Effective Methods for Software Testing, Third Edition

Chapter 22. Testing Web-Based Systems

This chapter focuses on the unique characteristics of web-based testing. Testing can use the same seven-step process described in Part Three of this book. This chapter focuses on determining whether web-based risk should be included in the test plan, which types of web-based testing should be used, and selecting the appropriate web-based test tools for the test execution phase.

Web-based systems are those systems that use the Internet, intranets, and extranets. The Internet is a worldwide collection of interconnected networks. An intranet is a private network inside a company using web-based applications, but for use only within an organization. An extranet is a private network that allows external access to customers and suppliers using web-based applications.

Overview

Web-based architecture is an extension of client/server architecture. The following section describes the difference between client/server architecture and web-based architecture.

In a client/server architecture, as discussed in Chapter 15, application software resides on the client workstations. The application server handles processing requests. The back-end processing (typically a mainframe or super-minicomputer) handles processing such as batch transactions that are accumulated and processed together at one time on a regular basis. The important distinction to note is that application software resides on the client workstation.

For web-based systems, the browsers reside on client ...