Software Testing

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Basics You Need to Know in Software Testing

Software testing is the process of finding errors in the developed product. It also checks whether the real outcomes can match expected results, as well as aids in the identification of defects, missing requirements, or gaps.Testing is the penultimate step before the launch of the product to the market. It includes examination, analysis, observation, and evaluation of different aspects of a product.Professional software testers use a combination of manual testing with automated tools. After conducting tests, the testers report the results to the development team. The end goal is to deliver a quality product to the customer, which is why software testing is so important.

Overview
  • It's essential to understand the different types of testing, such as manual and automated testing, and their applications.
  • Each type has its strengths and is used in different scenarios, like manual testing for exploratory testing and automation for repetitive tasks.
  • Writing effective test cases is crucial. A test case outlines the conditions, inputs, actions, and expected outcomes to ensure the software behaves as expected.
  • Identifying defects (bugs) is a core part of testing. Testers need to document bugs clearly, including steps to reproduce, severity, and screenshots if necessary.
  • Understanding the right test environment and tools is key for efficient testing. Tools like Selenium for automation, JMeter for performance testing, and TestRail for test management are commonly used.
Importance of Software Testing

It’s common for many startups to skip testing. They might say that their budget is the reason why they overlook such an important step. They think it would lead to no major consequences. But to make a strong and positive first impression, it needs to be top notch. And for that, testing the product for bugs is a must.To really understand why software testing is important, we need to correlate it with real world examples, which has caused serious issues in the past, a few examples include.Similarly, established organizations need to maintain their client base and their impression. So they have to ensure the delivery of flawless products to the end user. Let’s take a look at some points and see why software testing is vital to good software development.

Improve Security

When customers use the product, they are bound to reveal some sort of personal information. To prevent hackers from getting hold of this data, security testing is a must before the software is released. When an organization follows a proper testing process, it ensures a secure product that in turn makes customers feel safe while using the product.For instance, banking applications or e-commerce stores need payment information. If the developers don’t fix security related bugs, it can cause massive financial loss.The other part of security is not losing your data. It’s common today for people to store data in cloud storage. You also probably have your photos and files stored on iCloud or Google drive.

Types of Software Testing

Software testing isn’t a single thing. Instead, it comes in many different variations, which you can categorize according to several criteria.For instance, you can categorize testing types into manual or automated testing. When it comes to the automated variety, tests can be code based or codeless and you can also have hybrid approaches that mix the best of both worlds.Tests can also be categorized regarding how much they know about the internal implementation of the system under test. Regarding this criterium, we can classify tests as white box, black box or grey box. Finally, we can also group tests into functional and non functional tests, depending on whether they validate the business requirements for the application.Functional testing verifies each function of an application or software. The tester verifies functionality with a specified set of requirements. So the source code of a software or an application doesn’t play a major role in this case. Testing the behavior of the software is the main concern.

Functional and Non Functional Testing
  • In unit testing, the tester checks individual software components. The aim is to test whether the components behave according to the requirements.
  • Integration testing deals with testing individual components or modules after they are combined in a group.
  • Here, the tester executes test cases for verifying the compliance of integrated and completed software along with specifications.
  • This tests an application’s behavior under a huge workload. So, if you’re testing a website, load testing checks the site’s functionality and performance under high traffic, for during reliability testing.
  • Stress testing determines software robustness by assessing whether it’s working beyond regular operation.
  • Test cases are executed to check whether the application is compatible with varying environments. For example, if you’re testing a web application, compatibility testing deals with how the website works on different browsers or devices.
  • hese tests check if a product works according to expectations after installation. Here, testers determine an application’s capacity to recover from hardware crashes and failures.
  • Usability testing explores the end user’s ease of use in terms of learning, operating, and preparing inputs and outputs.