CrossBrowserTesting.com

A Design, Development, Testing Blog

The Junction of Browser Testing and Test Management

By Leave a Comment

Software development – and subsequently software testing – is happening at speeds which we’ve never seen before. With many tests being set up and deployed automatically in order to keep up with pace and maintain quality and diligence throughout the testing process, keeping track of those tests has become even more paramount.  

This is the junction of browser (and app) testing and test management. Test management is crucial to ensure collaboration and traceability throughout the testing lifecycle, especially given the increase in volume and complexity of these automated tests.  

Unifying test automation and test management capabilities can be done using SmartBear’s industry leading test automation software CrossBrowserTesting, and Zephyr for Jira, the most widely used test management tool to work natively inside Jira.  

The CrossBrowserTesting and Zephyr for Jira integration allows teams to easily manage all of their manual and automated tests. Users and testers can quickly navigate to the respective Jira card to view results of each test, analyze pictures and video recordings of the test, and add any notes that may have come up — all within that native Jira experience.  

By including test management in your Agile process, you’ll have much more control and visibility into your team’s efforts. During Sprint and Release meetings, you can make sure tests are properly executed, while giving your testers the ability to quickly change or re-prioritize tests accordingly.  

Want to learn more about where browser testing fits in the testing pyramid and how to include test management in your Agile process, both with the power and support of award-winning SmartBear tools? Check out our On-demand session to learn more about both tools and how they work together!

Connecting your Back-End and Front-End Functional Testing

By Leave a Comment

Many SmartBear testers who use SoapUI Pro to tackle their automated API functional testing know the importance of end-to-end testing of the entire back-end. Making sure those critical web services like REST, GraphQL APIs, and others are functioning is why testers use SoapUI Pro to create, run, and analyze complex tests. Creating comprehensive end-to-end tests is the best way to validate the entire workflow of your APIs from either an API definition or live endpoints. With those tests, the back-end of your web services are able to flow and function smoothly. 

Soap functional testers are adept at creating, running complex functional tests and finding bugs with APIs. Most APIs are consumed by other services and in a large number of cases by UI layers in web, mobile and desktop apps.

The functionality of APIs can be validated by exercising the APIs or the services that call them. An alternate or truer mechanism can be the exercising of the application workflows as end users do using the UI layers of the web, mobile and desktop apps. These end-end workflow tests when created and tested have the dual advantage of testing the UI layers and also testing the APIs that serve them underneath.

But what about the front-end?

As organizations are shifting left, becoming leaner and becoming more agile in an effort to delivery software faster with unsurpassed quality, functional testers are being tasked with testing the API layers and the UI layers. Additionally, the shift left movement means that API endpoints are being tested by more than just QA or SDETs, which benefits the final product. Revealing or discovering issues earlier in the process makes it easier and much less expensive for the team to resolve.

This is particularly true in smaller, fast moving teams and organizations and in instances where an older application has been retrofitted with a new services layer in an effort to support digital transformation.

Increasingly, we are seeing that API testers are becoming responsible for not just making sure the back-end of web services works correctly, but that the front-end looks and functions well too. Mobile and web testers are now tasked with tackling the entire functional testing lifecycle and getting more of that API experience. 

When that test automation engineer is writing a test script for the frontend, ideally they are also keeping the backend in mind and writing a test script that matches up as well. 

In a number of instances, especially for web apps and native mobile apps. Testers who are charged with testing both the UI and API layers have a few choices.

  1. Test the API layers and then test the UI which will also test the API’s
  2. Test the UI which will indirectly test the API layers
  3. Find a set of complementary tools that allow the use of an API functional test alongside a UI functional test tool. This has some overlap but it ensures that all use cases including edge cases are covered effectively

To that end, those testers need testing tools that play well together and are able to communicate in sync. More and more, we’re seeing SoapUI Pro users ask and using CrossBrowserTesting to test their web apps, as well as BitBar for their mobile app testing – both of which have API’s which are being tested using SoapUI

By further connecting your back-end and front-end functional testing, API testing should also fit neatly into your continuous delivery/continuous integration (CI/CD) pipeline. SoapUI Pro and both CrossBrowserTesting and BitBar are designed for test automation and for those automated tests to fit seamlessly into your DevOps or Agile development workflow. 

Diagnosis of problems will also be quicker and smoother with the UI test driving the front end which in turn drives the APIs. Some visual bugs could be the result of bad code on the frontend or the API having an issue pinging the database the showcase the correct visual. Without this exercise of using the application workflow, the backend test automation test may not have catch issues that the front end testing does. The test automation engineer working on both parts will know that. 

Whether you’re an API tester looking to branch into the front-end of your website, or a UI/UX designer looking to learn more about how APIs work on the back-end, SmartBear tools are designed to help you get there and manage that process more efficiently.

Learn more about SmartBear tools to test your front-end by signing up for CrossBrowserTesting & BitBar FREE trials!

Ensuring Mobile Excellence with SmartBear Recap

By Leave a Comment

Digital transformation has been embraced by most organizations.  More than ever, people turn to mobile devices to stay connected with the world and each other, and that includes engaging with businesses.  With this expansion of users on all devices and platform, businesses are striving for digital excellence while they manage transformation and product roll out.  According to Hackermoon, internet usage has increased by as much as 70% as organizations adopt a more distributed workforce model with working from remote locations becoming the norm and usage on mobile devices growing quickly.   

As a result, it is more important than ever for apps and websites to operate at peak performance and deliver a seamless and satisfying user experience. If a user comes across a bug on your site or app or isn’t getting the experience they’re looking for, they’re likely to leave you without taking your desired action.

  • 88% of online shoppers say they won’t return to a website after having a bad user experience 
  • 44% of shoppers will tell their friends about a bad online experience 

With so much competition for a user’s engagement, time, and dollars, less than ideal experiences are risks you simply can’t afford, emphasizing the importance of testing to ensure your mobile app delivers what it’s supposed to will help you avert these bad experiences. For your developers and QA teams, there are a variety of testing execution challenges that they must overcome in order to contribute to delivering the seamless app or website experience your customers have come to expect. 

Here is a short list: 

  • Browser and device coverage – This is ultimately the most important aspect; after all, user come in all shapes and sizes and have thousands of different mobile devices, operating systems, or browsers. How can you be sure your app or website looks good on all of them? By testing on all of them! That means having access to robust device lab that contains a multitude of different device and browser options, unfortunately, maintaining this infrastructure is expensive.  
  • Ensuring your checkout process is fully operational – Converting a customer is difficult enough as it is. If that would-be customer has any bumps on the road on their way to checking out, they can change their mind – cart abandonment is a major problem for any ecommerce retailer.  
  • How do things look? – An engaging visual experience is so important for the savvy mobile and internet user. For a dynamic website that changes daily or more regularly, your testers need to be able to track those changes to make sure everything looks as good as it should be.  

Those are three not insignificant challenges for testers and software developers to deal with. Whether they’re doing live-testing manually or setting up automated tests through various frameworks, these are real challenges that could prevent them from engaging an effective testing process.  

Fortunately, two SmartBear tools CrossBrowserTesting and Bitbar are designed to address exactly those challenges facing testers. If you’re a software developer or QA tester looking to uplevel your manual or automated tests, work more efficiently, and gain access to a huge access of coverage in terms of browsers and devices through the SmartBear Real Device Cloud, these tools can significantly improve your testing capabilities. 

You’ve seen the critical business impact that having a poor mobile app or website experience can have, and how that business impact has only accelerated with the digital transformation spurred on by testing. Now see how these SmartBear tools can take your testing capabilities to the next level and ensure that your customers are always getting the experience you want them to have.  

Check out our webinar recording to see a demo of these tools in action, or sign up for a free trial of CrossBrowserTesting and BitBar to take them for a spin yourself!