Functional testing ensures that all site areas are functional to specifications, are objectively good, and don’t break other areas of the site. This forms the baseline for regression testing.

Functional testing is the simplest form of testing, but we think we make it extra special. The root of functional testing is that we're verifying that all site (or application) features are, well, functional as per the original specification.

To do this well, we need a record of what the original specification was and what that became — we record them into tickets, which the digital producer or business analysts write with all the in's and out's of what any given feature is supposed to do or not do. To test a feature, we look at it from every possible variable that the end-user is likely to see as a possible scenario — does it work on the targeted devices, what if X happens, what if I'm logged in, what if I'm in France, etc. Great testing is rooted in thoroughness.

Beyond testing if something works or not, we also ask our QA team to go one step above and use functional testing as a moment to assess the overall quality. Often the QA team hasn't seen this before, so we can take advantage of their fresh eyes and ask, "Is it any good? Is it efficient?"

Finally, just because something works doesn't mean it didn't accidentally break something else. We use automation testing techniques to make sure that any one function doesn't impact negatively others, creating selenium scripts when needed to achieve impactful and efficient regression testing.