Testing is a process where you check to ensure that the product is working fine or whether it is not as per requirements. For a test engineer, testing normally translates into black box testing. and there are several black box testing methodologies.
In this blog, I will go through the black box testing methodologies specifically with regard to web applications.
Given below is the list of black box testing methodologies:
1. Functionality Testing:
Assume you have to check the email field(s). You will then have to check all the possible scenario’s for email fields as per the specifications. For example, firstly, you have to check with positive scenario’s as below:
| Valid Email addresses | Reason |
| email@domain.com | Valid email |
| firstname.lastname@domain.com | Email contains dot in the address field |
| email@subdomain.domain.com | Email contains dot with sub-domain |
| firstname+lastname@domain.com | ‘+’ sign considered as valid character |
| email@123.123.123.123 | Domain is valid IP address |
| email@[123.123.123.123] | Square bracket around IP address is considered valid |
| “email”@domain.com | Quotes around email is considered valid |
| 1234567890@domain.com | Digits in address are valid |
| email@domain-one.com | Dash in domain name is valid |
| ______@domain.com | Underscore in the address field is valid |
| email@domain.name | .name is valid |
Once you are sure that the positive scenario is working fine then we have to check negative scenario’s such as:
| InValid Email addresses | Reason |
| Onlyaddress | Missing ‘@’ sign and domain |
| @domain.com | Missing Username |
| email.domain.com | Missing ‘@’ |
| email@domain@domain.com | Two ‘@’ sign |
| .email@domain.com | Leading dot in address is not allowed |
| email@111.222.333.44444 | Invalid IP format |
| email@domain..com | Multiple dot in domain portion is invalid |
Using this method, you need to test if your product is as per the specifications you intended for it as well as the functional requirements you charted out for it are in your test documentation.
Testing activities that need to be included:
Test all links in your web pages to ensure that they are working correctly and make sure there are no broken links. Links to be checked will include –
- Outgoing links
- Internal links
- MailTo Links
2. Usability testing:
Usability testing has now become a vital part of any web based project. It can be carried out by individual testers or a small focus group similar to the target audience of the web application.
Test the site for Navigation:
- Menus, buttons or links to different pages on site should be easily visible and consistent across all web pages.
- Content should be legible with no spelling or grammatical errors.
3. Interface Testing:
Every web application comes with three parts, i.e. application, web and database server.
- Application: Test requests are sent correctly to the database and output at the client side is displayed correctly. Errors if any must be caught by the application and must be only shown to the administrator and not to the end user.
- Web Server: Test web server handles all application requests without any service denial.
- Database Server: Make sure queries sent to the database give expected results.
4. Database Testing
Database is the one critical component of your web application and stress must be laid to test it thoroughly. Testing activities will include-
- Test if any errors show up while executing queries
- Data integrity is maintained while creating, updating or deleting data in the database.
5. Compatibility testing
Compatibility tests ensures that the web application displays correctly across different devices. This would include:
Browser Compatibility Test: The same website in different browsers will display differently. You need to test if your web application is being displayed correctly across browsers, JavaScript, AJAX and authentication is working fine.
The rendering of web elements like buttons, text fields etc. changes with change in Operating System. Make sure your website works fine for various combination of operating systems such as Windows, Linux, Mac and Browsers such as Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari etc.
