Recovery testing is a non-functional kind of testing that tells us how well an application can recover from crashes or hardware failures.  The ability of the system to restart the operation or application after integrity is lost, is verified. The testing process involves forcing a failure of the software in multiple ways to verify that recovery is correctly achieved each time.

For example, if while transferring data the connection is interrupted and then reconnected, does the application resume the data transfer without error? If a browser has sessions and the system restarts unexpectedly, is the browser able to recover the session data?

The goal is to prove how fast the application can recover from any kind of crash or hardware failures, or other major problems in order to ensure that normal operations can be continued. Recovery testing verifies the effectiveness of the recovery operations, the backup procedures in place, and the training of the recovery personnel themselves. In the event of a disaster, Recovery Testing ensures that the integrity of your business can be restored without data loss, security breaches, or exceptional down-time.

Prior to testing, requirements must be documented to specify what should happen for each failure and the acceptable length of time for recovery. The time it takes to recover depends on the number of restart points, the volume of the application, and the tools available for the recovery operations.

QA Mentor’s Test Design and Test Execution Services are perfect for this kind of testing. With your requirements in hand, our seasoned staff can create a thorough recovery test plan and execute it using all possible failure and disaster scenarios.