What is Software Testing?

Software testing is an important process in the Software Development Lifecycle(SDLC). It involves verifying and validating that a Software Application is free of bugs, meets the technical requirements set by its Design and Development, and satisfies user requirements efficiently and effectively.

Here we are learning Software Testing with the related topics, which are as follows.

It is important to learn the basics, whether it is software testing or anything else, you always need to start from the basics and make your foundation strong, and then proceed to the advanced level. If you want to learn software testing in a structured approach, then you can enroll in our Manual to Automation Testing Course.

What is Software Testing?

Software Testing is a process of verifying and validating whether the Software Product or Application is working as expected or not. The complete testing includes identifying errors and bugs that cause future problems for the performance of an application.

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Software Testing Can be Divided into Two Steps:

Software testing mainly divides into the two parts, which is used in the Software Development Process:

1. Verification: This step involves checking if the software is doing what is supposed to do. Its like asking, "Are we building the product the right way?"
2. Validation: This step verifies that the software actually meets the customer's needs and requirements. Its like asking, "Are we building the right product?"

Need for Software Testing

Software bugs can cause potential monetary and human loss. There are many examples in history that clearly depicts that without the testing phase in software development lot of damage was incurred. Below are some examples:

• 1985: Canada's Therac-25 radiation therapy malfunctioned due to a software bug and resulted in lethal radiation doses to patients leaving 3 injured and 3 people dead.
• 1994: China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed due to a software bug killing 264 people.
• 1996: A software bug caused U.S. bank accounts of 823 customers to be credited with 920 million US dollars.
• 1999: A software bug caused the failure of a $1.2 billion military satellite launch.
• 2015: A software bug in fighter plane F-35 resulted in making it unable to detect targets correctly.
• 2015: Bloomberg terminal in London crashed due to a software bug affecting 300,000 traders on the financial market and forcing the government to postpone the 3bn pound debt sale.
• Starbucks was forced to close more than 60% of its outlet in the U.S. and Canada due to a software failure in its POS system.
• Nissan cars were forced to recall 1 million cars from the market due to a software failure in the car's airbag sensory detectors.

Types of Software Testing

Here are the Types of Software Testing mainly categorized into the two domain, which are below.

1. Manual Testing

Manual Testing is a technique to test the software that is carried out using the functions and features of an application. Which means manual testing will check the defect manually with trying one by one function is working as expected.

2. Automation Testing

Automation Testing It is a technique where the Tester writes scripts independently and uses suitable Software or Automation Tools to test the software. It is an Automation Process of a Manual Process. It allows for executing repetitive tasks without the use of a Manual Tester.

Types of Manual Testing

Manual testing will be divided into further types which is following:

1. White Box Testing

White Box Testing is a software testing technique that involves testing the internal structure and workings of a software application. The tester has access to the source code and uses this knowledge to design test cases that can verify the correctness of the software at the code level.

2. Black Box Testing

Black-Box Testing is a type of software testing in which the tester is not concerned with the internal knowledge or implementation details of the software but rather focuses on validating the functionality based on the provided specifications or requirements.

3. Gray Box Testing

Gray Box Testing is a software testing technique that is a combination of the Black Box Testing technique and the White Box Testing technique. In the Black Box Testing technique, the tester is unaware of the internal structure of the item being tested and in White Box Testing the internal structure is known to the tester.

Here is the Black Box and White and Grey Box Testing, Let’s see the differences between them.

Types of Black Box Testing

Black Box Testing will be divided into further types which is following:

1. Functional Testing

Functional Testing is a type of Software Testing in which the system is tested against the functional requirements and specifications. Functional testing ensures that the requirements or specifications are properly satisfied by the application. 

2. Non-Functional Testing

Non-Functional Testing is a type of Software Testing that is performed to verify the non-functional requirements of the application. It verifies whether the behavior of the system is as per the requirement or not. It tests all the aspects that are not tested in functional testing. 

Types of Functional Testing

Functional Testing will be divided into further types which is following:

1. Unit Testing

Unit Testing is a method of testing individual units or components of a software application. It is typically done by developers and is used to ensure that the individual units of the software are working as intended.

2. Integration Testing

Integration Testing is a method of testing how different units or components of a software application interact with each other. It is used to identify and resolve any issues that may arise when different units of the software are combined.

3. System Testing

System Testing is a type of software testing that evaluates the overall functionality and performance of a complete and fully integrated software solution. It tests if the system meets the specified requirements and if it is suitable for delivery to the end-users. 

Types of Non-functional Testing

Here are the Types of Non-Functional Testing

1. Performance Testing

Performance Testing is a type of software testing that ensures software applications perform properly under their expected workload. It is a testing technique carried out to determine system performance in terms of sensitivity, reactivity, and stability under a particular workload.

2. Usability Testing

Usability Testing in software testing is a type of testing, that is done from an end user’s perspective to determine if the system is easily usable. Usability testing is generally the practice of testing how easy a design is to use on a group of representative users.

3. Compatibility Testing

Compatibility Testing is software testing that comes under the non functional testing category, and it is performed on an application to check its compatibility (running capability) on different platforms/environments. This testing is done only when the application becomes stable. 

You can learn more Software Testing Types which is included in the Software testing in detail.

Different Levels of Software Testing

In Software testing there are Different Levels of Testing can be majorly classified into 4 levels:

1. Unit Testing: In this type of testing, errors are detected individually from every component or unit by individually testing the components or units of software to ensure that they are fit for use by the developers. It is the smallest testable part of the software.
2. Integration Testing: In this testing, two or more modules which are unit tested are integrated to test i.e., technique interacting components, and are then verified if these integrated modules work as per the expectation or not, and interface errors are also detected.
3. System Testing: In system testing, complete and integrated Software are tested i.e., all the system elements forming the system are tested as a whole to meet the requirements of the system.
4. Acceptance Testing: This is a kind of testing conducted to ensure that the requirements of the users are fulfilled before its delivery and that the software works correctly in the user’s working environment.

Why is Importance of Software Testing?

Software testing is important for the several reasons and it mainly classified in the following reason which are affecting the most.

• Defects can be Identified Early: Software testing is important because if there are any bugs they can be identified early and can be fixed before the delivery of the software.
• Improves Quality of Software: Software Testing uncovers the defects in the software, and fixing them improves the quality of the software.
• Increased Customer Satisfaction: Software testing ensures reliability, security, and high performance which results in saving time, costs, and customer satisfaction.
• Helps with Scalability: Software testing type non-functional testing helps to identify the scalability issues and the point where an application might stop working.
• Saves Time and Money: After the application is launched it will be very difficult to trace and resolve the issues, as performing this activity will incur more costs and time. Thus, it is better to conduct software testing at regular intervals during software development.

Best Practices for Software Testing

Here are the best practices for software testing that help to verify the testing process:

• Continuous Testing: Project teams test each build as it becomes available thus it enables software to be validated in real environments earlier in the development cycle, reducing risks and improving the functionality and design.
• Involve Users: It is very important for the developers to involve users in the process and open-ended questions about the functionality required in the application. This will help to develop and test the software from the customer's perspective.
• Divide Tests into Smaller Parts: Dividing tests into smaller fractions save time and other resources in environments where frequent testing needs to be conducted. This also helps teams to make better analyses of the tests and the test results.
• Metrics and Reporting: Reporting enables the team members to share goals and test results. Advanced tools integrate the project metrics and present an integrated report in the dashboard that can be easily reviewed by the team members to see the overall health of the project.
• Don't Skip Regression Testing: Regression testing is one of the most important steps as it encourages the validation of the application. Thus, it should not be skipped.
• Programmers Should Avoid Writing Tests: Test cases are usually written before the start of the coding phase so it is considered a best practice for programmers to avoid writing test cases as they can be biased towards their code and the application.
• Service Virtualization: Service virtualization simulates the systems and services that are not yet developed or are missing. Thus, enabling teams to reduce dependency and start the testing process sooner. They can modify, and reuse the configuration to test different scenarios without having to alter the original environment.

Benefits of Software Testing

Here are some Benefits which give Software Testing:

• Product Quality: Testing ensures the delivery of a high-quality product as the errors are discovered and fixed early in the development cycle.
• Customer Satisfaction: Software testing aims to detect the errors or vulnerabilities in the software early in the development phase so that the detected bugs can be fixed before the delivery of the product. Usability testing is a type of software testing that checks the application for how easily usable it is for the users to use the application.
• Cost-Effective: Testing any project on time helps to save money and time for the long term. If the bugs are caught in the early phases of software testing, it costs less to fix those errors.
• Security: Security testing is a type of software testing that is focused on testing the application for security vulnerabilities from internal or external sources.

Conclusion

Software Testing is a very important part of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). In these article we learned the detailed concepts which is really helpful for the learning of Software testing basics for more learning refer the "Software Testing Tutorial"