Functional Testing

Your software or Web application was created for a reason and to address certain business needs. Rely on Testware's functional testing services to help ensure your application's functionality under normal and abnormal circumstances.

What is Functional Testing?

Functional testing, simply stated, verifies that an application does what it is supposed to do (and doesn't do what it shouldn't do). For example, if you were functionally testing a word processing application, a partial list of checks you would perform includes creating, saving, editing, spell checking and printing documents. (Again, this list is quite incomplete!)

Positive functional testing entails exercising the application's functions with valid input and verifying the outputs are correct. Continuing with the word processing example, a positive test for the printing function might be to print a document containing both text and graphics to a printer that is online, filled with paper and for which the correct drivers are installed.

Negative functional testing involves exercising application functionality using a combination of invalid inputs, unexpected operating conditions and other "out-of-bounds" scenarios. Continuing the word processing example, a negative test for the printing function might be to disconnect the printer from the computer while a document is printing. What probably should happen in this scenario is a plain-English error message appears, informing the user what happened and instructing him/her on how to remedy the problem. What might happen, instead, is the word processing software simply hangs up or crashes because the "abnormal" loss of communications with the printer isn't handled properly.