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Feature Friday – What is Component Testing? – Techniques and Benefits
Like snowflakes, no two work weeks were created equal. With the number of projects and maintenance tasks at hand, certain weeks can leave technical specialists feeling like circus jugglers. Deploying features spanning multiple release cycles across a range of applications can become cumbersome. When you consider all the external manual resources and testing applications required for Quality Assurance (QA) testing, it all seems unmanageable.
This Feature Friday covers Qyrus’ automated end-to-end business process testing feature, Component testing. Component testing enables users to connect and reuse automated Web, Mobile, and API tests. Validate cross-browser and cross-platform functionality that cover complete customer journeys by seamlessly transferring data between web and mobile tests. Qyrus is an all-in-one solution that provides method within the madness through a central solution for all testing and QA needs.
To take a deeper dive into the feature, we interviewed Prince and Tim, asking them a few questions about Qyrus’ Component testing.
Tell us more about Component testing offered by Qyrus, its use cases, and general impact on testing processes?
Tim:
Component testing is a solution that combines Qyrus’ Web, Mobile, and API testing into a singular end-to-end testing feature. In component testing, we can import “components” from our other services. Using any number and combination of those components, we are able to then stitch together a test. Components can pass data to other components enabling the validation of complete end-to-end business processes.
Prince:
For example, an eCommerce company might want to test that when an item is added to the cart on their webpage the same item will appear in the cart on their mobile application. In fact, you could build an automated test for the entire online order to mobile pickup process. As an example, you can automate a curbside pickup order where the customer starts the order online, requests in-store pickup, and once they arrive the store receives a notification from the user’s phone. This way, you’re testing a fully end-to-end flow.
Tim:
With cross-browser and device testing options and rich feedback and collaboration options this feature directly enhances test building, execution, reporting and maintenance.
As automated testing itself has not seen many years in the light, when discussing a truly end-to-end automated testing solution it is all the more important to ask about innovative factors and surrounding technology. After all, nobody wants a reinvented wheel, no matter how pretty.
Does the same or similar functionality exist without Qyrus, and how do competitors address similar problems?
Prince:
You are correct. End-to-end testing is no new topic of conversation, but the approach is entirely different. Prior to Qyrus’ Component testing, true end-to-end testing required the integration and combination of multiple applications. Achieving this requires custom code and a complex infrastructure configuration. Just to consider the reporting feature, prior developers and testers would have to stitch thousands of lines of code to capture separated reports which would simply “mirror” behind the scenes activity.
Tim:
Exactly, and it is common for competitors to offer individual testing solutions, but to stitch it together within one comprehensive package is different. It is even harder to find one built on the basis of no code, self-healing, AI/ML-driven capabilities, and robust visual reporting on a ready-to-scale infrastructure.
The repercussions of Covid-19 leading into the “The Great Resignation” have altered the foundations of society. Tasks previously needing manual, human interactions have since been offloaded to web and mobile applications with zero human presence. It is times like now that make us effectively question who this technology is built for and its direct impacts:
How might Component Testing help testers, developers, and business technologists? What value can it bring?
Tim:
Testers often utilize the reusability and quick import functions within Component testing to their advantage building and importing tests from other services. After making necessary modifications, testers could quickly stitch these components into larger end-to-end, cross-platform tests.
Prince:
And the beauty of Component testing is that it caters to more than just testers. Test building requires no coding background. Selecting components, linking them together, and choosing the data to transfer is all built into a form-like process. Ease in test building, on-click execution options, and visual reporting features draw the attention of business analysts who want to both test and visualize end-to-end user journeys.
Tim:
Whether developers are testing an individual application or a unit of new applications, Component testing allows for steadfast and comprehensive application coverage. And with data logging and reporting, developers have various avenues and insights to debug all potential issues.
As applications become more relevant, a solution that can productively map and test end-to-end user journeys gains prominence daily. This leads us to ask a few questions regarding just how much of a cluster-lock this technology can be.
How do you see Component testing impacting day-to-day operations across organizations?
Prince:
This feature, alongside many within Qyrus, promotes collaboration. We see developers building individual components to test application features and functionalities as QA members quickly stitch together these components to create end-to-end business flows. These reports are then sent out to business analysts who can visualize functionality and run their own variations of tests as necessary.
Makes sense, but no matter how revolutionary, well coded, or aesthetically sound a feature may be, functionality and practicality speak for themselves.
What is Component testing’s overall impact on the testing process?
Tim:
The concept in its simplest form was to create a one-stop-shop for all testing and reporting needs. Giving testers the ability to import previously built tests which can be used as components to mitigate excess work while providing recorders for steadfast test building, parallel execution capabilities, and rich visual reporting, Qyrus did that and then some.
Prince:
With the addition of automation, Component testing also becomes a single point of creation. The idea that you can build these component scripts once and execute them daily is revolutionary!
That concludes our interview with Parth and Meghana about in-sprint automation testing on Qyrus. We’ve discussed use cases and specifics, how in-sprint automation can help different users, and the overall impact on the testing process. Join us next week on Feature Friday as spring begins to bud and bloom lets figure out just how many more solutions Qyrus test automation has for you!
