End-to-End App Testing
Tags: python, testing, qualityassurance, softwaretesting
Published: 2024-01-14 20:54:42

Automation is the new trend in technology and gained enormous momentum to match the modern scenario of constant innovation, rapid growth, and delivering quality products to the consumers. Automation has simplified and redefined the quality standards of apps and changed the way testing is conducted. End-to-end testing or E2E testing being a crucial and most complex process of the app QA process should be automated to reduce the complexities and occurrence of manual errors.

Even the slightest error can affect the working of the app; hence, when it is released in the market without end-to-end testing, the probability of it not working as expected is high. To maximize the benefits of end-to-end testing, it should be automated. Let us understand the significance of automating end-to-end testing in detail.

**Understanding End-to-End Testing**

To understand end-to-end testing, it is important to know how the app is being built and why it should be tested end-to-end. Apps are developed in smaller parts called ‘units’ which are unit tested to see if they are working fine, these units are further integrated logically to form the different components of the app for which integration testing is performed. All the components of the application that are developed, are further integrated to develop the complete app. When the components are integrated and built as a single entity, testing should be performed from the beginning to the end to check if it is working as expected, this process is known as end-to-end testing.

The process of testing the app end-to-end is highly complex as it involves testing each unit and module to see how it behaves when put together. Evaluating the entire end-to-end process involves a lot of time and effort and can be prone to errors when done manually. Hence, automating the process is the solution.

**Benefits of Automating End-to-End Testing**

It is a good practice to implement end-to-end testing as a part of the app testing strategy to improve the quality and reduce turnaround time. Here are some of the key benefits of implementing end-to-end testing:

**Reduced business risks:** A faulty app will not just frustrate the users and force them to uninstall the app, but it also possesses the potential to break the business and affect the company’s reputation and finances. To avoid such business risks and improve the app quality, thorough end-to-end testing should be performed.

**Improved test coverage: **The final product is a single, bigger entity that is being formed by integrating different units, modules, layers, and subsets. Hence, in the event of testing the app end-to-end, the test coverage is deeper to evaluate the working of each component in the bigger picture and increase the efficiency of the results.

**Reducing the occurrence of manual errors:** End-to-end testing involves repetitive efforts, frequent revisits, and a highly flexible approach that can give rise to errors when performed manually. Hence, to reduce the errors arising due to the complexity and mundane nature of end-to-end testing, the process should be automated.

**Improved accuracy:** End-to-end testing involves testing all the functional and non-functional parameters, interring at various levels. To test this interconnect and complex system with high accuracy, the process should be automated.

**Reduced time to market: **Automating end-to-end testing will identify errors early and reduce the number of reworks, hence, releasing the apps earlier than expected.

These are some of the advantages of automating end-to-end testing. However, organizations prefer to implement automation for all the testing processes from unit testing, and integration testing, to regression testing to leverage the maximum benefit of automation. Today, codeless automation is the trend that requires no programming skills and test execution can be performed with minimal human intervention.

**Conclusion**

End-to-end testing is a critical app testing process that involves testing the app's behavior in the real world. Automating the process becomes essential to deal with its dynamic nature, and complexities, improve efficiency, reduce the turnaround time, and build brand value.