WebApp testing - a short summary

A WebApp or Web Application is a type of application / software that is accessed via a web browser (such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Safari) over a network such as the Internet or an intranet. It is typically coded in a browser-supported language (such as HTML, JavaScript, Java, etc.) with the browser environment making the application executable.
With such applications becoming more widespread, testing of such applications is much bigger than it was earlier. Here is a short summary about WebApp testing, and future posts will explore this area in more detail.
WebApp testing is a collection of related activities that has the goal of uncovering the errors in Web Applications related to content, function, usability, navigability, performance, capacity, and security. To accomplish this a testing
strategy that encompasses both reviews and executable testing is applied throughout the Web engineering process.
Generally testing of Web Applications is done by the same set of people who would be involved if the application was a normal client-server application, so webApp testing is done by web engineers and managers, customers, end-users and other stakeholders. This is generic advice for testing, and very relevant for Web Applications. Testing should not wait until the project is finished. It should start before you start thinking of writing a single line of code.
Testing is the process of finding errors and correcting them. The same philosophy goes with Web Applications also. In fact, WebApp testing becomes a more challenging
task for the web engineers as these applications reside on a different network and accessible by varied environments encompassing different operating systems, browsers, platforms. With such varied environments, the possibility of finding errors increases.
Web based applications present new challenges, with some of these challenges are:
1. Short release cycles
2. Constantly changing technology
3. Possible huge number of users during initial website launch
4. Inability to control the user's running environment
5. 24-hour availability of the web site.