Functional, compatibility & integration testing of a new website & its integration with pre-existing systems

The customer identified the need for a new website & its integration with their pre-existing bespoke product management system which facilitates product creation and website page building.

There was a further requirement for the website to integrate with their pre-existing bespoke publication management system which is used to manage & control published changes for their range of websites.

First steps were to prove the website frontend looked & worked as it should.

Initially we employed functional testing to check aspects such as headers, menus, footers, buttons, anchors, sliders, links, accordions & forms. Each piece of functionality was checked to see if it worked as per the original requirement dictated & as an end user would expect & want it to work. Form functionality is important to check not just to ensure the field formats are correct but to ensure the form submits, sends data to the correct email recipients &/or stores the form data correctly in the database. If a contact form for instance doesn’t submit, submits incorrect data, or omits the data storage aspect, this could have a significant impact on a commercial business.

The next step was to commence compatibility testing to ensure the website design matched the approved wireframes. The website also needed to align with brand guidelines, remain consistent across the pages & respond correctly to differing screen resolutions, browsers, OS’ & mobile device models. A responsive design is crucial in a climate where most end users rely on accessing sites via their mobiles as opposed to desk top devices.

Once we ensured the new website was sound, we then moved onto the integration testing. This began in the staging environment testing the connection between the website & the product management system. Having created a financial product in the management system, built the surrounding page & pushed it to the website, we were able to check that the code change had transferred through correctly & displayed in the website frontend as per the expected result. After this, we went on to test adding various product types within the page builder feature as well as checking that edit & delete functions were being successfully fed through the integration too.

Lastly, & during deployment, we tested the integration of all 3 systems: the website, product & publication management systems.

Compatibility testing for this customer was not an insignificant task due to the 24 combinations of browser versions, OS’, screen resolutions & mobile devices we were required to test against. As a service, we offer a standard list of commonly used options however, we also offer a bespoke service for those that require it.

Product management integration testing needed some consideration. Product variations inherited different characteristics that if unchecked, could cause adverse effects on the website’s design. Tests were designed carefully to ensure wide & appropriate coverage of the varying configurations.

The final challenge was to test the publication management integration in a live environment. To prevent the end user from seeing false or misleading financial data, we pushed through very small, obscure changes to low traffic areas of the site before removing them all again. The integration worked & end users remained unaffected, Phew!