Testing Applications on the Web: Test Planning for Mobile and Internet-Based Systems, Second Edition

Chapter 1. Welcome to Web Testing

Why Read This Chapter?

The goal of this book is to help you effectively plan for and conduct the testing of Web-based applications developed for fixed clients, systems in fixed locations such as desktop computers, as well as for mobile clients such as mobile phones, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants), and portable computers. This book will be more helpful to you if you understand the philosophy behind its design.

Software testing practices have been improving steadily over the past few decades. Yet, as testers, we still face many of the same challenges that we have faced for years. We are challenged by rapidly evolving technologies and the need to improve testing techniques. We are also challenged by the lack of research on how to test for and analyze software errors from their behavior, as opposed to at the source code level. We are challenged by the lack of technical information and training programs geared toward serving the growing population of the not-yet-well-defined software testing profession. Finally, we are challenged by limited executive management support as a result of management's underestimation and lack of attention to the cost of quality. Yet, in today's world of Internet time, the systems under test are getting more complex by the day, and resources and testing time are in short supply. The quicker we can get the information that we need, the more productive and more successful we will be at doing our job. The goal of this book ...