End-to-End tests have become quite common in today’s software engineering industry. They are performed by teams of various sizes with the aim of ensuring that all components, internal and external, of the software product, been developed functions as stipulated in the requirements specification.

Various kinds of tests are carried out by software teams to ensure their product performs as expected. These tests may be unit tests, regression tests, integration tests, and so on. Software systems today can become very complex with several interconnections to a host of external services and internal services by other teams in the same company hence the need for a way to ensure that all parts of the system work in unison.

End to End tests is usually carried out using similar parameters used by Production environments with the aim of ensuring the correct flow of data within the system.

In this article, we would learn a lot about End to End tests and find out some exciting tools that can help us accomplish these tests.

What does End-to-End testing Entail

The details about End-to-End testing included by teams during the testing phase are very important to the success of an End-to-End test.

The first step to a successful End-to-End test would be to create user functions that correctly simulate real-world activities carried out with the software product to be tested. This would enable the test team to set up conditions for the success or failure of the test based on the parameters that are passed to these user functions.

Once these are in place, it is then possible to set up test cases that model real-life workflows and also provide a performance benchmark against test conditions.

To measure the success of these tests, teams could take into account the number of tests completed per week, while noting the successes and failures, against the total number of tests planned. Other things to note include:

The current state of the test case preparation in comparison to the number of test cases that have been planned.

The number of detects that have been attended to or left unattended at the end of the week. Distribution of these defects based on priority and severity should also be noted.

The time spent in executing tests in comparison to the total time scheduled for test execution.

The End-to-End Testing Process

End-to-End tests vary for different organizations due to the uniqueness of engineering processes carried out across these organizations. However, the main activities involved in End to End testing include the following:

An analysis of the existing systems and their testing requirements

An outline of the hardware/software requirements in setting up the test environment as well as the responsibilities of all team members involved.

Analysis and design of test cases for each subsystem.

Ability to record input and output data for each system and compare them with target metrics.

How to Do End-to-End Testing

In the previous section, we looked at key activities often carried out during End to End testing. Here, we look at practical ways in which these activities can be implemented.

Implementing End to end tests can be a laborious process especially for large organizations with several interconnected systems to test. Hence, as a first step in implementing End to end tests, it would be wise to identify tests for the most critical business components or components most prone to defect and design test cases for these components as quickly as possible.

The next step would be to choose a test framework. Several test frameworks exist for various technologies used in system design by teams across the globe. Some of these test frameworks are technology dependent while others are not.

A common solution is Selenium. As described by Wikipedia,

Selenium is a portable framework for testing web applications. Selenium provides a playback tool for authoring functional tests without the need to learn a test scripting language (Selenium IDE).

It is an open-source test framework that focuses on web applications. Developing a Selenium automation framework for End to end tests involve a series of considerations.

Firstly, the framework needs to be set from the ground up and made to fit into the product’s needs. This could be done in-house or outsourced.

Next, the time and cost of doing this also need to be considered. Developing this test suite could vary in months and this depends on the complexity and size of the operation. When outsourced, the cost would usually be more.

Integrating this automation framework into the overall development workflow is also a hassle as there would be a need to create new processes that incorporate the work in the framework and define specific conditions.

Other considerations include the cost of creating new work processes, setting up a test lab, and the cost of setting up test and development teams and ensuring the gel together.

A better alternative would be a codeless test automation platform. A good example of this is Testcraft. It offers test automation for End to end testing as a software service with an easy to use interface hence there is no need for an automation specialist to set up the framework or a need to outsource the job.

It uses machine learning techniques to cut down the time and resources needed to effectively maintain a team’s Selenium test flows and generates detailed reports on every run. The details included in these reports are screenshots and videos indicating what needs to be fixed.

Test executions could also be easily scheduled and the built-in test lab saves time and costs in setting up test labs for conventional automation frameworks.

Other noteworthy features include smooth integration with CI/CD tools eases integration with a team’s existing Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), smart bindings which prevent tests from breaking when the web product changes, and interactive UI elements which ease the maintenance process.

Safe Practices for End-to-End Testing

To ensure software teams can get the best from performing End to end tests on their systems, the following practices may be helpful:

Test the systems involved from the user’s point of view. This helps in the proper design of test cases.

Only typical user activities should be tested with End to end testing. Integration testing and unit testing may be carried out to ensure the system doesn’t perform abnormally.

Concentrate on high risks parts of the system or parts which form a critical part of the business. It would be helpful to analyze the risks each system component offers.

Conclusion

We have looked at End to End testing and how it could ensure a network of systems work as expected.

Today’s software applications are built upon several layers and the failure of a particular component could cripple the entire product. Ensuring End to End tests are properly carried out could point out these points of failure in complex systems and prevent massive damage and loss in revenue.

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