Test Process Framework to Integrate Functional and Non-Functional Testing for Agile

The enterprise applications being developed today implement multiple technologies to achieve goals such as real-time responses, secure handling of large data sets and highly intuitive user experience. In addition to this, there is a strong impetus to target greater audience and multiple devices.

With this trend, the importance of non-functional testing is greatly amplified to ensure performance, scalability and security of the applications along the functional objectives. The challenges thrown by these aspects need to be addressed right from the early development phases or in agile terms, right when the first story is prepared.

There is a definite need for a Test Framework that provides strong focus on integrating both the aspects of testing objectives under one roof. The framework should bring all the test activities under one platform and further drive it in such a way that one activity helps the other. On one hand, the functional tests can provide valuable inputs for performance issues and on the other hand, the performance tests can result into valuable inputs for security or usability. There is need for constant monitoring of the scope of optimization and re-use the existing test scripts across test flavors.

Based on this theme, recently, we presented a paper ‘Integrated Functional and Non Functional Testing for Agile’ in the Regional Rounds of 13th Annual international Software Testing Conference (STC 2013). This paper is published as part of best papers/ best practices by the 13th Annual international Software Testing Conference (STC 2013).

The paper describes a Test Process Framework to integrate functional and non-functional requirements much earlier in scrum based agile projects. The framework utilized the benefits of their co-relation and validated design decisions in iterative builds. It also presents a case study on implementing this framework, using open source tools primarily Jmeter, Selenium Web Driver and OWASP utilities.

Here is the slide deck of the paper presentation given at the Regional Rounds of STC 2013 held at Pune.