Non Functional Testing - Overview

Definition:

It is testing of "how" the system works. Non functional testing may be performed at all test levels. The term non-functional testing describes the tests required to measure characteristics of systems and software that can be quantified on a varying scale, such as response times for performance testing.

Classification:

I classify Non Functional Test activities into two parts:

1.      Performance testing

Performance test activities include set of testing done on the application under test under various levels of load injection. Objective of these test activities is to access various performance parameters and applications’ behavior under various level of load injection.

Below mentioned Test Activities are done as part of Performance Testing.

a.      Compatibility Testing

b.      Break-point Testing

c.       Soak Test

d.      Single Node Test

e.        Integration Test

2.      Operational Acceptance Testing

Operational test activities are set of activities which are generally done after Test Team is confident on the Performance aspects of the application. These activities aim to simulate various scenarios which may arise during Operational Activities on the applications.

Below mentioned Test Activities are done as part of Operational Acceptance Testing.

a.      Application Fail-over Test

b.      Database Failure Test

c.       Cable Pull Test (Network Blip Test)

d.      Unix Failure Test

e.      Creation & Dropping of Partition Test

f.        Connection keep-alive Test

g.      Back-end Failure Test

h.      Back-end Fail-over Test