How many times have you come across products that have good UI but really bad functionality such as severe lagging experience and ample number of bugs or vice-versa. There could be multiple reasons for the product to go live, but it definitely gives an indication that thorough testing was not performed. There could be scenarios where a minor software update which was not tested for all the ‘corner scenarios’ could break the existing functionalities in a software product.

2. Why You Need To Care
About Automated
Functional Testing In
2019?
www.lambdatest.com

3. What is Functional Testing?
Functional Testing is a form of
testing performed for estimating
the quality of a software product by
verifying the features provided by
the application with respect to
client-requirement documentation.
Functional Testing is one measure
to make sure whether all the
documented requirements have
been met & implemented as a part
of the final product.

4. Importance of Functional Testing
As discussed earlier, a tester
acquainted with functional
testing has to validate the
software product from all angles
and make sure that the
requirements are well
documented. Also, different
requirement specification
documents should be met in the
product/application under test.

5. Importance of Functional Testing
Unlike other forms of testing like
unit testing where tests are
performed on ‘particular blocks’
or ‘pieces’, functional testing is
done on the integrated product.
The kind of issues that are
discovered post integration
testing may be quite different
from other forms of testing.

6. Some of the core objectives of Functional testing are mentioned below:
● Usability testing: Using manual testing/automation testing/mix of both, testing is done
to make sure that there are no usability issues with the product. The user should be
able to seamlessly navigate between different screens.
● Error Checking: In order to increase ‘test coverage’, all the boundary & error scenarios
are tested thoroughly as a part of Functional testing.
● Compare ‘output’ with ‘expected outcomes’: By supplying relevant test data, all the
major functions in the product/application are tested.
Understanding The Difference Between Functional Testing
& Non-Functional Testing

7. Objectives: Functional testing is performed to check whether ‘requirements mentioned in
SRS, BRS, CRS, etc.’ are translated into ‘equivalent features/functionalities’.
Test Methodology: Functional testing can be performed using manual testing and
automated functional testing approach or mix of both, but ‘manual testing’ is a must since
testers have to make sure that all the necessary functionalities are implemented.
Which comes first: Functional testing is normally performed before Non-functional tests are
executed as ‘necessary features’ should be ready before non-functional tests can be
performed.
Top level differences between Functional & Non-Functional
testing

8. Functional Testing With Example
Imagine that you are building a ‘B2C e-commerce’ application that does the
following
● User Sign-up & sign-in
● List the products (in different categories) from the back-end inventory
● Facilitates buying of products via different online payment options

9. Functional Testing With Example
Screen testing: Allow a new user to
sign-up using the sign-up page. A
‘returning’ user should be able to log-in
using existing credentials and ‘Forgot
Password’ feature should be in place in
case the user does not remember the
password. Performing the functional
testing of example scenario, the team
should test the ‘Sign-up & Sign-In’ page
with different user/password
combinations and record the output.

10. Functional Testing With Example
Feature testing: Based on the target
market, the product team &
development team would have identified
the ‘potential browsers & devices’ on
which the application should be fully-
functional with respect to cross browser
compatibility. To validate this scenario
we perform ‘browser compatibility
testing’ where the application is tested
on a combination of different devices ,
Operating Systems and Browsers.

11. Functional Testing With Example
Testing fallback mechanisms: Let us
understand this from cross browser
testing point of perspective. In case your
application caters to the target market
where lot of people use older versions of
browsers, your development team
should make sure all the requirements
are translated into implementation.

12. Role of Automation in Functional Testing
As Functional testing involves
verification of the functionalities
implemented in the product, the test
team has to make sure that every
‘feature’ is tested. This also includes
covering error scenarios and boundary
conditions. Manual testing has its own
set of limitations since you may need a
bigger test team if your product has huge
number of features.

13. Though automation testing has a huge
number of advantages, the product
team should make a decision on
features that should be tested using
‘manual testing’ & ‘automation
functional testing’. There are certain
scenarios where manual testing will
have an upper-hand; hence your test
team needs to figure out the role of
automation in verification of product
features & functionalities.
Points to ‘Ponder’ before venturing into ‘Automated
Functional Testing’

14. ‘Functional testing’ Is Same As
‘System testing’
Functional testing is one form of
System testing or should we say a sub-
part of system testing. Though,
functional testing is done to test the
basic functionalities in the
product/application, stress testing is
more rigorous in nature. If you are
building a hardware product, it also
involves certification testing,
compliance testing, etc. These tests
are not included as a part of
Functional testing.
Myths Associated With Functional testing

15. End-to-end testing is a form of testing
where the ‘product’ or ‘application
under test’ is tested from all angles
from start to finish. In simple words, it
is testing approach performed from a
user’s perspective. Referring to the
earlier example of B2C e-commerce
application, while browsing the
products on the site/app, there is a
possibility that user may face
throttling internet connectivity.
‘End-to-End testing’ Is A Part Of ‘Functional testing’

16. Automated Functional testing
definitely has lot of advantages over
manual testing, the primary
advantage being better test coverage
and savings in terms of time & cost.
However, there are many challenges
for automated website testing. In test
scenarios that cannot be automated
or where automation might not be
cost-effective i.e. these test scenarios
normally require manual intervention
or require manual observation.
Aim For A 100% Automated Functional testing

17. Achieving the right mix of manual & automated cross browser functional testing is
extremely critical and testing your product/web application against combinations
of (Browsers + Operating Systems + Devices) has become more important than
before. Using the cloud infrastructure of LambdaTest, you can put your site/web
application under test under different scenarios.
Cross Browser Functional Testing Using LambdaTest

18. Functional testing should always be performed in the product development cycle to
ensure that all the necessary/basic functionalities are working fine in the product. It
should be done at an early stage of development so that bugs are logged at the right
time, before they snowball into ‘release blockers’.
www.lambdatest.com
CONCLUSION

19. HAPPY TESTING!!