Testing method that evaluates the entire application flow from start to finish. It ensures all components work as expected and the software application functions correctly in real-world scenarios.
In End-to-End Testing, the software is tested from the end user’s perspective, simulating a real user scenario, including the user interface, backend services, databases, and network communication. End testing aims to validate the application’s overall behavior, functionality, reliability, performance, and security.
End-to-end testing aims to identify defects or issues that may occur when different application parts interact by testing the entire system. End-to-End testing ensures all components work together smoothly to meet user expectations. End to End testing is usually performed after integration testing, which tests individual modules, and before user acceptance testing, which ensures that the application meets the user’s requirements.
Benefits of End-to-End Testing
- Improved quality assurance: End-to-end testing can ensure that all software application parts work together correctly and meet their intended business requirements.
- Increased confidence in the software: E2E Testing can increase the belief that the software will function as expected in real-world scenarios, assuring stakeholders that the application is reliable and stable
- Faster detection of defects: E2E testing can help detect defects early in the development cycle, allowing developers to fix the issues before they become more complex and costly
- Reduced costs: End-to-end testing can help reduce the costs associated with defects and bugs detected late in the development cycle or after the application has been deployed
- Better alignment with business requirements: End-to-end testing can help ensure that the application meets the business requirements, making it more likely that the application will be accepted by its intended users
- More efficient testing process: End-to-end testing can help streamline the testing process by testing the application from a user’s perspective rather than trying individual components in isolation, making it easier to identify and address issues that may arise
End-to-end testing ensures software applications’ quality, reliability, and usability.
Steps to Perform End-to-End Testing
The steps below are required to initiate and complete any End-to-end test.
- Analyze requirements. Have a clear idea of how the app is supposed to work in every aspect.
- Set up a test environment in alignment with all the requirements.
- Analyze software and hardware requirements.
- List down how every system needs to respond.
- List down testing methods required to test these responses. Include clear descriptions of each test’s standards (language, tools, etc.).
- Design test cases
- Run tests, study, and save results.
End-to-End Testing Example
Let’s say testers have to verify the functioning of a Gmail account. The following features have to be tested:
- Type the URL into the address bar to launch the Gmail login page.
- Log into the account with valid credentials.
- Access Inbox. Open Read and Unread emails.
- Compose a new email.
- Reply to and forward an existing email.
- Open the Sent Items folder. Check emails there.
- Open the Spam folder. Check emails there.
- Log out of Gmail by clicking ‘logout.’
Three Types of Activities in End to End Testing
1. User Functions
To build user functions, do the following:
- List the features of the software and its interconnected sub-systems.
- For each function, track and record all actions performed. Do the same for all input and output data.
- Identify all relations between user functions.
- Establish if each user function is independent or reusable.
2. Conditions
To build conditions based on user functions, decide a set of requirements for every user function.
3. Test Cases
To build test cases for End to End Testing, keep the following in mind:
- Create multiple test cases to test every functionality of user functions.
- Assign at least a single, separate test case to every condition.
In this Software Testing Tutorial, we will learn about end to end testing in software testing. End to end testing is very important type of testing and exercises the end user scenarios for any software scenarios.
Understanding what is end to end testing is important for interview and for working as software tester because you would be required to analyze, write and execute end to end test cases in your project. In this tutorial we will learn all the details about end to end testing with examples.
