What is compliance testing and why is it important?

Compliance testing is a testing technique that looks at how well your software performs in relation to regulatory standards and requirements. Also known as conformance testing, compliance testing is a form of non-functional testing that tests how well your software adheres to established industry standards and internal compliance guidelines set by your organization.

Integrating compliance testing into your existing testing process eliminates the potential for noncompliance issues. It makes it easy to stay on top of new and changing regulations in your industry.

What is the purpose of compliance testing?

Compliance testing ensures the safety and security of your business by validating whether your software remains in line with all relevant regulations and usability requirements in your industry. As a type of non-functional testing, compliance testing does not look at software performance. The focus is ensuring that anything you release to customers follows all requisite industry and regulatory standards.

It can be performed at any point in the software testing life cycle but is most valuable once all core functionality testing is complete. Depending on your industry and the type of software you examine, compliance testing can look at a number of different internal and external factors.

What types of compliance requirements need to be considered?

The compliance requirements you test will differ depending on your industry and country of operation. Still, there are common regulations your testers should be aware of when incorporating this testing methodology into your process. The four most common types of compliance requirements are regulatory compliance, security standards, accessibility standards, and payment standards.

1. Regulatory compliance

Regulatory compliance testing is one of the most critical types of compliance testing for software companies. Failing to uphold the requirements of regulatory bodies can result in heavy fines and sanctions that directly impact your ability to operate your business. Examples of regulations your team can test for include:

• GDPR: The General Data Protection Regulation is a law that governs how personal information and data are handled for EU citizens. Companies in the United States are subject to these guidelines if people in the EU use their software. There are similar regulations by state in the US, such as CPAA.
• HIPAA: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act governs how protected health information and data are shared by companies with access to it.
• SOX: The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is a US regulation that governs financial reporting and documentation for companies operating in the United States. 
• CAN-SPAM: This US regulation governs how companies use commercial communication and messaging and regulates the refusal rights of recipients of those messages.

Your compliance testing team must be aware of all laws and regulations affecting your business so that they can perform their tests effectively. Make sure to document these regulations so you can easily reference them and update them with any changes.

2. Security standards

Security standard compliance testing builds on regulatory compliance to ensure that the technology used to run your software aligns with current security best practices. Some examples of these security standards include:

• NIST cybersecurity framework: Created by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, this security standard ensures that all software meets the Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) requirements. 
• ISO standards: The International Organization for Standardization has created a number of different standards for different aspects of quality, environment, health and safety, energy, and information technology. 
• SOC2/SOC3: SOC stands for System and Organization Controls and provides guidance on how companies can protect themselves and users from cybersecurity attacks.
• CIS Controls: The Center for Internet Security Controls created a set of recommendations to help organizations protect themselves and their data from cyberattacks.

Understanding these standards helps protect your company and users from potential cyberattacks that can damage your reputation in the industry and erode trust.

3. Accessibility standards

Accessibility compliance testing helps your testers validate that your software is accessible and usable by people with disabilities. The two most common accessibility standards are WCAG and W3C.

• WCAG: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines provide guidelines for building websites that are more accessible for people with disabilities.
• W3C: The World Wide Web Consortium provides standards for building web-based applications that are accessible to everyone.

When you build accessibility into your software, it provides a more seamless experience for users and fosters strong relationships with your customer base.

4. Payment standards

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of regulations and requirements that govern the capture, storage, and transmission of payment account data. Testing this standard safeguards your business from issues that can directly impact your bottom line.

When is compliance testing needed?

Compliance testing should always be a part of your software testing process. It can be performed at any stage in the software development lifecycle but is most effective after product development is complete and all features work correctly. To determine what different aspects of software compliance you need to test, you’ll need to look at several different factors, such as:

• The laws and regulations of your country of operation related to new product development, technology, and user data.
• The industry standards and regulations that apply to your software.
• Your user base and their location. (Remember, you must follow all regulations impacting people using your software.)
• All functional and integration testing is complete.

Document all these prerequisites as you start planning your compliance testing to help the team understand what they need to do once testing begins. Let’s say you’re a healthcare software provider working in the EU. In that case, you would need to test any new software against the rules and regulations of HIPAA, GDPR, ISO Health Standards, and any other compliance requirements in your county.

However, if you were a healthcare software provider only operating in the US, GDPR would not be a requirement for your compliance testing process. However, you would need to factor in other regulations such as CCPA, WCAG, and W3C.

When you understand what different types of regulations are required for your business, you can begin outlining your compliance testing plan.

How to establish a compliance testing plan

First, document all the required laws, standards, and regulations that impact your company based on the prerequisites we covered earlier. Once you have that information documented, you can start your team testing those compliance standards directly.

1. Create compliance test cases: What specific scenarios do you need to test to ensure compliance with all required standards and regulations? Build test cases around these factors and document them for your team.
2. Execute compliance tests: Once you’ve established a list of acceptable test cases, your team can move forward with evaluating your software based on the requirements outlined within them.
3. Analyze compliance test results: Ask yourself if your software meets all requirements of the required standards and regulations for your company.
4. Report any issues: If you don’t meet those requirements, report them through proper communications channels and devise a plan for rectifying them before moving forward with the release.
5. Verify the fix for your team: After you’ve resolved any outstanding issues, verify that you comply with all required standards and regulations by having another member of the testing team verify your work.
6. Automate easy resolutions: If you encounter compliance issues that can easily be solved with an automated fix, implement an automated testing solution. This will save time and streamline the experience for your testing team.
7. Perform regular compliance audits: Standards and regulations change. Put a compliance management plan in place to regularly audit any new or current regulations that impact your business. This ensures you don’t fall into noncompliance or miss updated regulatory requirements.

Use compliance testing to ensure your user’s safety

Compliance testing isn’t just about ensuring your company follows the rules. These standards and regulations are in place to protect your end users and your business. Ensuring your software’s safety and security helps your team build trust and reliability into the core of your service. And that reliability translates to better development processes and a more seamless experience for your team.