Did you know that the SaaS industry market size has grown 16 times since 2015? In SaaS-powered workplaces, 96% of the apps used are SaaS-based.

SaaS is an acronym for Software as a Service. It refers to a software application that can be accessed over the Internet without downloading it on a local system. SaaS is one of the three major categories of cloud computing, which represents the way of delivering applications over the Internet. They are also sometimes referred to as web-based or on-demand software.

Salesforce, Zoom, DocuSign, Netflix, and Spotify are a few examples of SaaS applications. Here, end users pay depending on the application’s usage. This means SaaS products primarily offer the pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Like other software applications, SaaS applications undergo a rigorous testing process to ensure their functionality, reliability, performance, and security. This blog walks you through the nitty gritty of SaaS testing.

What is SaaS Testing?

SaaS testing is a process of validating SaaS applications for their functionality and verifying whether they meet specified requirements or not. It also encompasses uncovering and addressing all possible bugs and errors. A few common testing activities include functionality, performance, compatibility, security, integration, maintenance, and user acceptance testing.

It is possible to deploy a SaaS application in the cloud, on-premises, and a combination of both. Based on the deployment model, testing strategies may vary.

In a nutshell, SaaS testing ensures that software hosted on the Internet meets its functional and business goals and achieves its full potential.

Types of SaaS Application Testing

1 Functional Testing

Functional testing checks whether an application is working how it’s supposed to. Taking into account the needs and requirements of the end-user, It’s implemented in a set environment by conducting manual tests according to specific test plans.
Functional testing includes the following tests:

• Browser compatibility test to check app performance in various browsers.
• Regression test for every release, minor update, integration, or data migration.
• Automated functional and regression tests. Reliability test to find app weaknesses and reduce the number of failures during deployment.

2 Performance Testing

Performance is paramount for any SaaS application. The performance of each app module should be tested alongside the workflow. In addition, testers can determine bandwidth performance that’s expected in the work process.
The team may estimate the application’s ability to handle loads and find the maximum load by putting high loads on the system. SaaS product testing with an emphasis on performance is essential for the success of a SaaS provider.
Performance testing also includes load, stress, and scalability tests. In order to evaluate an application’s response, you need to test it with various loads, including ones that exceed the load expected under normal operating conditions.
Failure and recovery tests are also important for SaaS testing. These tests check the system for functional disaster recovery after the simulation of various crashes both internal (for example, failures when writing data to a database) and external (for example, internet connection issues or power cuts).

3 Compatibility Testing

One of the most important advantages of cloud services is the ability to access them regardless of:

• Browsers (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome)
• Platforms
• Operating systems (Windows, iOS, Linux)
• Mobile devices (tablets, smartphones)
• Hardware versions

Testing the compatibility of a SaaS app with different hardware is the most difficult part. There’s no way to perform SaaS app testing for all possible hardware configurations. You need a client’s help in order to define the testing methodology.

Here are several tips to help you choose which hardware to test on:

• Gather user statistics to find out the most popular platforms and app versions among end users.
• New platforms. Your client might want their profile to be connected with new platforms that haven’t been found in user statistics yet.
• When several platforms use the same core, testing the core of one of these platforms might be enough to cover the most important issues.
• Focus on the most commonly used routes in service.
• Test one type of technical services (client scripts, forms, data storage, management types).
• Test various technologies used in the application (GPS/no GPS, camera/no camera, Wi-Fi/no Wi-Fi, and so on).
• Request all screens and menus once only. Know more about Compatibility Testing.

4. SaaS Testing: Infrastructure and Safety Tests

This type of testing checks SaaS application safety as well as typical web application security failures (HTTP headline insert, cross-site scripting (XSS), SQL injection, and so on).
Here’s a SaaS testing checklist to ensure safety:

• Test the security of the network where the SaaS application is deployed.
• Review possible attacks and security threat scenarios.
• Test access privileges for various roles (especially in an environment with several tenants).
• Audit the security, integrity, and availability of test data.
• Define situations in which your SaaS application could be vulnerable.
• Confirm compliance with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).
• Log security warnings, errors, and requests from unreliable sources.

5. SaaS Testing: API Integration Testing

The success of SaaS applications is based on working out scenarios when a third-party developer creates their own applications using your API and thereby adds value to your product. Therefore, it’s vital to test all API interface functionality, safety, usability, and performance as well as the accuracy of documentation.

6. SaaS Maintenance Tests

Maintenance testing is performed by an operational group. This team is responsible for ensuring the correct performance of applications, customer service, and billing. Usually, there are built-in instruments to help the operational team track and analyze problems in the following search fields:

• Applications
• Services
• Application servers
• Platforms (operating systems)
• Databases
• Data-level logs
• Alerts
• Warnings
• Functionality and performance errors

7 User Acceptance Testing

User acceptance testing is among the software testing types wherein a small group of real users or in-house volunteers validate SaaS application software to verify whether it meets specified requirements. It is the last phase of the software development life cycle and guarantees that a specific software can work well in the real-world environment.
Simply put, user acceptance testing verifies the quality and usability of a SaaS application software from the end user’s perspective.

Benefits of SaaS Testing

Some noteworthy benefits of SaaS application testing include:

1. High User Retention

Customer satisfaction is the cornerstone of every software application or website. If customers or users are satisfied with the features provided and can address their specific challenge, they are more likely to use it frequently and recommend it to others.
SaaS testing assesses a SaaS application and verifies whether it performs as expected and meets all specified requirements. This leads to maximum customer satisfaction, which ultimately results in high user retention rates.

2. Optimized Performance

Undoubtedly, users primarily want their applications to be very fast and operated without any glitches. Performance testing uncovers potential performance bottlenecks and scalability issues in SaaS applications. Later, the development team address those issues and optimize apps for high performance under varied loads.

3. Data Security

Security testing is one of the inevitable testing types involved in the testing pipeline. It ensures that the application under development is secure from malicious attacks and data breaches and compliant with security standards. This, in turn, guarantees the security of user data.

4. Cost Saving

SaaS testing enables the testing team to uncover bugs and errors and the development team to fix them early in the development lifecycle. This significantly reduces the cost associated with addressing issues in the later stages of the SDLC.

SaaS Testing Challenges

Let us now throw light on some common challenges of SaaS testing.

1. Multi-Tenancy

Generally, SaaS applications have a multi-tenant architecture. This means a single app instance serves multiple customers. One of the major SaaS testing challenges is to test the application for its ability to handle concurrent requests from multiple users without compromising performance and security.

2. Compatibility Issues

SaaS applications work on different types of devices with different screen sizes, browsers, and platforms. In addition, many new devices of different screen sizes and resolutions emerge in the market over time.
Consequently, assessing the SaaS application for its compatibility with evolving devices, browser versions, and their possible combinations becomes challenging.

3. Continuous Upgrades

Like every other application we use, SaaS applications also undergo continuous upgrades, be it for bug fixes, security patches, improvements, or new features. As a result, it becomes essential for the testing team to outline an effective regression testing strategy to ensure that no new update negatively affects existing features of an app.

4. Data Privacy and Security

As SaaS applications have multi-tenant architecture and shared nature, it becomes challenging to effectively manage the privacy and security of data. Since multiple users access the same shared resources, maintaining the privacy of each user while they interact with the application is somewhat tricky.

5. Scalability

SaaS apps need to be scalable to handle the increasing volumes of user requests. However, testing SaaS apps for scalability is pretty challenging. One major challenge is simulating real-world usage scenarios, traffic patterns, and high volumes of test data to determine how an app performs under varying loads.

Best Practices for SaaS Application Testing

Following the below best practices for SaaS application testing, you can ensure that your SaaS applications are reliable, secure, and high-performing.

• Understand the SaaS application’s complexity, such as functionality, integrations, and user interactions.
• Customize SaaS testing strategy according to your app’s needs.
• Prioritize testing types depending on your app’s functionality, such as security, performance, UI, etc.
• Leverage automation tools wherever possible.

Conclusion

As the prevalence of SaaS applications increases, it becomes essential for organizations to prioritize SaaS testing. SaaS testing is much more complex than testing other applications because of their huge user base and large volumes of user requests. Manually testing a SaaS application is pretty challenging and time- and resource-intensive.
As a result, it is recommended to use automation tools to ensure faster time to market with high quality and performance. Additionally, leveraging the best practices and appropriate testing tools increases the possibility of effective and successful SaaS testing
This blog is originally published at Testgrid