???That??™s one of the things ??” it??™s hard to make it easy, and easy to make it hard.???
A
1
No, you don??™t seriously believe that Apple just set up iTunes with a couple of hackers and a copy of DreamWeaver,
do you? Nothing that good ???just worked.???
68
Manage Software Testing
The main problems with web testing are:
1. The heterogeneous nature of both the component origins (new, legacy, COTS) and the running
environments, with components executed on different servers, browsers, WAP phones, PDAs, and
kiosks.
2. The number of concurrent users of widely varying skill levels.
3. The possibility of massive load fluctuations as a website gains popularity.
4. The apparent ease with which the look and feel of a website can be changed which tempts those
ignorant of the problems of web development and testing to insist on widespread changes at short
notice, sometimes by staff with little experience of coding let alone software design.
5. The consequent difficulty in establishing and maintaining baselines for web applications.
6. The degree to which companies depend exclusively or greatly on the web for their sales.
7. The need for frequent site maintenance which has an increasingly entropic effect.
Web testing presents some unique challenges. See [Nguyen], [Gerrard], [Splaine], and [Andrews] for
discussions of how to meet them.
TABLE 5.1
Web test approaches
Level Characteristics Test approach and order
1 The website is purely informative and no user
input is possible.
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