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Why back-end testing is required, if we are going to check the front-end ....?

Software QA/Testing Technical FAQs

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Why back-end testing is required, if we are going to check the front-end ....?

Why we need to do unit testing, if all the features are being tested in System testing. What extra things are tested in unit testing, which can not be tested in System testing.


Answer1:
Assume that you're thinking client-server or web. If you test the application on the front end only you can see if the data was stored and retrievd correctly. You can't see if the servers are in an error state or not. many server processes are monitored by another process. If they crash, they are restarted. You can't see that without looking at it.
The data may not be stored correctly either but the front end may have cached data lying around and it will use that instead. The least you should be doing is verifying the data as stored in the database.
It is easier to test data being transferred on the boundaries and see the results of those transactions when you can set the data in a driver.

Answer2:
Back-End testing : Basically the requirement of this testing depends on ur project. like Say if ur project is .Ticket booking system,Front end u will provided with an Interface , where u can book the ticket by giving the appropriate details ( Like Place to go, and Time when u wanna go etc..). It will have a Data storage system (Database or XL sheet etc) which is a Back end for storing details entered by the user.
After submitting the details ,U might have provided with a correct acknowledgement.But in back end , the details might not updated correctly in Database becoz of wrong logic development. Then that will cause a major problem.
and regarding Unit level testing and System testing Unit level testing is for testing the basic checks whether the application is working fyn with the basic requirements.This will be done by developers before delivering to the QA.In System testing , In addition to the unit checks ,u will be performing all the checks ( all possible integrated checks which required) .Basically this will be carried out by tester

Answer3:
Ever heard about divide and conquer tactic ? It is a same method applied in backend and frontend testing.
A good back end test will help minimize the burden of frontend test.
Another point is you can test the backend while develope the frontend. A true pararelism could be achived.
Backend testing has another problem which must addressed before front end could use it. The problem is concurency. Building a scenario to test concurency is formidable task.
A complex thing is hard to test. To create such scenarios will make you unsure which test you already done and which you haven't. What we need is an effective methods to test our application. The simplest method i know is using divide and conquer.

Answer4:
A wide range of errors are hard to see if you don't see the code. For example, there are many optimizations in programs that treat special cases. If you don't see the special case, you don't test the optimization. Also, a substantial portion of most programs is error handling. Most programmers anticipate more errors than most testers.
Programmers find and fix the vast majority of their own bugs. This is cheaper, because there is no communication overhead, faster because there is no delay from tester-reporter to programmer, and more effective because the programmer is likely to fix what she finds, and she is likely to know the cause of the problems she sees. Also, the rapid feedback gives the programmer information about the weaknesses in her programming that can help her write better code.
Many tests -- most boundary tests -- are done at the system level primarily because we don't trust that they were done at the unit level. They are wasteful and tedious at the system level. I'd rather see them properly done and properly automated in a suite of programmer tests.

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