Manual Testing
Software Testing in Brief
How does software testing work?
Software testing is the process of evaluating and verifying that a software product or application does what it is supposed to do. The benefits of testing include preventing bugs, reducing development costs and improving performance.
Types of software testing
There are many different types of software tests, each with specific objectives and strategies:
- Acceptance testing: Verifying whether the whole system works as intended.
- Integration testing: Ensuring that software components or functions operate together.
- Unit testing: Validating that each software unit performs as expected. A unit is the smallest testable component of an application.
- Functional testing: Checking functions by emulating business scenarios, based on functional requirements. Black-box testing is a common way to verify functions.
- Performance testing: Testing how the software performs under different workloads. Load testing, for example, is used to evaluate performance under real-life load conditions.
- Regression testing: Checking whether new features break or degrade functionality. Sanity testing can be used to verify menus, functions and commands at the surface level, when there is no time for a full regression test.
- Stress testing: Testing how much strain the system can take before it fails. Considered to be a type of non-functional testing.
- Usability testing: Validating how well a customer can use a system or web application to complete a task.
In each case, validating base requirements is a critical assessment. Just as important, exploratory testing helps a tester or testing team uncover hard-to-predict scenarios and situations that can lead to software errors.
Even a simple application can be subject to a large number and variety of tests. A test management plan helps to prioritize which types of testing provide the most value – given available time and resources. Testing effectiveness is optimized by running the fewest number of tests to find the largest number of defects.
History of software testing
Software testing arrived alongside the development of software, which had its beginnings just after the second world war. Computer scientist Tom Kilburn is credited with writing the first piece of software, which debuted on June 21, 1948, at the University of Manchester in England. It performed mathematical calculations using machine code instructions.
Debugging was the main testing method at the time and remained so for the next two decades. By the 1980s, development teams looked beyond isolating and fixing software bugs to testing applications in real-world settings. It set the stage for a broader view of testing, which encompassed a quality assurance process that was part of the software development life cycle.
“In the 1990s, there was a transition from testing to a more comprehensive process called quality assurance, which covers the entire software development cycle and affects the processes of planning, design, creation and execution of test cases, support for existing test cases and test environments,” says Alexander Yaroshko in his post on the uTest developer site.
“Testing had reached a qualitatively new level, which led to the further development of methodologies, the emergence of powerful tools for managing the testing process and test automation tools.” 1
Continuous testing
Software testing has traditionally been separated from the rest of development. It is often conducted later in the software development life cycle after the product build or execution stage. A tester may only have a small window to test the code – sometimes just before the application goes to market. If defects are found, there may be little time for recoding or retesting. It is not uncommon to release software on time, but with bugs and fixes needed. Or a testing team may fix errors but miss a release date.
Doing test activities earlier in the cycle helps keep the testing effort at the forefront rather than as an afterthought to development. Earlier software tests also mean that defects are less expensive to resolve.
Many development teams now use a methodology known as continuous testing. It is part of a DevOps approach – where development and operations collaborate over the entire product life cycle. The aim is to accelerate software delivery while balancing cost, quality and risk. With this testing technique, teams don’t need to wait for the software to be built before testing starts. They can run tests much earlier in the cycle to discover defects sooner, when they are easier to fix.
Why software testing is important
Few can argue against the need for quality control when developing software. Late delivery or software defects can damage a brand’s reputation — leading to frustrated and lost customers. In extreme cases, a bug or defect can degrade interconnected systems or cause serious malfunctions.
Consider Nissan having to recall over 1 million cars due to a software defect in the airbag sensor detectors. Or a software bug that caused the failure of a USD 1.2 billion military satellite launch. The numbers speak for themselves. Software failures in the US cost the economy USD 1.1 trillion in assets in 2016. What’s more, they impacted 4.4 billion customers.
Though testing itself costs money, companies can save millions per year in development and support if they have a good testing technique and QA processes in place. Early software testing uncovers problems before a product goes to market. The sooner development teams receive test feedback, the sooner they can address issues such as:
- Architectural flaws
- Poor design decisions
- Invalid or incorrect functionality
- Security vulnerabilities
- Scalability issues
When development leaves ample room for testing, it improves software reliability and high-quality applications are delivered with few errors. A system that meets or even exceeds customer expectations leads to potentially more sales and greater market share.
Software testing best practices
Software testing follows a common process. Tasks or steps include defining the test environment, developing test cases, writing scripts, analyzing test results and submitting defect reports.
Testing can be time-consuming. Manual testing or ad-hoc testing may be enough for small builds. However, for larger systems, tools are frequently used to automate tasks. Automated testing helps teams implement different scenarios, test differentiators (such as moving components into a cloud environment), and quickly get feedback on what works and what doesn’t.
A good testing approach encompasses the application programming interface (API), user interface and system levels. As well, the more tests that are automated, and run early, the better. Some teams build in-house test automation tools. However, vendor solutions offer features that can streamline key test management tasks such as:
- Continuous testing: Project teams test each build as it becomes available. This type of software testing relies on test automation that is integrated with the deployment process. It enables software to be validated in realistic test environments earlier in the process – improving design and reducing risks.
- Configuration management: Organizations centrally maintain test assets and track what software builds to test. Teams gain access to assets such as code, requirements, design documents, models, test scripts and test results. Good systems include user authentication and audit trails to help teams meet compliance requirements with minimal administrative effort.
- Service virtualization: Testing environments may not be available, especially early in code development. Service virtualization simulates the services and systems that are missing or not yet completed, enabling teams to reduce dependencies and test sooner. They can reuse, deploy and change a configuration to test different scenarios without having to modify the original environment.
- Defect or bug tracking : Monitoring defects is important to both testing and development teams for measuring and improving quality. Automated tools allow teams to track defects, measure their scope and impact, and uncover related issues.
- Metrics and reporting: Reporting and analytics enable team members to share status, goals and test results. Advanced tools integrate project metrics and present results in a dashboard. Teams quickly see the overall health of a project and can monitor relationships between test, development and other project elements.
65 COMMENTS
The articles you write help me a lot and I like the topic
Thankyou
Your articles are extremely helpful to me. Please provide more information!
Sure
The articles you write help me a lot and I like the topic
Please tell me more about this. May I ask you a question?
sure
I really appreciate your help
Thankyou
Thank you for being of assistance to me. I really loved this article.
Thankyou for your feedback
I really appreciate your help
I’m so in love with this. You did a great job!!
May I have information on the topic of your article?
Sure
Can you write more about it? Your articles are always helpful to me. Thank you!
Interesting post here. One thing I would really like to say is the fact that most professional domains consider the Bachelors Degree as the entry level standard for an online education. When Associate Certifications are a great way to begin with, completing your current Bachelors uncovers many opportunities to various employment goodies, there are numerous online Bachelor Course Programs available by institutions like The University of Phoenix, Intercontinental University Online and Kaplan. Another issue is that many brick and mortar institutions provide Online variants of their certifications but often for a extensively higher payment than the providers that specialize in online college diploma programs.
Hmm is anyone else encountering problems with the pictures on this blog loading? I’m trying to figure out if its a problem on my end or if it’s the blog. Any responses would be greatly appreciated.
Today, taking into consideration the fast life style that everyone is having, credit cards get this amazing demand throughout the market. Persons from every area of life are using the credit card and people who aren’t using the card have lined up to apply for even one. Thanks for revealing your ideas in credit cards.
Very great post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wished to say that I’ve truly loved browsing your weblog posts. After all I will be subscribing on your rss feed and I’m hoping you write again soon!
I like the valuable info you provide for your articles. I抣l bookmark your weblog and take a look at once more right here regularly. I am slightly sure I will be told many new stuff right right here! Good luck for the following!
My brother suggested I might like this web site. He used to be entirely right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t believe simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thank you!
Thanks for your article. One other thing is when you are disposing your property yourself, one of the difficulties you need to be conscious of upfront is how to deal with house inspection records. As a FSBO seller, the key towards successfully shifting your property in addition to saving money on real estate agent profits is awareness. The more you understand, the simpler your sales effort will be. One area exactly where this is particularly significant is inspection reports.
Hello there, I discovered your web site via Google whilst looking for a related subject, your site came up, it seems to be great. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
You really make it seem really easy with your presentation but I find this matter to be actually one thing that I feel I might by no means understand. It sort of feels too complex and very large for me. I’m having a look ahead for your subsequent publish, I will try to get the dangle of it!
In line with my study, after a foreclosed home is bought at an auction, it is common for your borrower in order to still have the remaining balance on the mortgage loan. There are many lenders who try to have all charges and liens repaid by the up coming buyer. However, depending on specific programs, polices, and state legal guidelines there may be a few loans that aren’t easily solved through the transfer of lending options. Therefore, the responsibility still remains on the client that has got his or her property in foreclosure process. Many thanks for sharing your ideas on this blog site.
I acquired more interesting things on this fat loss issue. 1 issue is that good nutrition is tremendously vital while dieting. A big reduction in junk food, sugary food, fried foods, sweet foods, pork, and whitened flour products could be necessary. Retaining wastes parasites, and wastes may prevent targets for losing fat. While certain drugs momentarily solve the challenge, the terrible side effects are certainly not worth it, and in addition they never offer you more than a temporary solution. It is a known incontrovertible fact that 95 of fad diet plans fail. Thanks for sharing your ideas on this website.
Thanks for your post made here. One thing I’d like to say is the fact that most professional career fields consider the Bachelor’s Degree like thejust like the entry level standard for an online college diploma. When Associate Certifications are a great way to get started on, completing your own Bachelors opens up many doors to various jobs, there are numerous internet Bachelor Diploma Programs available coming from institutions like The University of Phoenix, Intercontinental University Online and Kaplan. Another thing is that many brick and mortar institutions make available Online types of their degree programs but generally for a greatly higher fee than the companies that specialize in online degree plans.
Sweet blog! I found it while searching on Yahoo News. Do you have any tips on how to get listed in Yahoo News? I’ve been trying for a while but I never seem to get there! Appreciate it
Magnificent website. A lot of useful info here. I am sending it to a few friends ans also sharing in delicious. And of course, thanks for your effort!
Very well written story. It will be helpful to everyone who employess it, as well as me. Keep up the good work – for sure i will check out more posts.
Hi there! Do you know if they make any plugins to assist with SEO? I’m trying to get my blog to rank for some targeted keywords but I’m not seeing very good success. If you know of any please share. Thanks!
Thanks for your post. Another element is that just being a photographer consists of not only difficulties in catching award-winning photographs but hardships in acquiring the best video camera suited to your needs and most especially issues in maintaining the grade of your camera. This is very genuine and apparent for those photography enthusiasts that are straight into capturing the particular nature’s engaging scenes — the mountains, the particular forests, the actual wild or maybe the seas. Visiting these exciting places surely requires a digital camera that can meet the wild’s hard landscapes.
Howdy would you mind letting me know which hosting company you’re using? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 completely different browsers and I must say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good web hosting provider at a fair price? Kudos, I appreciate it!
Hi, iam using Hostinger.
I appreciate, cause I found just what I was looking for. You’ve ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have a nice day. Bye
Heya i am for the first time here. I found this board and I find It really helpful & it helped me out much. I’m hoping to give something back and help others like you helped me.
Woah! I’m really enjoying the template/theme of this blog. It’s simple, yet effective. A lot of times it’s hard to get that “perfect balance” between superb usability and visual appearance. I must say you’ve done a great job with this. Also, the blog loads super quick for me on Chrome. Superb Blog!
I actually wanted to send a quick note in order to appreciate you for all the splendid tips you are posting at this website. My time consuming internet research has now been paid with sensible facts and strategies to go over with my friends and family. I would point out that many of us readers actually are really endowed to live in a magnificent site with many lovely individuals with good secrets. I feel truly fortunate to have discovered your entire web site and look forward to so many more awesome minutes reading here. Thanks a lot once again for all the details.
Thanks for your handy post. As time passes, I have come to be able to understand that the symptoms of mesothelioma cancer are caused by a build up connected fluid between lining on the lung and the chest muscles cavity. The disease may start within the chest location and get distributed to other parts of the body. Other symptoms of pleural mesothelioma include weight reduction, severe breathing trouble, vomiting, difficulty ingesting, and puffiness of the face and neck areas. It needs to be noted that some people living with the disease usually do not experience virtually any serious symptoms at all.
We’re a group of volunteers and starting a new scheme in our community. Your site offered us with valuable information to work on. You have done a formidable job and our entire community will be thankful to you.
There are certainly lots of particulars like that to take into consideration. That may be a nice level to deliver up. I supply the ideas above as common inspiration however clearly there are questions like the one you convey up where crucial thing will likely be working in sincere good faith. I don?t know if best practices have emerged round things like that, but I am certain that your job is clearly recognized as a good game. Both boys and girls really feel the influence of just a moment抯 pleasure, for the rest of their lives.
The articles you write help me a lot and I like the topic
Thanks for the thoughts you write about through this web site. In addition, many young women exactly who become pregnant never even attempt to get health care insurance because they have anxiety they won’t qualify. Although some states at this point require that insurers supply coverage irrespective of the pre-existing conditions. Prices on these types of guaranteed options are usually higher, but when thinking about the high cost of medical treatment it may be a safer route to take to protect the financial future.
Thank you for writing this article. I appreciate the subject too.
Thanks for your help and for writing this post. It’s been great.
I really appreciate your help
The articles you write help me a lot and I like the topic
Your articles are extremely helpful to me. May I ask for more information?
Please tell me more about this. May I ask you a question?
Please tell me more about your excellent articles
Sustain the excellent work and producing in the group!
Thank you for your post. I really enjoyed reading it, especially because it addressed my issue. It helped me a lot and I hope it will also help others.
Do you mind if I quote a couple of your posts as long as I provide credit and sources back to your webpage? My blog site is in the very same niche as yours and my users would really benefit from some of the information you provide here. Please let me know if this okay with you. Appreciate it!
Hi there very nice web site!! Guy .. Beautiful .. Superb .. I’ll bookmark your site and take the feeds I’m glad to search out numerous helpful information here within the put up, we’d like work out extra techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing. . . . . .
I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here. The sketch is attractive, your authored material stylish. nonetheless, you command get bought an shakiness over that you wish be delivering the following. unwell unquestionably come more formerly again since exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this increase.
Wow, incredible blog structure! How lengthy have you been running a blog for? you made running a blog glance easy. The full glance of your web site is wonderful, as neatly as the content material!
Normally I don’t read post on blogs, but I wish to say that this write-up very pressured me to check out and do it! Your writing taste has been amazed me. Thank you, quite nice post.
Thanks for discussing your ideas. A very important factor is that students have an option between federal government student loan along with a private education loan where it can be easier to opt for student loan debt consolidation reduction than over the federal student loan.
I in addition to my pals ended up examining the excellent tips on your site then all of a sudden developed a horrible feeling I had not thanked you for those strategies. Most of the women came for this reason warmed to read them and now have in reality been taking pleasure in these things. Appreciation for being simply kind and also for making a decision on some awesome themes most people are really eager to learn about. My very own sincere apologies for not expressing gratitude to you sooner.
Nice post. I was checking continuously this blog and I’m impressed! Extremely useful information particularly the last part
I care for such information a lot. I was looking for this certain information for a very long time. Thank you and good luck.
hello there and thank you for your info ?I抳e definitely picked up something new from right here. I did however expertise several technical issues using this site, as I experienced to reload the website lots of times previous to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and could damage your high-quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am adding this RSS to my email and could look out for a lot more of your respective interesting content. Make sure you update this again soon..
I intended to send you this tiny observation in order to give thanks over again with the gorgeous tactics you’ve shown at this time. It was certainly generous of you to offer freely exactly what a few individuals might have advertised for an ebook to make some profit for themselves, chiefly considering that you could have tried it if you decided. These inspiring ideas additionally acted to become a easy way to be certain that other people have similar zeal like my personal own to see a whole lot more in terms of this matter. I believe there are several more fun situations up front for individuals that browse through your blog.
Some tips i have seen in terms of computer system memory is always that there are specifications such as SDRAM, DDR and so forth, that must fit in with the specifications of the motherboard. If the personal computer’s motherboard is kind of current and there are no operating system issues, modernizing the memory space literally usually takes under a couple of hours. It’s one of several easiest laptop upgrade methods one can visualize. Thanks for discussing your ideas.
Hello my friend! I wish to say that this article is amazing, nice written and include approximately all significant infos. I would like to see more posts like this.