Importance of functional and non functional testing

The changing dynamics of the IT world will require you to constantly upgrade your systems and business portals in order to speed them up. Software testing tools such as functional and non functional testing can help you find out what extra is needed in your system, so that you stay ahead in your business. Functional and non functional testing can give you interesting data about your system requirements and also update you on the current status of your system in terms of stability and capability.

Functional testing is done to understand the system’s compliance with the specified requirements. A functional specification document is referred to when functional testing is conducted. Usually, testers use manual or automation tools to carry out functional testing. However, the easier way to conduct functional testing is through manual methods. Functional testing is conducted before non functional testing.

A good functional test will cover tests such as UAT, regression testing, system testing, interface testing, integration testing, sanity testing, smoke testing and unit testing. There are a few things that need to be kept in mind while conducting functional testing, such as 

·         Based on specifications of the functions tested, the test data should be prepared

·         Functional testing is done based on business inputs

·         Functional specifications can help you find out the outputs of functions

·         Test case execution

·         Note the difference between the actual and expected speeds

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Non functional testing on the other hand is used to measure the non functional specifications of a system. While functional testing is used to evaluate the system’s business readiness, non functional testing tests the system on its readiness for users. This test is administered after the functional testing and is best conducted using testing tools. Non functional testing is important as it can have a great impact on customer satisfaction with your product. The test measures factors such as the speed of the application, its response time etc.

Some of the factors that are tested using a non functional testing include availability, baseline, compatibility, compliance, configuration, documentation, endurance, ergonomics, interoperability, installation, load, localisation and internationalisation, maintainability, operation readiness, performance, recovery, reliability, resilience, security, scalability, stress, usability and readiness for volume.

Software testing and quality assurance