The process or method of finding error/s in a software testing application or program the application functions according to the end user’s requirement is called software testing. It involves execution of software/system components using manual or automated tools to evaluate one or more properties of interest. The purpose of software testing is to 1dentify errors, gaps or missing requirements in contrast to actual requirements.
Role of Software Testing:
The role of testing in software development begins with improved reliability, quality and performance of the software. It assists a developer to check out whether the software is performing the right way and to assure that software is not performing what it is not supposed to do.
Software Testing is Important because if there are any bugs or errors in the software, it can be identified early and can be solved before delivery of the software product. Properly tested software product ensures reliability, security and high performance which further results in time saving, cost effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Terms: Failure, Error, Fault, Defect, Bug
There are some important terms of Software testing which is required to understand here.
Failure:
It is the incompetence of a system or component to perform required function according to its specification. In under certain environment and situation, defects in the application get executed then the system will produce the incorrect results causing a failure.
Failures can also be caused because of the other reasons also like:
Because of the environmental conditions as well like a strong magnetic field, electronic field, a radiation burst or pollution could cause faults in hardware or firmware.
Those faults might prevent or change the execution of software. Failures may also possible because of human error in interacting with the software, perhaps a wrong input value being entered or an output being misinterpreted. Failures may also be caused by someone purposefully trying to cause a failure in the system.
Error:
Refers to difference between Actual Output and Expected output. Error 1s terminology of Developer. The mistakes made by programmer are known as an “Error’.
This happen because of the following reasons:
- Because of some confusion in understanding the functionality of the software.
- Because of some miscalculation of the values.
- Because of misinterpretation of any value, etc.
Fault:
It is a condition that causes the software to fail to perform its required function.
Defect:
The bugs introduced by programmer inside the code are known as a defect. This can happen because of some programmatic mistakes.
Bug: Bug is terminology of Tester. The Bug is the informal name of defects, which means that software or application is not working as per the requirement.
In software testing, a software bug can also be issue, error, fault, or failure. The bug occurred when developers made any mistake or error while developing the product.
Goals of Testing:
The ultimate goal of software testing is to troubleshoot all the issues and bugs as well as control the quality of a resulted product. It can be defined as under.
Bug Prevention:
Quality Assurance engineers prevent defects in a system at the earliest stage of development. The bug-prevention objective is superior to others and implies not only expectation but also prevention of defects from recurring in the bug, In the long run, bug prevention helps to reduce the product time to market, reduce cost of software quality maintenance and increase the customer satisfaction and loyalty to your product,
Bug Detection:
Quality Assurance experts detect and root out bugs and malfunctions before customers find them. It is a short-term objective that requires a scrutinise approach which can be provided by manual software testing.
User Satisfaction:
Quality Assurance team make sure that the product satisfies the user requirements and works as desired. In the process of the software verification & validation, a tester usually writes a set of test cases which help to determine the software compliance with specific business and user requirements under positive and negative conditions.
For instance, our team establishes the set of tests to ensure the main functions and features cover different scenarios, work properly in a range of countries and locations.
Software quality and reliability:
Keeping control of software quality means keeping bugs at a low level and making sure software is compatible. Software compatibility is the capability of software or an app to work well with other hardware, software or network, including web, desktop, mobile platform types, all types of operating systems and web browsers, etc.
Recommendations:
Quality Assurance team provides suggestions for software improvements. A good software testing provider should not only tell the difference between the actual and expected result but also make suggestions on how to improve this or that software element performance from the user perspective.
In particular, the team might recommend how to make the app more spontaneous for customers as well as provide with simpler ways of software development.
Information for stakeholders:
Quality assurance team inform to stakeholders regarding Software testing and Quality Assurance activities which provide understandings about technical restrictions, risk factors, ambiguous requirements, etc.
QA Team also share the testing reports with stakeholders which actually allows making changes when they are necessary.
Confidence in the product:
Due to software testing report, decision-makers get sufficient information about the product highlights and areas that require in attention. Thus, product owners can gain confidence in the product before the launch decide to release its less stunning but more stable version. In both cases, they operate with facts.
Short-term or Immediate goals:
These goals are immediate results after performing testing. These goals may be set in the individual phases of SDLC. Some of them are discussed below.
Bug discovery:
The immediate goal of testing is to find errors at any stage of software development. More the bugs discovered at an early stage, better will be the success rate of software testing.
Long-term goals:
These goals affect the product quality in the long run when one cycle of the SDLC is complete. Some of them are discussed here.
Quality:
Since the software is also a product, its quality is primary from the users’ point of view. Thorough testing ensures superior quality. Therefore, the first goal of understanding and performing the testing process is to enhance the quality of the software product.
Though quality depends on various factors, such as correctness. integrity, efficiency, etc., reliability is the major factor to achieve quality.
The software should be passed through a rigorous reliability analysis to attain high-quality standards. Reliability is a matter of confidence that the software will not fail, and this level of confidence increases with rigorous testing. The confidence in the reliability, in turn, increases the quality.
Customer satisfaction:
From the user’s perspective, the prime concern of testing is customer satisfaction only. If we want the customer to be satisfied with the software product then testing should be complete and thorough.
Testing should be complete in the sense that it must satisfy the user for all the specified requirements mentioned in the user manual, as well as for the unspecified requirements, which are otherwise understood.
A complete testing process achieves reliability, which enhances the quality, and quality. in team, increases customer satisfaction, as shown in Figure 3.
Risk management:
Risk is the probability that undesirable events will occur in a system. These undesirable events will prevent the organization from successfully implementing its business initiatives. Thus, the risk is basically concerned with the business perspective of an organization.
Risks must be controlled to manage them with ease. Software testing may act as a control, which can help in eliminating or minimizing risks (see Figure 4) Thus, managers depend on software testing to assist them in controlling their business goals.
Post-implementation goals:
These goals are important after the product is released, Some of them are discussed here.
Reduced maintenance cost:
The maintenance cost’ of any software product is not its physical cost, as the software does not wear out. The only maintenance Cost in a software product is its failure due to errors. Post-release errors are costlier to fix, as they are difficult to detect.
Thus, if testing has been done rigorously and effectively. then the chances of failure are minimized and, in turn, the maintenance cost is reduced.
Improved software testing process:
A testing process for one project may not be successful and there may be scope for improvement. Therefore, the bug history and post-implementation results can be analyzed to find out snags in the present testing process, which can be rectified in future projects. Thus, the long-term post- implementation goal is to improve the testing process for future projects.
Bug prevention:
It is the consequent action of bug discovery. From and interpretation of bugs discovered, everyone in the software development team gets to learn how to code safely such that the bugs discovered are not repeated in later stages or future projects. Though errors cannot be prevented to zero, they can be minimized. In this sense, bug prevention is a superior goal of testing.
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