Testing is an important step to determine if your applications are performing as intended. Two of the major types of software testing that help determine these are functional and non-functional, and these typically fall under Black Box testing… So what’s the difference?
Functional Testing
Functional testing involves testing an application against its business requirements. It verifies that the application behaves as it is designed to behave — to ensure that all necessary elements are functional if you will. It ensures that your software is ready for release to the public and verifies that all of the specified requirements have been incorporated.
There are two major categories of functional testing: positive and negative testing. Positive testing involves inputting valid inputs to see how the application responds as well as testing to determine if outputs are correct. Conversely, negative testing involves using different invalid inputs, unanticipated operating conditions, and other invalid operations.
Non-functional Testing
Non-functional testing determines if the product will provide a good user experience by measuring how fast the product responds to a request or how long it takes to perform an action. Some examples of this testing type include:
- Load/Performance testing
- Compatibility testing
- Localization testing
- Security testing
- Reliability testing
- Stress testing
- Usability testing
- Compliance testing
What’s the Difference?
The major difference between the two types of testing is this: Functional testing ensures that your product meets customer and business requirements and doesn’t have any major bugs. On the other hand, non-functional testing aims to verify the product stands up to customer expectations. Basically, functional testing determines if an application’s features and operations perform as intended whereas non-functional testing determines if the product “behaves” correctly.
An application needs to pass both categories of testing to ensure consumers have a good experience. Failure to release a working product that meets the needs of consumer demands can damage a company’s reputation and reduce overall product sales.
Another really good discussion of Black Box testing can be found over on DesignRush.
And if you would like to learn more about iBeta’s software testing services Contact us for a free consultation!
