Software Testing

Software Testing

Software development is the process of creating a software product; from its conception all the way to its final manifestation. Software can be designed for personal use, for potential users, or to satisfy a specific client’s needs. The process is done in a systematic way, which involves testing, debugging, and maintenance.

It’s important to test the software so as to confirm the software’s quality and identify any technical defects. Through testing, you can also determine the software’s usability, security, installation, performance, compatibility, etc. there are two main categories of testing: functional testing that tests the performance of a software and non-functional testing that tests the response of the system. Functional testing focuses on the client’s requirements while non-functional testing is geared towards the customer’s expectations. Here are theapproaches used for software testing:

The static VS dynamic: Static testing involves reviews and inspection of the software, whereas dynamic testing is when an actual code is executed with a set of trials.

The box approach: This approach is used to describe the tester’s different point of view when designing the test cases. They are divided into black-box testing, which is when the tester has no knowledge of the inner workings of the software and relies on trial and error, the white-box testing involves a more detailed investigation of the inner working of the software and the tester can test the internal boundaries and the data domains because he/she has the working knowledge.

There are several types/categories of testing but the major ones include Unit Testing that verifies the functionality of an individual unit or a group of units that are related. Integration Testing combines a group of components to verify their output against the software. It works to expose any defects in the interaction between components.System Testing verifies that the software meets its requirements and that it can work under different environments.

System testing is extremely wide and can be broken down to usability testing, documentation testing, functionality testing, inter-operability testing, performance testing, and much more. Lastly, Operational Acceptance Testing is done to verify the software’s readiness. There are defects that can only be detected by users; therefore, it’s important to let a group of endusers test the software and give their feedback and any error logs they may experience.