Testing procedure

Question

Hi,

I developed one application, and starting the testing phase soon,

While I'm trying to setup a testing plan, I have one question!

Shall I start by testing the actual application functionality, or the installation procedure first? (Please note that the installer is an actual project we have)

Thanks,

Answer 1

Hopefully the functionnalities of the application itself and the installer are unrelated, and you can test them in any order.

Edit: Answer to comment Let me reformulate : hopefully the two assumptions :

1) My installer will put my user system in the proper state for my application to run

and

2) Provided the system is in the proper state, my application runs properly

are unrelated. Obviously, if your installer fails, your application won't work if installed by the installer :)

If you have doubts about that (and in particular are unsure about the definition of "proper state") that's probably the first thing you should test : what kind of "state" do you need for your application to run. Then you can test the installer and the application independantly

Answer 2

Does it really matter?

Having an installer might make the testing of the application easier (for QA) in that you don't have to do any manual steps as a tester if there is an installer program.

If it were me I would just have the installer testing be a subset of the product testing. (This is for QA testing, not unit testing)

Answer 3

You should to test what will hurt you most should you find faults, that way if you find a really big problem at least you'll know as soon as possible and can manage expectations accordingly.

In your case I imagine that the application poses the greatest risk and should focus on this initially.