Workflow Testing | What It is, Process & How to Perform?

In the Software Development Life Cycle, software testing is a crucial step. Software testing helps to have a stable production by detection of bugs in early stages, decreases security breaches, checks that the software is compliant and reduces customer complaints. 

In this blog, let us understand about a type of software testing – Workflow Testing.

What is Workflow Testing?

Workflow testing is a process of testing the complete workflow of a functionality or an application against the given business requirement. Consider the functionality of buying a product in an ecommerce application. Workflow testing in this case involves adding a product to cart, selecting a payment method and making payment.

What is the purpose of Workflow Testing?

The purpose of Workflow testing is to ensure that each functionality in a software or an application is working as per requirement. It is performed to make sure that the sequence of working for a software is correct. It also helps to analyse the interaction between functionalities. Workflow Testing also tests the behaviour of a software under different scenarios and use cases. Using this method of testing helps in identifying any deviations from defined business workflow.

What is the importance of Workflow Testing?

It is evident that Workflow Testing is a major form of testing. In this section, let us understand the importance of Workflow Testing.

1. Workflow Testing helps to verify working of each functionality and the interaction between these functionalities.
2. It provides user satisfaction. A well tested application or a software increases user confidence.
3. It performs end to end workflow testing from the initial step to the final outcome which makes the software more stable.
4. It can be performed with different use cases and scenarios and check the behaviour of software for each case.
5. With changing requirements, the software should also be changed. Workflow testing makes sure that these changes do not affect the functionalities and their interaction.

Who performs Workflow Testing?

1. Test Engineers – They are responsible to carry out the designing and execution of test cases. Test engineers write test cases for different scenarios and test the workflow.

2. Developers- They help the test engineers to understand the required outcome for a product, setting up the test environment and addressing the deviations or bugs raised when testing a product.

3. Integration engineers – They test the interaction between functionalities when integrating the complete software.

How to perform Workflow Testing?

Manual Workflow Testing – The test cases are designed, the test environment is set up, and test cases are written. The test cases are then executed and verified against the required workflow. If there are any defects, they are rectified. Once the defects are fixed, the software is retested and deployed.

Automated Workflow Testing – The process of testing remains the same in automated workflow testing as well. But choosing automated testing helps in increasing the efficiency, repeatability and the consistency of test cases. It also allows parallel testing across various test environments which in turn saves time. Testsigma is an automated tool that can be used. 

Automate your workflow tests for web, mobile and desktop applications, 10x faster, with Testsigma

What are the features of Workflow Testing?

Workflow Testing involves testing the sequence, interaction and the logic of functionalities or a software. In this section, let us see some of the features of Workflow Testing.

1. This testing needs complete understanding of the business requirements and the software workflow.
2. Workflow testing is used to test each component or functionality of a software and hence makes sure that all these components are working as per requirement.
3. It performs integration testing and other types of testing as well.
4. It is a suitable testing process for workflow-based software or products.

What are the different phases of Workflow Testing?

There are a number of phases in workflow testing that help the test engineers to test a software. The result from these different phases of testing is a stable and reliable software. Let us discuss these phases here :–

1. Inception phase – This is the initial phase where the test engineers plan the test designs, decide on the test scenarios, prepare the testing steps and the environment.

2. Elaboration Phase – This is the phase where test architecture baseline is designed.

3. Construction Phase – This is the phase where the actual testing is done. Each functionality is tested and also the integration between these functionalities is tested. This phase helps to find any bugs or any deviations from the business requirement.

4. Transition Phase – This is the final stage of Workflow testing. Regression testing is performed to confirm the functionalities even after making changes to some functionalities. Re-tests are carried out to make the end result stable.

What is the process of Workflow Testing?

If a software is tested in its earlier stages, bugs can be resolved sooner and the productivity can be increased. This can be achieved by following a sequence of steps. Let us discuss these steps in this section.

1. Requirement analysis – This step is to gather all the required information. The business requirements and workflow are understood based on which the test strategies will be curated.

2. Write Test Cases – The testing team starts developing the test cases once the business workflow is understood. The test cases consist of different test case scenarios and decision tables.

3. Test Verification – This step is to verify the designed workflow with different users such as test managers, clients and the end users.

4. Test Execution – This is the most important step in the process. This is the phase where the workflow of a product or a software is tested. Different use cases and data inputs are given to analyse the end results.

5. Result Comparison – The obtained results from the previous step are compared with expected results. If there are deviations or bugs found, they are logged to be worked on.

6. Resolve the Issues and Deploy – Once the logged issues are all resolved, the working software is deployed in a live environment.

What is the strategy for Workflow Testing?

So far in this blog, we have understood the importance, features and the different phases. Let us now understand the strategies of Workflow testing.

1. Workflow Analysis – This is where the business workflows are analysed and understood. Here, the test data and also the production data are analysed and evaluated. All the necessary planning is completed in this stage to avoid any discrepancies in later stages.

2. Workflow Designing – Once the workflow is understood, the team comes together to write test cases for different scenarios. The test cases are designed such that all the necessary outputs can be achieved. These test cases are compared and reviewed against the business workflow to make sure it meets with the requirement.

3. Workflow Execution and Monitoring – Here, the team executes all the test cases and verifies the output. If there are any defects, they are raised to be rectified. Once the defects are fixed, the test cases are executed again and then the software is deployed.

How do you write a Workflow Test Case?

1. Provide a title for the test case and define the purpose of the test case.
2. List out the prerequisites that need to be met before the execution of test cases.
3. Define the test data such as the input values and conditions.
4. Write the test case for different scenarios with both positive and negative input values.
5. Define the expected results for the test cases.
6. Mention if the test case has passed or failed with relevant justifications for both cases.
7. Maintain the version history that will be helpful with new changes and referencing.
8. Mention the test case author and the date on which the test case was written.

Conclusion

Workflow testing makes sure that a software built is working as per the business requirement given. A well-defined and constructed workflow testing produces stable and usable software. A small section in this blog explains about Automated testing.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is QA workflow?

QA workflow is the process followed by the QA team for testing. It will include the phases of documentation, test case development, test automation as well as reporting, and any other steps that QA team deems necessary.