Everything Technical Project Managers Need to Know About End-to-End Testing

As with other stages in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), the project manager ensures effective testing of the product before it is released. While there are several testing techniques, End-to-End testing (or E2E testing) is gaining traction for a good reason. So, what makes this method crucial? How should a project manager approach E2E testing? Let’s delve in.

What is End-to-End Testing?

End-to-end testing is a technique to test a software’s workflow from start to end to ensure it works as expected. It differs from unit testing and integration testing, both equally relevant testing techniques.

Unit testing looks into the small individual components of the software — and tests the functions independent of other parts. Integration testing (or I&T), on the other hand, examines how different modules of the software work when interacting with each other.

E2E tests are necessary because they take the viewpoint of the product user. They look beyond the source code to the application interface to test the outcome of each user action on the app. That’s why it is crucial to project management and determining factors of Software Quality Assurance.

Benefits of End-to-End Testing

When appropriately executed, End-to-End Testing will ensure the team meets the technical and business goals of the project. It can the time to market and eventually cost as well. Put concisely, Some benefits of this technique are:

• It reduces system risks.
• It expands the test coverage.
• It ensures that the entire application flow is correct and healthy.
• It improves bug detection.
• It ensures that the application is optimized for customer experiences.

Stages in the End-to-End Testing Process

E2E testing involves a 4-step iterative process consisting of planning, designing, executing, and analyzing results.

In the test planning and design phases, the test writer specifies key tasks, schedules them, and allocates resources. She proceeds to generate specific test cases along with usage and risk analysis. Next, testers execute the test cases and document the outcomes. These results are finally analyzed. The result of this evaluation determines the next steps.

An error in the application will be flagged as a break in the flow of the application. In that case, the developer debugs broken code and repeats the test.

Considerations for End-to-End Testing

E2E testing technique tests all aspects of the application, just as it should work, hence the name, end to end. The test writer drafts a test checklist based on the application’s aspects. For the most part, it centers on app functionality, security, usability, performance, database, and API. Other unique features of the application are also outlined for testing.

Other considerations for testing are the choice of actual testing scenarios and the testing frameworks or services. The manager will prefer a fast, adaptable framework that offers many tools.

Final Note on End-to-End Testing

It’s important to note that E2E tests do not replace other testing techniques, vis-à-vis unit tests, and integration tests. These different methods isolate failures better and make testing faster and more reliable. A good mix of test techniques will also optimize the cost of testing. Google’s testing pyramid recommends more unit tests, then integration tests and E2E tests to cap it.

The expectation is the earlier you find the bugs the better; it means more errors on Unit tests to be found so fewer errors could happen during E2E testing. If we can organize teams properly and give enough attention to each one then we don’t waste all the team’s effort during E2E testing.

Also published here.