Software Testing
Software Testing is a method to check whether the actual software product
matches expected requirements and to ensure that software product is
Defect free. 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 identify errors, gaps or missing
requirements in contrast to actual requirements.
Why Software Testing is Important?
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.
What is the need of Testing?
Testing is important because software bugs could be expensive or even
dangerous. Software bugs can potentially cause monetary and human loss,
and history is full of such examples.
In April 2015, Bloom berg terminal in London crashed due to software
glitch affected more than 300,000 traders on financial markets. It
forced the government to postpone a 3bn pound debt sale.
Nissan cars recalled over 1 million cars from the market due to
software failure in the airbag sensory detectors. There has been
reported two accident due to this software failure.
Starbucks was forced to close about 60 percent of stores in the U.S and
Canada due to software failure in its POS system. At one point, the
store served coffee for free as they were unable to process the
transaction.
Some of Amazon’s third-party retailers saw their product price is
reduced to 1p due to a software glitch. They were left with heavy
losses.
Vulnerability in Windows 10. This bug enables users to escape from
security sandboxes through a flaw in the win32k system.
In 2015 fighter plane F-35 fell victim to a software bug, making it
unable to detect targets correctly.
China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed due to a software bug on April 26,
1994, killing 264 innocents live
In 1985, Canada’s Therac-25 radiation therapy machine malfunctioned
due to software bug and delivered lethal radiation doses to patients,
leaving 3 people dead and critically injuring 3 others.
In April of 1999, a software bug caused the failure of a $1.2 billion
military satellite launch, the costliest accident in history
In May of 1996, a software bug caused the bank accounts of 823
customers of a major U.S. bank to be credited with 920 million US
dollars.
What are the benefits of Software Testing?
Here are the benefits of using software testing:
Cost-Effective: It is one of the important advantages of software
testing. Testing any IT project on time helps you to save your money for
the long term. In case if the bugs caught in the earlier stage of software
testing, it costs less to fix.
Security: It is the most vulnerable and sensitive benefit of software
testing. People are looking for trusted products. It helps in removing
risks and problems earlier.
Product quality: It is an essential requirement of any software product.
Testing ensures a quality product is delivered to customers.
Customer Satisfaction: The main aim of any product is to give
satisfaction to their customers. UI/UX Testing ensures the best user
experience.
Types of Software Testing
Here are the software testing types:
Typically Testing is classified into three categories.
Functional Testing
Non-Functional Testing or Performance Testing
Maintenance (Regression and Maintenance)
Testing Strategies in Software Engineering
Here are important strategies in software engineering:
Unit Testing: This software testing basic approach is followed by the
programmer to test the unit of the program. It helps developers to know
whether the individual unit of the code is working properly or not.
Integration testing: It focuses on the construction and design of the software.
You need to see that the integrated units are working without errors or not.
System testing: In this method, your software is compiled as a whole and then
tested as a whole. This testing strategy checks the functionality, security,
portability, amongst others.
Program Testing
Program Testing in software testing is a method of executing an actual
software program with the aim of testing program behavior and finding
errors. The software program is executed with test case data to analyse the
program behavior or response to the test data. A good program testing is one
which has high chances of finding bugs.