QA For Web Sites: What Can Go Wrong

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QA For Web SitesWhat Can Go Wrong?
http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/presentations/ili-
2004/
Talk 2

• Brian Kelly
• UKOLN
• University of Bath
• Bath

Email B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk
UKOLN is supported by
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What Can Go Wrong?
Exercise

• In small groups
• Introduce yourselves
• Outline key areas in which things can go wrong on
  your Web site
• Group these into
• Mission-critical problems
• Significant problems
• Minor problems
• Summarise how you find out that things have gone
  wrong
• Choose a reporter to give a brief report back

Spend about 10 minutes on this exercise.
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What Can Go Wrong?
Pages displayed incorrectly
Pages not displayed
Inaccessible Web site
Broken links
Backend systems don't work
Usability problems
Possible Problems
Forms don't work
People issues
Security problems
Workflow issues
Poor performance
Wrong functionality
Out-of-date content
Incorrect or misleading content
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How Would You Find Out?

• How would you find out when things have gone
  wrong?
• Users inform you
• Users complain
• The boss of your organisation informs you
• You occasionally check things
• You have systematic procedures for checking
• Users report problems during system testing prior
  to release of service

Finding Problems
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Tools And Techniques

• We will now look at tools and techniques which
  can be used for checking various aspects of Web
  sites including
• Compliance with HTML standards
• Compliance with CSS standards
• Compliance with accessibility guidelines
• Link checking

Finding Problems
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HTML and CSS Validation

• Why?
• You should validate HTML pages to ensure that it
  will work in multiple browsers, will be
  accessible and is interoperable
• Tools
• You can use desktop tools or Web-based services
  (e.g. W3C)

Finding Problems
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Checking Links

• Why?
• You should check the links on your pages to
  ensure that your Web service is functional
• Tools
• You can use desktop tools or Web-based services
  (e.g. W3C)

Finding Problems
Note As well as traditional hyperlinks (and
images) Web pages may also have links to
JavaScript and CSS files. You will need to ensure
the links work otherwise the page may not be
usable.
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Web-Checking Services
http//www.doctor-html.com/RxHTML/

• There are many Web-checking services which will
  carry out multiple checks e.g. DrHTML,
  NetMechanic,

Finding Problems
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Limitations Of Tools

• When using these tools across many Web sites
  sometimes unusual or unexpected findings occur
• Obvious mistakes made (page size clearly too
  small)
• Tool uses out-of-date standard
• You should be aware of
• Tool analysing redirect message and not page
• Tool analysing frame set and not pages
• Tool not analysing embedded objects
• Tools may need to be complemented by manual
  checking (e.g. accessibility, usability, content)

Finding Problems
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Accompanying Resources

• About HTML Standards
• Compliance with HTML Standards, QA Focus,
  Briefing Document No. 1
• Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)
• Use Of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), QA Focus,
  Briefing Document No. 34
• Link Checking
• Approaches To Link Checking, QA Focus, Briefing
  Document No. 7