Full Stack Testing, 2nd Edition

Chapter 5. Data Testing

Take a moment to think about the online services you use every day. They generally offer one of two types of services: they sell their data to you, or they collect your data and process it on your behalf. Ecommerce, ride hailing, food delivery, and movie booking and streaming are examples of the first category, in that their core value proposition is their diversified data, whereas note-taking applications, social networking apps, and blogging sites thrive by accumulating your data! In both cases, their unique functionalities, user experience design, branding, and marketing revolve around data.

Amazon, for instance, is a data business at heart. Its core functionalities, such as purchasing and delivering products, are all built on top of its collection of product information. The company’s branding and marketing subtly draw attention to its data supremacy: the Amazon logo, with an arrow between the A and the Z, tells the world that it has an enormous variety of data on products ranging from A to Z.

Data has unparalleled significance in any application, and when an application does not diligently maintain its integrity, customers’ trust can quickly go downhill—along with sales. For instance, imagine you transfer money between two of your accounts via your online banking app. Although you get a notification that the transaction was successful, your balances in both accounts fail to reflect the right amounts for several hours. You might panic, or start to ...