SharePoint 2013 Manual Smoke Testing Guide

Hi,

There are thousands of test cases and a lot of ways for testing SharePoint environment after a fresh installation or any upgrade. However, after each farm level change its necessary to smoke test your SharePoint farm to ensure availability, performance, functionality, security and look & feel.

I would try to cover as much point as i can to smoke test SharePoint farm with Manual Testing. This could apply to all SharePoint environments including MOSS 2007, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013 or SharePoint 2016. Its possible that i could not cover all of the test scenarios at once, but i'll try to keep updating this post time to time and include new test cases.

I would not explain the exact steps to perform a test case here. The purpose of this post is to only highlight the area and components from where SharePoint could be smoke tested.

In current scenario i am testing my SharePoint 2013 environment with compare to SharePoint 2010 environment as i have upgraded this environment. Smoke testing could be performed on below areas in SharePoint.

1. Security Testing
2. Functionality Testing
3. Interface Testing
4. Performance Testing

1. SECURITY TESTING

1.1 CHECK USER ACCESS

Once you have moved the content database to SharePoint 2013 environment successfully, the first thing to test is security as this would be very critical point to check before we say it was a successful migration. Note that, this testing must be performed once you have successfully completed the content DB migration and upgradation steps and  migrated the users from Classic Mode authentication to Claims Based (if your SharePoint 2010 web application was on Classic Mode authentication).

1. Check the migrated sites if users can access them or not after the migration. In ideal case, all of the users should be able to access the migrated sites.

2. Make sure the users which previously has access to the site and its subsites in SharePoint 2010 environment, still have the same access level in SharePoint 2013. This check could be on random sites and sub sites. Specially check for the ones which has unique permissions.

3. Check the random sites and verify that site contains all the users which were present previously in SharePoint 2010. No user, AD Group or SharePoint Group got removed after the migration.

4. Check for the users permission on Web Application from Central Admin. Users that have permissions on Web Application level must retain their permissions.

1.2 UNIQUE SECURITY CHECK

1. Go to random site or subsites and check if the sites retained their permissions. If a site was uniquely secured in SharePoint 2010, it must have same unique permissions in SharePoint 2013.

2. Check if there is any custom permissions level defined in any site. It must be the same in SharePoint 2013 as in SharePoint 2010.

1.3 NEW PERMISSIONS

1. Try to create, provide, change and remove permissions for a user or group. Asks users to test different permissions.

1.4 SSL CHECK

All the testing operations should be performed on SSL URL. Make sure all the newly migrated sites are functional at SSL. No site should be throwing IIS, SharePoint or any other error due to https instead of http.

2. FUNCTIONALITY TESTING

Once its confirmed that the migrated sites have the same security that was in SharePoint 2010, the next component to test would be its Functionality. Functionality testing includes the general SharePoint functionality testing and custom components testing.

2.1 CHECK ALL LINKS

There could be multiple links on the sites pages pointing to other useful areas. Make sure no URL is breaking or pointing to a non-existing place.

2.2 SITES AVAILABILITY

Go through random sites' pages to ensure that no page is crashing or breaking up due to any dependency, formatting of data or web part error.

2.3 TEST FORMS

Open custom forms, OOTB item create/ edit/ view forms, popups and dialog boxes. Make sure no one is crashing or bad formatted.

2.4 CRUD CHECK

Try to perform CRUD operations on random lists/libraries under random sites to verify there are no errors.

2.5 SEARCH TESTING

Perform some random search quires in sites search boxes and verify that it’s showing the desired results. Also check if the search result page is not throwing any error or displaying unformatted display.

2.6 DATA VERIFICATION

There would be an output in the form of CSV file in result of following steps of ItemsCounter.docx and ItemsCounter2010.docx. Refer to step 4 of both documents and verify the availability of data from SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013 environments after migration.

2.7 WORKFLOWS TESTING

There would be an output in the form of CSV file in result of following steps of WorkflowFinder.docx. Refer to step 4 in WorkflowFinder.docx and verify random Workflows exists in SharePoint 2013 environments after migration using SharePoint Designer.

2.8 BASELINE COMPONENTS

Verify Baseline Components by following the list of components provided in step 3 and their verification method provided in step 4 of “TeamShare Baseline Components Verification.docx” document.

2.9 CONTENT TYPE HUB TESTING

Check and ensure that Content Type Hub site exists responding properly after migration. Make sure its content types are available.

2.10 MEETING WORKSPACES TESTING

Test Meeting Workspaces in random sites and check if they are not crashing and functioning properly. They should show same components and web parts on main page as they were displaying on SharePoint 2010 environment.

2.11 MYSITE CHECK

Check if Newsfeed in the top right section of the TeamShare portal navigates to MySite of user. Verify that MySites are available and user can see its profile.

2.12 CUSTOM SITE TEMPLATES

Check the Sites created by using custom site templates and make sure they are functioning properly. There should be no crash or feature dependencies error while creating them.

2.13 FEATURES ACTIVATION/DEACTIVATION

Check for all custom features installed and try to activation/deactivate them. There should be no crash or error on activation or deactivation.

2.14 PAGE CONTENT CHANGE

Target few of random pages in random sites. Try to change/update content of page and then save it. Make sure to revert your changes after this test.

2.15 URL REDIRECT CHECK

Check for the sites which are not migrating in current content DB and try to browse them. They should redirect you to SharePoint 2010 environment.

3. INTERFACE TESTING

3.1 VISUAL UPGRADE

Verify that all of the sites have been visually upgraded and new SharePoint 2013 options are available on the sites.

3.2 NEW BRANDING IMPLEMENTATION

Check all root site collections and few random subsites to verify look and feel after applying new branding.

3.3 BROWSER COMPATIBILITY

Verify that new branding is functioning in cross browsers and no page or functionality is breaking.

4. PERFORMANCE TESTING

4.1 PAGE RESPONSE TIME

Browse the site collections and sites inside the migrated database and ensure the response time is normal (due to external data query).

4.2 SEARCH RESPONSE TIME

Verify that search queries are entertained and displaying result in an appropriate time.

4.3 MY SITE LOAD

Check if MySites are loading fine in appropriate time and not crashing due to any timeout errors.