Why and How To Create A Front-End Testing Plan?

06 August 2020

Introduction

When we get assigned the project then we should know the test plan, Front-end Testing is testing or verifying the frontend functionality, GUI, and Usability. The main aim of Front end testing is to ensure front end is defect free. The front end testing helps us to know the browsers, devices  and systems that your project needs to cover. Performing front end testing also gives confidence in deploying the project. Test Plan helps to determine the effort which needs to validate the quality of the application under test. If we don’t have the test plan for the frontend testing we can miss the functionality to test or bugs while testing.

What is Front End Testing?

Testing the application as a user perspective it should consist of functionality, usability, GUI and verification, and validation. Front end testing related to how the application looks and behaves. Frontend testing is always performed on the GUI checking the functionality as per the requirement. The tester must be knowledgeable about the business requirements. It is important to check the overall functionality of the application. In Front end testing the below types of testing done:

1. Unit Tests
2. Integration Testing
3. Smoke and Regression Testing
4. UsabilityTesting,
5. Performance and Acceptance Testing, etc.

What is Testing Plan?

A testing plan is an approach to verify the each and every functionality/module of a software.. Testing plan defines the flow of testing. It defines the strategy that will be used to verify that the product or system is developed according to its specifications and requirements. We can create a Testing Plan by analyzing the product, its features, and functionalities to gain a deeper understanding.

Why the Frontend Testing Plan?

Creating the frontend testing plan you will get following advantages:

1. It helps you to get complete clarity about the scope of the project.
2. Performing front end testing also gives confidence in deploying the project.

How To Create Front End Testing plan?

Well organized front-end testing covers all your website has an offer on UI & UX. We should understand and consider the below points while creating the Front End testing plan

• Know details about your projects.
• Preparing Checklist For A Front-End Testing Plan:

The checklist will help to analyze, understand, and maintain a basic set of guidelines and ensure web product’s quality from the very beginning till the very end. It will help a designer as well as a developer. Also, we must know about the points below while Creating or Executing the Front End Testing Plan.

What Are We Testing?

The tester’s job is to know exactly what we are testing. We might not always find bugs per function; rather, we might find that something isn’t working as expected or that the developer has misunderstood the functionality requirements.

Are We Testing For?

First, we will need to understand our client requirements and how they will be consuming the website. below are some questions you should always ask:

• What devices will be used by your audience?
• Which operating system and browser combinations are most popular?
• What will be the connection speeds they have (3G, 4G,)?

With this information, we can prepare our to-do list and prioritize our testing methodology. For functionality, we know which devices and browsers to test and for performance and usability.

Know Your Limits

We should know the limits of our project. At some point, you’re going to have a “That’s good enough. Projects limits are usually controlled by a few factors examples are:

• Budget, the fulfillment of the requirements.
• Timeline/Deadline.
• Scope: Figure out the main use case, and focus on fulfilling that audience’s requirements.

Know Your Project Browser or Device Support Levels:

To set the scope of browser and device support easily with clients below are some simple definitions that we can apply:

Support level 1: fully supported browsers and devices

• All text must be readable.
• All functionality must work.

Support level 2: partially supported browsers and devices

• All text must be readable.
• Navigation must work.
• Login functionality must work.

Support level 3: unsupported devices or browsers

• Testing required or not supporting

Know about Tools For Managing Your Test Plan

It should be any Project Management/Test Management tool, it doesn’t matter what tools to use. We should able to do the following:

Project Management:

• Add bugs/tasks with the ability to tags (ex. Severity, Priority, Labels, environments, link issues, etc.).
• Assign bugs/tasks to the members of our team (or to yourself).
• Comment on bugs/tasks.
• Upload screenshots, videos, and documents related to bugs, issues, and tasks;
• Update the status of bugs/tasks as per the progress. (ex. In-Progress, Ready for Review, Done, To-Do, etc.).

Test Management:

• Add Test Case
• Update Test Case
• Execute the Test Plan
• Execution Test Summary Report and History.

Setting Up Your Front-End Test Plan

Now, we have collected useful information and data. Now we need a proper testing plan to succeed as a front-end tester. We should test the application from the user perspective, it consists of functionality, usability, GUI, and verification and validation. We need to do end-to-end testing and perform regression and execution of test cases.

Test Plan Documentation:

We need to test the application within the Timeline and cover the scope of the application. We require three reports to assure the client that the application has undergone and passed the testing process:

• Browser and device report
• Responsive report
• Performance report

Keep Different Types Of Testing:

There are different types of testing that are considered necessary for every front-end testing plan. Let’s have a look at each of them.

1. Unit Testing: It’s a level of testing where individual components/units of the software are tested.
2. Integration Testing: The purpose of integration testing involves modules/components that are functioning as expected.
3. End-to-End Testing (Smoke and Regression Testing): End-to-end testing covers the flow of your application from start to end.
4. Cross-Browser/Devices Testing (Compatibility Testing): It ensures the screen looks the same as it is expected to be on any devices, screen resolution, browsers, operating systems.
5. Usability Testing (UI testing): Usability testing is a way to see how easy to use something is by testing it with real users.
6. Performance and Acceptance Testing: Performance testing is the process of determining the speed or effectiveness of a computer network.

Your Action Plan:

1. List the devices you have on hand.
2. Decides support levels for your chosen browsers and devices.
3. Make sure that testing is running in your timelines and quotations.
4. Select a management tool (ex. Jira, Testrail, etc.), or set up a spreadsheet to track bugs, issues and tasks.
5. Select project to apply your test plan to.
6. Do it!

Front-end testing will give us and our client confidence in the finished project.