Software Testing is a technique used to check or confirm whether a software product meets the expected requirements and to ascertain that the software product has no defects. It involves the running of software/system components using manual or automated tools to examine one or more specifications of interest. The main reason for software testing is to check for errors, bugs, or missing requirements against the actual requirements.
Software Testing means the Verification of Application Under Test (AUT).
Why is Software Testing Important?
Software Testing is important because, in the case of bugs or errors in software, it can be detected early and resolved before such a software product is delivered or available for use.
A well-tested software product is reliable, has good security, and has a probability of high performance, which further enhances time-saving, cost-effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.
Use Case:
Nissan is a very good example of why software testing is important. Nissan had to recall over one million cars from the market due to a software failure in the airbag sensory detectors. There were also reports of two accidents as a result of this software failure.
What are the benefits of Software Testing?
Software Testing has a whole lot of benefits, of which I will share some in this article.
- It is Cost-Effective: When bugs or defects are identified early, it saves the cost of recalling and refixing in the future.
- It enhances the security of software products: Testing software ensures that a security-risk-free product is given to clients. It reduces security hazards and builds customer trust in such brands.
- It improves product quality: It is an important requirement of any software product. Testing ensures a quality product is made available to customers.
- It gives an overall increase in customer satisfaction: early testing of software ensures customers are happy with the products that are delivered to them. A great user interface, hitch-free software running, and reduced security risk, will increase customer satisfaction.
Types of Software Testing
It is classified into three categories. They are:
- Functional Testing
- Non-Functional Testing or Performance Testing
- Maintenance (Regression and Maintenance).
- Functional Testing: As the name implies, it is used to test the functionality of the software. The tests include:
- Unit Testing:In unit testing, individual software units or components are tested. The goal is to ensure that every piece of software code works as expected.
- Integration Testing: Individual software modules are combined and tested as a group during the integration testing phase of software testing. Integration testing is used to determine whether a system or component meets the functional requirements.
- Smoke Testing: Smoke testing is the preliminary check of the software after it has been built but before it is released. This type of testing identifies basic and critical issues in an application prior to implementing critical testing.
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT): This is a type of testing performed by the end-user or client to verify/accept the software system before moving it to the production environment. After functional, integration, and system testing, UAT is performed in the final phase of testing.
- Localization Testing: ensures that the application is capable of being used in a particular region. It only tests the user interface, language vocabulary, currency format, date and time format, and date and time format for that specific country.
- Globalisation Testing: is a type of software testing that ensures the system or software application can function regardless of its geographical or cultural environment. It ensures that the application can be used globally and accepts all language texts.
- Interoperability Testing is a type of software testing that determines whether the software can communicate with other software components and systems. The goal of interoperability testing is to ensure that the software product can communicate with other components or devices without any compatibility issues.
Non-Functional testing: Non-functional testing ensures the evaluation of non-functional software requirements, such as: the way a system operates, rather than specific behaviours of that system. Some examples of non-functional tests include:
- Performance Testing: is a testing practice that is used to determine how a system performs in terms of responsiveness and stability under a specific workload.
- Endurance Testing: is used to determine whether an application can withstand the processing load that it is expected to endure for an extended period of time. Memory consumption is monitored during endurance tests to identify potential failures.
- Load Testing: Load testing is the process of applying simulated demand to software, an application, or a website in order to test or demonstrate its behaviour under various conditions.
- Scalability Testing: A scalability test is a type of load testing that assesses an application’s ability to scale up or down in response to an increase in the number of users. In other words, it evaluates how the system will perform during a sudden increase or decrease in user request loads.
- Usability Testing: Usability testing is the process of evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users. During a typical test, participants will attempt to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen, and take notes.
Regression Testing: Regression testing is a software testing practice that ensures an application continues to function as expected after any code changes, updates, or improvements. The overall stability and functionality of the existing features are ensured by regression testing.
Note: This is not a complete list of all software testing services that are available. More and more are added to the general list. Also, not every test is applicable during a software testing process; it depends on the scope and nature of the software and the testing technique employed.
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