End-to-end testing is a type of software testing that validates the entire application flow from start to finish. It ensures that the whole process of a user's interaction with the application works smoothly.

End-to-End testing helps to identify system dependencies and ensures that the right information is passed between various system components. It provides a comprehensive way to ensure the entire application is working as intended.

Unlike unit testing, which tests individual components, and integration testing, which tests interactions between components, end-to-end testing tests the entire application flow, including interactions with databases, networks, and other applications.

That's fantastic that you have a full set of unit tests! In our experience, that's rare.

However, here is why you should consider adding end-to-end testing to your project:

• Unit tests are designed to test individual components. They ensure the component works as designed and add rigor to the development process. End-to-end tests an uncover problems that appear only when the whole system is running together.
• "The full system" includes communication with the database and all third party services. For instance, standard test (ATK-XX-1000 in the Automated Testing Kit module tests the full registration process including confirming that the email arrives at a dummy email server.
• A final advantage of end-to-end tests is that different personnel on the team can write the tests thus spreading the work load. Typically that's QA people but occasionally even marketing people write end-to-end tests using the test recording tools.

No problem. We'll set up everything, including providing reports of failed tests, work with you to choose which tests to write, help you select a Test Case Management tool (such as Testiny but there are many others) and more. We'll teach you exactly what you need to know to run a smooth testing program.

Our service offerings allow you to design an engagement that's right for you. When it comes to writing the tests, we can write them, we can mentor your team to write them or we can create a hybrid approach. If it's your team writing the tests, generally QA team members and/or developers write the tests.

We can maintain the tests for you or hand over maintenance to your team—there's no rush once the tests are complete. Take over maintenance when your team has the bandwidth—or let us maintain them for you.

There are two parts to this question. The first part is, "Which server(s) will run the test scripts?"

Depending on your goals, they will run on a CI/CD service such as Git Hub Actions or a grid service such as Testery or SauceLabs. It's also possible to set up your own server.

The second part is, "Which server(s) run the target website?" Here you'll have multiple target servers. Typically, you'll want the tests to be able to target:

• the developer and QA team's machines
• a test server dedicated to running the latest development build
• a branch preview build provided by a service such as Tugboat
• the production servers.

A core suite of tests (called "smoke tests") and the system setup can be done in just a few weeks once access to the system is granted. We use the new Automated Testing Kit module to kickstart test development (we are the primary contributor to that module). However, a complete suite of tests for a large website can take months of effort. If you have a new project and the goal is to have a complete suite ready by the time of launch, be sure to reach out early.

We work with two leading tools on the market, Cypress and Playwright, and the Automated Testing Kit module contains core tests for both libraries. If your company has already standardized on one tool, use that for the new project. However, if you are new to automated testing, Playwright currently has a substantial edge over Cypress and we recommend using it for new projects. For in-depth comparisons, watch the videos or read the blogs linked to on the Learning Resources page of the Automated Testing Kit module documentation.

Chat about your specific needs by setting up a meeting at our Calendly page.