Detecting critical issues in your software solution before production is critical. Clients need to be confident that the software solution you proposed will work–not only is it a substantial investment, but it could severely impact the company if it failed. To avoid this from ever occurring, testing, whether incremental or prior to deployment, is a very necessary part of the software solution.
Here we take a look at what is involved in software testing, the various methodologies, and the types of tests available. To learn more, continue reading.
What is meant by software testing?
According to IBM, Software testing is the process of evaluating and verifying that a software product or application performs as required. Exploratory testing helps testers uncover hard-to-predict scenarios and situations that can lead to software errors. Reducing development costs, improving performance, and locating “bugs” are three of the most significant benefits of software testing. Each type of test is designed to identify specific flaws.
What are the 3 types of testing?
1) Unit Testing–In software, a “unit” refers to the basic building block of any software. After several units are written, they are linked together to achieve functionality. This first test ensures that each unit functions as intended.
2) Integration Testing–After testing all your functions, the functions are assembled and tested, making sure the integrations work correctly. When using an API to receive data, integration testing ensures that the data comes back and is stored correctly.
Integration tests are essential when you start putting functions together. While they may slow your development cycle down a bit, you will be saving more time down the road by not having to deal with as many integration bugs.
3) Bottom-up approach and top-down integration testing
Each time you add some new functions, you use integration testing to make sure that it’s working correctly to that point. As you build on top of the basic building blocks, you test each step of the way. Once your higher-level functions are appropriately integrated, you start to fill in the lower-level functions and test the integration.
Frequently, testers may use a hybrid approach; this is where one team uses the top-down approach to test the higher-level integrations, and another team uses the bottom-up approach to test the lower-level integrations.
3 Cont’d) Acceptance/Automation Testing Acceptance/ automation testing is the final type of testing, basically checking to ensure your product is performing accordingly and is ready for deployment.
Writing automation testing is time-consuming and labor-intensive. You may want to consider getting our incredible humans at Sonatafy to test things out and keep things moving along.
What is software testing and types?
As mentioned earlier, there are several types of testing. We covered the three basic ones above. Here are several more and how they are used: 1) Functional testing—Checks functions by imitating business scenarios 2) Performance testing—Tests how the software performs under various workloads, emulating real-life conditions 3) Regression testing—Checks whether new features degrade or break functionality. 4) Sanity testing, for example, is used to verify functions, menus, functions, and commands when under time constraints and unable to perform a full regression test. 5) Stress testing: Considered a non-functional test, stress tests the system to its failure point. 6) Usability testing: This type of test validates how well the end-user can use a web application or system to complete a task.
Why do we do software testing?
Testing, regardless of the type or where it’s performed within the process, is done for one reason: to ensure that all the components, hardware, and software, are performing at optimum levels. Testing is optimized by running the fewest number of tests to find the most significant number of defects. By writing a test management plan, you can prioritize which types of tests will provide the most value.
What are the 3 types of software?
The software can take the form of one line of code or, like Microsoft’s Windows operating system, span into millions. System software is of three main types: • Operating system: a group of software designed to run the computer hardware and software. • Language processor: used by the programmers to write their programs, scripts, and instructions, which a computer then executes. The programming language is used to construct computer programs and operating systems. • Utility software: helps users configure, optimize, analyze, and maintain a computer. This software is an integral part of the operating system (OS) and often is built-in with the OS.
What are the 7 principles of testing?
Here are the 7 Principles:
1) Exhaustive testing is not possible
Based on the risk assessment of the application, the optimal amount of testing should be performed. How do you determine this risk? Here’s a good example: Opening 10 different applications simultaneously have the potential of causing your system to fail.
In this example, you would realize that defects are likely to be found in multi-tasking activity and would therefore need to be tested thoroughly, bringing us to our following principle– Defect Clustering.
2) Defect Clustering
The Pareto Principle of software testing and Defect Clustering states that approximately 80% of the problems are found in 20% of the modules. If the same tests are conducted repeatedly, they will no longer see new bugs, rendering them irrelevant.
3) Pesticide Paradox
Repetitive use of the same pesticide mix will eventually lead to the insects developing resistance. The same applies to software testing–change is necessary.
Test cases need to be reviewed and updated regularly; testers should not depend solely on existing standby test techniques. They need to be continually improved, making testing more effective.
4) Testing shows a presence of defects
Testing discusses the presence of defects but not the absence of defects. Testing software reduces the probability of errors remaining in the software; however, even if no defects are detected, that is not proof of correctness. A perfect example would be that your software product is 99% defect-free, BUT it does not meet the client’s needs and requirements, leading us to the following principle—Absence of Error.
5) Absence of Error
This principle states that even software that is 99% defect-free can still be unusable.
Here are some scenarios that make this possible:
The system is tested for the wrong requirement—it should address the business needs. The Absence of Error is irrelevant if it does not fulfill the user’s needs and requirements.
6) Early Testing
Testing should begin early in the process. Fixing a defect in the early stages is much more practical.
7) Testing is context-dependent
Context dependency means that testing is dependent on the type of application you are testing. You might use different types of testing, approaches, techniques, and methodologies depending on the application type, i.e., testing an ATM is vastly different from testing a POS system.
What are the two main types of testing?
There are two main types of software testing: functional testing and non-functional testing. Functional testing–responsible for the product’s compliance with business requirements Non-Functional testing—tests the product’s overall usability, performance, and security.
What are the levels of software testing?
The purpose of different software testing levels is to make software testing systematic and quickly identify all possible test cases. There are four levels of testing: 1) Unit testing 2) Integration testing 3) System testing 4) Acceptance testing
What are the 5 basic principles of testing?
Authenticity–the assessment instrument is authentic when it is contextualized
Practicality–refers to the time and cost constraints during the construction and administration of an assessment instrument
Reliability–refers to the stability of scores over time and different raters
Validity–refers to the tests that measure what it claims to measure
Washback–Positive washback refers to the desired effects of a test; negative consequences of a test are negative washback.
What are the basics of software testing?
Testers use test scenarios, test cases, and test plans to ensure the completeness of testing.
Software Testing Fundamentals
• Functionality Testing—ensures that end users can perform the most critical business transactions at any time. • Integration Testing—the phase in software testing in which individual software modules are combined and tested as a group. • Load Testing—the practice of modelling the expected usage of a software program by simulating multiple users accessing the program concurrently. • Performance Testing—a non-functional software testing technique that determines how an application’s stability, speed, scalability, and responsiveness holds up under a given workload. • Stress Testing—testing beyond standard capacity, often to a breaking point, to observe the results. • System Testing—testing of a complete and fully integrated software product. • Unit Testing—individual units of source code are tested to determine if they are fit for use. • Usability Testing–evaluating a product or service by testing it with representative users.
Which testing is performed first?
Requirement Analysis
Planning
Environment Setup
Test Case Development
Unit Testing: the first stage of software testing
Integration Testing
System Testing
Acceptance Testing
What is the STLC life cycle?
The STLC (Software Testing Life Cycle)–A sequence of specific actions performed during the testing process to ensure that the software quality objectives are met. It includes verification and validation consisting of a series of methodological activities to help certify your software product. Actions at each stage are reflected in subsequent stages.
The STLC is a framework with 6 core principles:
1) Requirement analysis 2) Planning 3) Engineering and design 4) Software development 5) Testing 6) Deployment
What are the software testing tools?
Top Software Testing Automation Tools:
HPE Unified Functional Testing
Ranorex
Sahi
Selenium
TestingWhiz
Tosca Testsuite
Watir
How is testing performed?
Testing is based on external expectations and is usually performed by testers and developers who design test data accordingly. Testing is done based on data flow and high-level database diagrams.
What is staging in testing?
A staging environment is a production-like environment set up to test codes, builds, and updates to ensure before deployment for software testing. The stage emulates all aspects of the production environment, including hardware configuration, servers, databases, and caches.
Users have a low tolerance for poorly performing apps; debugging software is vital to performance. Staging environments can lead to further confidence in the software; as the application gets deployed to the production environment, fewer fixes are required.
Does software testing require coding?
Software testing involves two approaches:
Manual Testing and • Automation testing • Advanced testing can be classified as a White box, Black box or Grey box testing; different testing techniques require different skills. • When Black box testing, the tester does not require the knowledge of coding. • By inputting the data, the software is tested; output is then checked against the requirements. • White box testing: code-driven testing requires knowledge of programming concepts such as C, C#, C++, RDBMS concept, etc., which may be helpful. Testers need a good understanding of coding when for automation testing or white box testing. • SQL (Structured Query Language)- testers need to know SQL commands like ‘select,’ ‘create,’ ‘update’, etc. • SQL –injection, “SQL injection,” is a technique used for hacking databases. Unwanted commands are inserted so a good knowledge of JavaScript and SQL can avert these security threats. • Agile Testing- In agile testing, the whole team is responsible for the quality of the software. Throughout the agile process, the tester will work with one or more programmers to write a test. So, for creating an automatable test, testers must know how to code.
How do I start testing?
Getting an early start to testing reduces the cost and time of rework and produces error-free software. SDLC testing can begin as early as the Requirements Gathering phase and continued through a deployment (it also depends on the development model). For example, in Waterfall, formal testing is performed during the testing phase. In the incremental model, testing is continuously performed at the end of every increment/iteration; at the end, the whole application is tested.
When getting started with software testing, consider these five fundamental concepts.
1. Test Cases 2. Test Data 3. Test Environment 4. Test Strategy 5. Testing Plan
What are different types of testing methodologies?
Using various testing methodologies during the development process ensures your software operates successfully within multiple environments and across different platforms. All test types are designed to test every aspect of a piece of software to ensure that it behaves as expected. Testing methods are typically conducted in a specific order and include:
Test case: actions performed on a system to determine if it satisfies software requirements and functions correctly: it guides them through the steps of the test to verify that something behaves as required. Test case documents include test steps, test data, preconditions and postconditions that prove requirements.
A test case usually contains:
• Title • Description • Test steps • Expected result • Actual result (once tested)
Test cases have a significant impact; writing test cases is critical to the testing process. As you write test cases, you gain clarity to think through the details ensuring you’re analyzing the tests from numerous angles.
The value of having test cases long-term is that anyone can go in and retest using the test case. Test cases are powerful artifacts beneficial to future teammates and a good source of truth for how a system and particular feature work. They are reusable for the future – anyone can reference them and execute the test.
In short, test cases provide the following value:
• Ensures good test coverage (key functionality isn’t missed in the testing process). • Allows the tester to think thoroughly through different ways of validating features. • Negative test cases are also documented, which can often be overlooked
