equifax announced a data breach that exposed the personal information of 147 million people. The company has agreed to a global settlement with the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and 50 U.S. states and territories. The settlement includes up to $425 million to help people affected by the data breach.
Sounds scary?
Yes. But how do we prevent this?
Today, we discuss the importance of Non-functional testing, including Security testing, Performance and Usability.
As we all know, due to business pressure, software development teams are working hard to release features to the market as soon as possible. QA teams barely get time for testing. So due to time pressure, they only perform functional tests and ignore non-functional tests.
Can we meet the deadlines as well as perform the non-functional tests?
Yes. We can.
Before we conclude, we’ll try to understand different types of non-functional test types and their importance.
Performance Testing: Speed and Stability Matter
Imagine you’re on your favourite e-commerce site, excited to make a purchase. You hit “Buy Now,” and the page takes forever to load. Frustrating, right? In today’s fast-paced digital world, speed isn’t just nice to have — it’s essential. Performance testing ensures that applications run smoothly, even under heavy loads.
When an app is slow or crashes, it’s more than just an inconvenience. It can lead to lost revenue and damage your brand’s reputation. Performance testing helps spot bottlenecks and potential points of failure before they affect your users. This includes load testing, stress testing, and endurance testing, ensuring your app can handle peak traffic and function efficiently over time.
One of the best examples is Amazon
Think about Amazon during Black Friday or Cyber Monday. They face massive traffic surges, and performance testing ensures their website can handle millions of users simultaneously. This keeps customers happy and maximizes sales during these critical periods.
Security Testing: Safeguarding User Trust
Users trust apps with their personal information, and it’s our job to protect that data from unauthorized access and breaches.
Security testing involves finding vulnerabilities in an application and ensuring data is handled securely. This includes penetration testing, vulnerability scanning, and risk assessment. Effective security testing helps prevent attacks that could compromise user data and damage your company’s credibility.
Above I mentioned two famous examples where data breaches happened and how their consequences.
Usability Testing: Making the User Experience Intuitive
An app or software that’s functional and secure can still fail if it’s not user-friendly. Usability testing focuses on how real users interact with an application, making sure it’s intuitive and accessible.
This type of testing looks at the overall user experience, including design, navigation, and ease of use. It involves real users performing tasks and providing feedback, helping developers understand how to improve the interface and overall experience.
Apple
Apple is known for its emphasis on usability. Every product undergoes extensive usability testing to ensure it’s intuitive and easy to use. The iPhone, for instance, has become a benchmark for user-friendly design, allowing people of all ages and technical abilities to use it effortlessly. This focus on usability has been key to Apple’s success.
Solution — Integrating Non-Functional Testing
The solution to speed up the time to market while maintaining non-functional is to incorporate non-functional testing into the development lifecycle.
Software teams should change their mindset to recognize performance, security, and usability are not afterthoughts but integral parts of a successful application.
- Early Integration: Start non-functional testing early in the development process. This proactive approach helps identify and resolve issues before they become costly problems.
Learn more about the shift-left approach and tools here
- Continuous Testing: Make non-functional testing a continuous process, integrated with continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. This ensures every update is tested for performance, security, and usability.
Article about security testing tools.
- Cross-Functional Teams: Encourage collaboration between developers, testers, security experts, and UX designers. This holistic approach ensures all aspects of the application are considered and optimized.
Learn about how to improve communication between the cross-functional teams here.
Final thoughts
Non-functional testing might not always be the star of the show, but its impact is significant to the business.
Using the solutions that I have suggested, you can deliver high-quality software without extending time to market.
If you find this article helpful, please consider subscribing. I will be sharing posts weekly.
