Magento is the best eCommerce platform used by many today. The platform delivers exceptional capabilities to create unique and winning shopping experiences. With every version, the product is getting better. This post can be a great source of guidance for all those who are using Magento 1 and looking to migrate to Magento 2.
Slow website performance, lack of mobile-friendliness, hard-to-navigate admin panel, six-step checkout process, absence of security patches… These drawbacks urge eCommerce business owners to migrate from their ‘Magento 1 End of Life’ stores to a new platform.
The global situation has only further fueled this need, as the ability to embrace change and adapt briskly is vital for supporting business resilience during lockdowns.
The question that follows is how to achieve this comprehensive, long-term transformation without compromising on the software quality, especially when open-minded entrepreneurs are to address the increasing customer needs at the highest pace ever.
End-to-end quality assurance may come in handy. If applied timely, it helps iron out all the critical software issues, improve customer experience, and ensure coherent eStore operation after the mission-critical process.
With that in mind, 10 must-have QA tips introduced throughout the migration can support you along the way to a more powerful Magento 2 solution. Let’s discuss them in detail.
Tip # 1 – Enable a confident start through QA consulting
For that, it’s important to design a tailored migration testing strategy. It can help build a highly transparent process, define website areas vulnerable to emerging defects, determine the tool kit, and optimize software testing costs.
Thus, a QA team may supplement the developers in the early website audit stages to be aware of every single customized extension, file, or template that will appear within the new solution.
Tip # 2 – Proceed with pre-migration testing
As Magento 1 and Magento 2 platforms’ functionality substantially differ from each other, before any testing, it’s crucial for the QA specialists to deeply analyze the requirements and migration specification. It allows them to understand data mapping from the source location to the new one and spot any inconsistencies that may cause further business process change.
Afterward, the QA team must enable the validity of the mapping to user interface and business process, test tool configuration and script generation using field details, and determine the data subset for testing.
Tip # 3 – Spare the time for thorough data migration testing
Magento 2 migration process is tricky and involves the transition of four major aspects ― custom code, extensions, themes, and data. The last component usually remains the most problematic one due to a high risk of losing information.
Even when you apply Magento data migration tool, it’s important to double-check everything in detail, not to mention utilizing custom modules or external tools that may cause data corruption. Besides, one should migrate manually a part of the content, for instance, media.
Generally, the bulk of information that requires transferring encompasses the data about products, customers, and orders. So, the QA team verifies if each product contains proper attributes, an overall product structure is recreated according to the original, the customer base is moved fully, and unprocessed orders aren’t lost for good.
Tip # 4 – Mitigate critical issues through functional testing
Data migration testing is only a step in implementing quality Magento 2 store. Placing yourself in the shoes of a buyer is crucial for eliminating software defects and enabling a seamless customer experience.
For that, the QA team should concentrate on checking the core website functionality: user registration, search, product categorization, pricing, order placement and tracking, payment, promotions, and email notifications.
After test-driving the new solution and spotting critical and major issues that could impede further QA activities, the team can pursue another high-priority testing scope.
Tip # 5 – Introduce test automation approach
Magento 2 migration process may take longer than you think, especially in case your eStore is full of customized extensions. Then, get ready to supervise the transformation for up to 6 months, thus spending a considerable amount of effort and budget.
How to optimize overall diligence and cost? Apart from wisely planning at the pre-migration stage, consider introducing test automation. If applied regard to time-consuming manual testing, such as regression checks, it contributes to curtailing testing time and decreasing QA costs.
Tip # 6 – Focus on performance engineering
Even when you apply Magento data migration tool, it’s important to double-check everything in detail, not to mention utilizing custom modules or external tools that may cause data corruption. Besides, one should migrate manually a part of the content, for instance, media.
Generally, the bulk of information that requires transferring encompasses the data about products, customers, and orders. So, the QA team verifies if each product contains proper attributes, an overall product structure is recreated according to the original, the customer base is moved fully, and unprocessed orders aren’t lost for good.
Seconds do matter. Google states that more than half of mobile website users abandon your solution if it takes more than 3 seconds to download. And with the pandemic provoking a sustainable increase in eCommerce shopping levels, website performance comes to the fore.
Even smart planning and migration outside the sales periods don't guarantee that particular extensions or code will operate like clockwork. Then, how to ensure a successful customer experience within your novel Magento 2 store, especially when it’s always hard for eCommerce business owners to predict the number of users?
Before going live, fulfill server- and client-side testing to accelerate the detection of issues, boost Magento speed, and enable unhindered software operation under the high load.
Tip # 7 – Pitch on cybersecurity testing
According to Foregenix, criminals attack Magento-enabled stores most often, and more than a half of all Magento 2 eStores are at a high or critical security risk level. Why?
Despite all the flexibility and freedom to put customizations in place, open-source software requires greater emphasis on establishing resilience to vulnerabilities. The case is aggravated when you delay updating software to the latest version or wait for the novel security patch to be released.
DDoS attacks, website defacement, financial data theft, XSS, and more are among the most hazardous Magento 2 risks businesses face today. To prevent even the slightest possibility of cybercriminals slipping in, one may opt for security QA support. Penetration testing and vulnerability assessment performed in line with OWASP might prove to be a good fit to protect clients’ sensitive data, make sure clients’ post-migration credentials are updated, and improve software robustness.
Tip # 8 – Involve 3rd party integration testing in your QA strategy
Integration tests are aimed at checking how multiple components of the whole system work together. One of the most widely applied cases of integration testing within Magento 2 concerns testing the cohesive interaction of extensions.
Therefore, the QA team verifies that the components interact as intended, all the extensions smoothly fit the environment, and your eStore seamlessly operates as a single entity.
Tip # 9 – Harness usability testing benefits
15 seconds. That’s your time slot to capture visitors’ attention and offer them value. Otherwise, they can leave your website and may never return. Also, we are living in a mobile-first era, where mobile usability value is increasingly urgent.
With the ultimate objective of facilitating buyers during their journey, the QA team must focus on information architecture, workflows and interactions, and visual design. Thus, thorough testing will eliminate bottlenecks and help visitors find products faster, perform fully informed purchasing, and navigate the website with ease.
Tip # 10 – Do care about SEO
To ensure that your website ranking and traffic won’t suffer after changing the URL structure during the migration process, the QA team should carefully test the implemented redirects. Otherwise, your users will stumble on to a 404 Page Not Found error, which can result in a significant loss in revenue.
The Takeaway
Magento 2 platform is a good opportunity to accelerate growth and scale your business leveraging limitless customizations and the support of a huge community.
However, migration from Version 1 may be a tricky process fraught with difficulties, among which data integrity and consistency are the most critical.
In order not to get caught between a rock and a hard place, one may utilize quality assurance, from smart planning to comprehensive testing scope, helping Magento 2 migration run smoothly, without any downtime or business disruption.
