A Deeper Look into Testing and Checking

Software testing has changed drastically over the years. New methods and tools have been introduced that have helped in delivering high quality websites, apps and software products. However, there are terms that sometimes confused the developers, project managers and even testers. One of these points of confusion is definition of “testing” and “checking”. In this post, I will describe these two concepts, their differences and how it fits in a software development cycle.

 

Most of the time testing and checking have been used interchangeably. Developers test their code, testers check the feature. Or is it the other way around? Every person in a team does their part in testing and checking their work towards one goal: to release a “bug-free” product. But there is not always a clear understanding and definition of those terms in the development and testing communities, which is why James Bach and Michael Bolton worked together to come up with these definitions:

 

“Testing is the process of evaluating a product by learning about it through exploration and experimentation, which includes to some degree: questioning, study, modeling, observation, inference, etc.”

“Checking is the process if making evaluations by applying algorithmic decision rules to specific observations of a product.”

 

Generally, we describe testing as a process to explore and discover unexpected behavior, looking for defects and trying to analyze the impact from a user’s perspective. By testing, we attempt to identify any issues that may hinder the user from using the system. We try to discover any issue (recurring or intermittent, replicable or not, etc.) and make intelligent guesses of how the system should work. We investigate and isolate the root cause of the problem to help developers reproduce the defects and to fix them efficiently. Hence, testing can be summarized as, “learning sufficiently everything that matters about how the program works and about how it might not work.”

 

On the other hand, checking often involves an observation. By checking, we try to confirm if our assumption is true or not. We verify if the system still works after modifying or making some changes. We validate if our observations are accurate with our expectations. Checking usually provides a binary result – true or false, yes or no, pass or fail. With such, we can determine if a function works as we’d expect.

 

So how do we differentiate these two strategies? To paraphrase James Bach, testing encompasses checking, whereas checking cannot encompass testing. We can perform checking while testing, but not the other way around. Checking is more focused on specific facts and rules, while testing is an open-ended investigation. Another distinction is specifications. Since testers are more exploratory in nature, they tend to look outside the box (unconstrained scenarios) without solely looking on what’s expected. They try to “break the system” and look for unexpected behavior. On the other hand, checking requires specifications in order to validate, verify or confirm claims if a particular feature actually works against requirement descriptions.

 

Some will say testing is better than checking, while others may disagree. But as a tester myself, I believe that both disciplines have their own strengths and weaknesses. Testing is ideal for discovering issues that may appear before product release, but it consumes a lot of time to hit all those corner case scenarios. Checking is important in verifying all known functions, especially for projects with tight timelines, however some unforeseen bugs may occur once deployed. Therefore, to have an effective, efficient and excellent product, development team should always consider performing these two strategies. Because, as they say, “If you don’t like testing or checking your product, most likely, your customers won’t like to test it either.”

 

Your Checklist For A Successful Website Launch

Get maximum value from your digital next project by using our ultimate testing checklist full of great tips for testing websites pre and post launch.

1. All text free from spelling errors
2. Page and content formatting appropriate on all pages
3. Placeholder text removed
4. All pages have content
5. Privacy Policy included
6. Print stylesheet exists and tested
7. Favicon created and displays correctly
8. Device icons created and display correctly
9. Footer includes copyright statement
10. 404 page exists and informative
11. Correct author is attributed to pages and posts (as required)
12. Page titles are descriptive and SEO friendly
13. All page titles are unique
14. Meta data included and appropriate
15. H1s used for page titles and only one H1 per page
16. XML sitemap has been generated and added to root of website
17. robots.txt is generated and added to root of website
18. 301 redirects for existing website are prepared and in place
19. Website can be accessed by search engines (remove noindex, nofollow for pages)
20. Google Analytics and relevant analytics/tracking tools installed
21. Open Graph tags included across website and appropriate? (including images where possible)
22. Social accounts integrated, linking to correct URLs and use API for integrations
23. HTML has passed validation (or known issues noted)
24. CSS has passed validation (or known issues noted)
25. Bonus: CSS tested on CSS Lint (to hurt your feelings)
26. Site links have been tested and resolve correctly
27. JavaScript is error free
28. Website meets appropriate level of WCAG compliance
29. ARIA Landmark Roles specified
30. Semantic headings and structure used
31. Links are clearly recognisable and have :focus state
32. Images use appropriate ALT text
33. Alternatives provided for users with Javascript disabled
34. Forms have logical layout
35. Associated label for all form controls
36. Colour contrast tested
37. Displays & functions correctly in all latest browsers
38. Displays & functions correctly on mobile devices
39. Forms have been tested and processed correctly
40. Required fields have been tested
41. Review input validation (min/max lengths, character limits)
42. Forms send to the correct recipient
43. Forms have confirmation URL or event tracking so submissions can be tracked
44. Forms process correctly with JavaScript disabled
45. Website search and search results function correctly
46. Images have been optimised
47. CSS is minified and combined
48. JavaScript is minified and combined (as much as possible)
49. Enable gzip compression
50. Ensure only necessary fonts, weights and character sets are installed
51. Run Google speed test and optimise accordingly (record score and known issues)
52. Run Web page test and optimise accordingly (record results)
53. Incorporate CDN / Caching as required
54. Secure areas are locked down and not accessible by search engines
55. Default CMS login URL is changed
56. Default CMS username is changed
57. SSL Certificate is requested
58. Ensure site is visible to search engines
59. SSL certificates successfully installed
60. Images, media and links reference live URL
61. Webfonts integrated and working correctly on live site
62. Webfonts set to production (as required)
63. 301 redirects are in place and working correctly
64. Website URL has been submitted to Google
65. Generate a new sitemap.xml and upload to root
66. Site added to Google Webmaster tools and sitemap submitted
67. Analytics has been setup and integrated into website

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