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Business process testing (BPT) is gaining rapid traction across industries as companies aim to align quality assurance efforts directly to core business objectives. I want to provide you with a comprehensive guide so you can effectively adopt a BPT approach in your organization.
The Growth of Business Process Testing
Recent surveys reveal the expanding adoption of business process testing:
- Percentage of testers implementing BPT rose from 35% in 2017 to 45% in 2018 (Gartner)
- 60% of IT leaders name BPT as a key approach for IT/business alignment (Forrester)
- The BPT market is predicted grow at 12% CAGR to $2 billion by 2025 (MarketsandMarkets)
What is driving firms to increasingly leverage BPT over traditional system-centric testing?
Key Benefits of Aligning Testing to Business Processes
Let‘s look at some of the motivations for the expanding adoption of business process testing:
- Promotes IT and business collaboration
- Facilitates test design reflecting end user journeys
- Tests application quality as experienced by customers
- Focuses test efforts on functions driving revenue
- Lowers quality risks related to business operations
As you can see, BPT aims to converge business and IT teams toward shared quality goals targeting key processes, applications and metrics driving the bottom line.
Now that we‘ve discussed the reasons behind the rising popularity of BPT, let me help you gain an in-depth understanding of what business process testing means.
What is Business Process Testing?
A quick definition for you:
Business process testing refers to validating that your applications deliver their intended functionality consistently from an end-to-end process perspective aligned closely to business objectives, actual usage scenarios and customer workflows.
For instance, an enterprise e-commerce portal would want to test the integrated experience across key user journeys like search product → add to cart → checkout → make payment to purchase the product.
Some characteristics of business process testing:
- Models complex workflows spanning multiple integrated systems
- Focuses on testing end-to-end business scenarios
- Defines functionality based on business and user expectations beyond pure technical requirements
- Manages quality risk by targeting revenue critical processes
- Optimizes testing across organizational silos for business assurance
Now that you understand the essence of business process testing, let me walk you through a proven BPT framework and methodology to implement it.
BPT Framework
The BPT methodology relies on a standardized framework consisting of reusable components that collectively model real-world business scenarios.
As you design BPT, you leverage the following framework elements:
1. Business Components
Think of these as building blocks that each represent a discrete business task or functionality. For example – login, search order history, update profile etc.
You design components with reusability in mind so same ones can be reused across multiple business workflow test cases.
2. Application Area
This entity acts as a central repository housing all the technical resources required by components to interact with the target application.
For instance – test objects, function libraries, configuration files etc.
3. Business Process Tests
This is where you bring components together into complete end-to-end business workflows that capture how actual users, customers or stakeholders would interact with the system.
Reusable components and application area resources help quickly create a variety of complex BPT scenarios for thorough testing.
Now that you are familiar with the BPT pieces, let me walk you through the step-by-step methodology to put this framework into practice.
BPT Methodology
The business process testing methodology enables you to align business and IT teams across the test lifecycle through a componentized framework.
Steps to implement BPT in your context:
1. Create Manual Components
Involve business analysts or SMEs directly in the test design process without worrying about technical aspects.
2. Automate Components
Leverage automation engineers to implement reusable test scripts for each manual component.
3. Build Business Process Tests
Allow BAs/SMEs to directly assemble components into complete end-to-end business scenarios.
4. Debug BPTs
Collaborate across teams to fix issues with integrated test cases before execution.
5. Execute BPTs
Manage business process test suites across multiple test cycles with detailed reporting.
With the end-to-end methodology covered, let me walk you through a realistic sample scenario to make this framework more tangible.
We will build a business process test leveraging the online shopping example I outlined earlier across search → add item → checkout → payment user path.
Step 1 – Authoring Manual Components
Our business analyst starts by modeling the first component – Search Product:
- Logged into application successfully
- Navigate to ‘Search‘ through top menu
- Enter laptop into the search text field
- Hit enter or search icon to search products
- System should display relevant laptop search results
She defines additional components required for our business process test like Login, Add to Cart, Checkout and Make Payment in a similar fashion outlining business steps and expectations without worrying about coding or tools.
Step 2 – Automating Components
The automation engineer picks up manual components to implement the technical test scripts encapsulating the business logic in an automated fashion.
He opens HP UFT → Creates reusable application area with shared object repositories and function libraries → Automates components reusing resources from this area → Updates components in ALM/QC for business users.
Step 3 – Modeling BPT
Our business analyst can now utilize these self-service components to build complete shopping cart business workflow directly in HP ALM/QC without automation assistance.
She drags-and-drops required components to accurately model real user scenario covering our search → add → checkout → payment business process.
Step 4 – Validating BPT Logic
Technical test automation engineer works with business analyst to validate smooth technical flow across chained components. They debug together to fix defects.
Step 5 – Executing BPT
Our automated end-to-end business process test representing the actual shopping workflow is now ready for full run across test cycles giving actionable quality feedback.
This practical example demonstrates a key BPT benefit – bringing IT and business teams together through reusable components to comprehensively test integrated business processes.
Let‘s look at a couple of real-world usage scenarios across industries:
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An insurance firm leveraged BPT to model several claims approval workflows resulting in 22% higher defect detection compared to earlier system testing methods.
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A banking application uses automated business components representing customer journeys like money transfer, online payment etc. These are leveraged across multiple applications to validate consistent end user experience 30% faster.
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A healthcare portal shares symptom checker and lab test components across BPT scenarios related to their patient visit workflow like scheduling appointment → diagnostic tests → remote diagnosis etc.
Such modular component and workflow level reusability targeted to high priority processes is a prime motivator for BPT adoption.
As business process testing becomes strategic to quality assurance success in parallel with rising application complexity and customer expectations, I want to leave you with 3 critical best practices to maximize effectiveness:
1. Secure Executive Buy-In
Highlight benefits like business collaboration, TCO reduction and enhanced risk coverage through BPT to secure CXO sponsorship across IT and business groups.
2. Take Incremental Approach
Start small by modeling critical sub-processes impacting revenue and customer experience today while scaling out coverage and process depth over time.
3. Review Metrics Frequently
Embed BPT specific KPIs like component reuse rates, automated test coverage of business workflows and defects leakage into production tied to current processes into reporting dashboards at appropriate organizational levels for continuous improvement.
Feel free to reach out in case you need any assistance modeling complex end-to-end processes for your quality automation initiatives through business process testing principles!