A detailed introduction to cross-functional testing

Software is a conglomeration of different designs, content, and code pieces. Issues are bound to occur if there’s no solid connection between the designs, contents, and code that make up the app. So developers need to check all the connections and make sure everything works together. As the American entrepreneur James Cash Penny puts it, “The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison.”

In this post, you’ll learn about cross-functional testing, what it is, and why it differs from other types of testing. Furthermore, we’ll examine the key elements and the benefits of cross-functional testing, as well as the steps in designing it. Additionally, we’ll look into the challenges and some best practices for addressing those challenges. Let’s get started!

What is cross-functional testing?

An online business owner who aims to enhance customer satisfaction would verify the business workflow, starting from the search, checkout, and payment gateway, and make sure they’re interacting correctly. This is cross-functional testing.

Cross-functional testing holistically evaluates the functionalities of software systems. It involves product managers, developers, testers, and business analysts from various teams working together to validate the entire system and achieve the desired outcomes. Hence, it ensures the products meet the needs of both end users and the business.

Cross-functional testing holistically evaluates the functionalities of software systems

Importance of cross-functional testing

• Improves user experience: Ensures user expectations across different features are met.
• Cost reduction: Quickly identifies and resolves issues, reducing the cost of fixing.
• Collaboration: Encourages teams to work together.
• Efficiency: Eliminates unnecessary steps and streamlines the development process.
• Communication: Facilitates understanding and communication between teams.

History

Historically, traditional waterfall resulted in integration issues being discovered late in the development cycle. Cross-functional testing, which has its roots in Agile and DevOps practices, brings an integrated and collaborative approach to testing across multiple functionalities.

How it differs from other testing types

Cross-functional testing is unique because it combines elements of all the different types of testing.

Key elements of cross-functional testing

Cross-functional testing is a collaborative approach where testers work in isolation to identify and fix bugs and evaluate various components or systems within an organization to meet common goals. Some of the key elements include the following:

• Diverse team: Involves various teams like developers, testers, business analysts, and product owners.
• Collaboration: Ensures stakeholders understand their cross-functional dependencies and requirements.
• Early involvement: Allows for valuable input during the design and development phase because cross-functional teams get involved early in the project.
• Integration: Identifies interface defects by testing how individual modules work together.
• Feedback: Helps members identify and resolve issues early.
• User experience: Meets the needs and expectations of users via usability studies and other user-centered activities.
• Error handling: Tests recovery steps when interdependent systems fail and evaluates how a system handles errors.

How cross-functional testing works

Here are the simple ways cross-functional testing works.

• Analysis: Identifies cross-functional requirements and interfaces to map out workflows that span multiple systems.
• Planning: Develops the scope for testing and strategy covering cross-functional interfaces.
• Execution: Conducts tests based on planned scenarios and collaborates and communicates during this phase.
• Tracking and resolution: Resolves issues by logging defects related to cross-functional interactions.
• Reporting: Documents identified defects and their severity and shares them with the development team for quick resolution.
• Retrospective: Gathers feedback from customers to enhance future testing efforts.

Key concepts

Cross-functional testing can help organizations improve the quality of their products and increase customer satisfaction. Here are some key concepts.

• Mapping: Identifying functional and technical dependencies between components
• Collaboration: Enabling cross-functional teams to work together to achieve a common goal
• Orchestration: Ensuring the proper execution of interconnected workflows
• Communication: Sharing vital information and coordinating efforts effectively
• Continuous improvement: Reviewing and refining the testing process to achieve better results

Benefits of cross-functional testing

Cross-functional testing has several benefits, including the following:

• Communication and collaboration: Improving team communication and collaboration throughout the development process by fostering a deeper understanding of roles and responsibilities.
• Integration: Identifying conflicts between components early and validating the correct interaction of different modules and services.
• Quick development time: Speeding up the development process, informed decision-making, and efficient workflows.
• Test coverage and threat detection: Simulating real-world scenarios to test complete workflows, making sure the system functions as intended, and addressing early-stage problems to save time and resources.
• Improved customer satisfaction: Delivering user-centric products that meet and exceed customer needs and expectations.

Challenges of cross-functional testing

Cross-functional testing has many benefits that ensure the seamless working of different components as a unit, but it also presents a set of challenges.

1. Coordination: Different teams have distinct communication styles, which may lead to delays and inconsistent results.
2. Leadership: Choosing a leader is crucial, but choosing from diverse personalities with different kinds of expertise is a challenge.
3. Resource constraints: Securing adequate resources for testing can be time-consuming due to the need for coordination and collaboration.
4. Integration: Bugs in integration can be difficult to spot and fix.
5. Complex testing: Involves complex tests across different systems, which is error-prone and time-consuming.

Use cases of cross-functional testing

Cross-functional testing involves testers from various domains to identify potential issues that may not be captured by individual testers. Below are some of the common use cases.

When to use cross-functional testing

• Security testing: Testing the data storage and network infrastructure to ensure data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, including firewalls and intrusion detection systems.
• E-commerce testing: Testing the shopping cart functionality, payment gateways, product search, complex integration, and customer records
• User experience testing: Testing the usability and accessibility of mobile apps on different devices as well as testing the overall user experience while using the website, by ensuring they are easy to navigate.
• Integration testing: Testing to verify that the entire workflow functions correctly across multiple systems and components. An example is a banking website, where tests are run on deposits, withdrawals, and every other workflow.
• Usability testing: Testing software to ensure it’s easy to use for the target audience and accessible to disability users.

When not to use cross-functional testing

• Early development phase: When unit components are still under active development, use unit testing.
• Simple projects: This type of testing might be overkill for straightforward projects with minimal interdependencies.
• Prototyping: It’s too early during the mockup stage to validate feasibility rather than functionality.

The best situation for cross-functional testing

• New product launches
• Microservices architectures
• User-driven innovation

A test plan makes sure that software meets the needs of all stakeholders and works as intended

Designing a cross-functional test plan

A test plan makes sure that software meets the needs of all stakeholders and works as intended. Here’s a breakdown of the steps and key elements to include.

1. Specify the areas of the product and the primary goals of the test.
2. Determine the test environment.
3. Define roles and assemble a team from different domains, like developers, testers, product managers, operations, and the rest.
4. Write test cases on preconditions, steps to execute, and the expected results.
5. Set conditions that must be met before testing can commence and when testing is completed.
6. Define roles and responsibilities for the teams.
7. Identify and develop ways of mitigating potential risks like technical issues and resource constraints.
8. Establish clear communication channels.

Best practices

• Early involvement
• Prioritize testing
• Proper documentation
• Automation
• Continuous integration

Key considerations for cross-functional testing

• Collaboration and communication
• Documentation and continuous improvement
• Integration and automation

Wrapping up

This detailed guide taught you about cross-functional testing and how it differs from other types of tests. Additionally, we examined the key elements as well as steps in designing well-functioning cross-functional testing. If you want to take your software testing to the next level, Tricentis can help. It’s a company founded specifically to deal with software testing, one that’s widely known and recognized as the leading enterprise platform that aims to improve both testing speed and software quality.

This post was written by Kamaldeen Lawal. Kamaldeen is a frontend JavaScript developer who loves writing detailed guides for developers in his free time. He loves to share knowledge about his transition from mechanical engineering to software development to encourage people who love software development and don’t know where to begin.