Ensuring the appropriate level of service requires both quality assurance and testing. Quality assurance and testing of a business service that uses a Web site is driven by the business needs of the sponsors and the technical practicalities of the implementation. The business goals with respect to the Web site user are reliable, effective communication, interaction, and satisfaction. Any evaluation is easier to conduct and explain if the reference criteria are explicit. It s no surprise to software testers, however, that much of the test criteria for the fast-changing Web arena are based on experience and common sense decide what is there, measure it against previous experience and the known desires of the sponsor, and report aberrations.
External standards are more rare.
One approach is to choose some respected site as a style reference. A second way is to choose from standards that already exist. All are testable if adopted as standards. The fourth approach can start immediately, and continue along with any of the others. This approach tests for mechanical errors as summarized below.