What is Software Testing from Basic

 Software Testing

Software Testing is a process to verify whether the real software product conforms to anticipated requirements and to verify that software product is Defect free. It comprises running software/system components by hand or through automated tools to assess one or more properties of interest. The intent of software testing is to discover errors, gaps or absent requirements in comparison to real requirements.

It is advisable to refer Software testing definition as a White Box and Black Box Testing. Simply, Software Testing refers to the Verification of Application Under Test (AUT). This Software Testing course provides introduction to testing software to the reader and proves the need for software testing.

Why Software Testing is Important?

Software Testing is Significant because if there are some bugs and errors in the software, these can be determined early on and can be rectified prior to the delivery of the software product. Well tested software product provides dependability, security and superior performance which in turn leads to time saving, cost savings and customer satisfaction.

What is the requirement of Testing?

Testing is necessary because software bugs may be costly or even hazardous. Software bugs have the potential to lead to monetary and human loss, and history is replete with such instances.

In April 2015, Bloomberg terminal in London crashed due to software glitch impacted over 300,000 traders on financial markets. It compelled the government to delay a 3bn pound debt sale.

Nissan recalled more than 1 million cars from the market because of software malfunction in airbag sensory sensors. Two accidents have been reported because of this software malfunction.

Starbucks had to close around 60 percent of locations in America and Canada because of software failure in its point-of-sale  system. The store was, at one time, forced to offer coffee for free since they could not complete the transaction.

Amazon's third-party sellers lost their product price, which was cut to 1p as a result of software glitch. They incurred heavy losses.

Windows 10 vulnerability. The bug allows users to break out of security sandboxes by exploiting the win32k system flaw.

In 2015 fighter jet F-35 became a victim of a software bug and was rendered incapable of detecting targets properly.

China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed because of a software bug on April 26, 1994, and killed 264 innocents live

Canada's Therac-25 radiation therapy machine went wrong in 1985 because of software bug and gave patients lethal doses of radiation, killing 3 people and seriously injuring 3 others

In April 1999, a $1.2 billion military satellite launch collapsed because of a software bug, the most expensive mishap in history

In May of 1996, a programming error resulted in the bank accounts of 823 customers of one of the large U.S. banks being debited with 920 million US dollars.

What are the advantages of Software Testing?

Following are the advantages of software testing:

Cost-Effective: It is one of the significant benefits of software testing. Testing any IT project within time saves your money for the long run. If in case the bugs trapped in the initial stage of software testing, it is cheaper to repair.

Security: It is the most sensitive and vulnerable advantage of software testing. Individuals are seeking reliable products. It assists in eliminating risks and issues at an early stage.

Product quality: It is a basic necessity of any software product. Testing guarantees a quality product to the customers.

Customer Satisfaction: The primary objective of any product is to provide satisfaction to their customers. UI/UX Testing provides the best user experience.

Testing in Software Engineering

According to ANSI/IEEE 1059, Testing in Software Engineering is a method of testing a software product to determine if the existing software product satisfies the specified conditions or not. The testing process is all about analyzing the characteristics of the software product against requirements in terms of missing requirements, bugs or errors, security, reliability and performance.

Types of Software Testing

Following are the types of software testing:

Generally Testing comes in three types. 

Functional Testing

Non-Functional Testing or Performance Testing

Maintenance (Regression and Maintenance)

Testing Category	Types of Testing
Functional Testing	Unit Testing Integration Testing Smoke UAT ( User Acceptance Testing) Localization Globalization Interoperability So on
Non-Functional Testing	Performance Endurance Load Volume Scalability Usability So on
Maintenance	Regression Maintenance

Testing Strategies in Software Engineering

Following are key strategies in software engineering:

Unit Testing: This basic technique of software testing is adopted by the programmer to execute the unit of the program. It assists developers in understanding whether the individual unit of the code is executing appropriately or not.

Integration testing: It emphasizes the design and build of the software. You have to view that the units integrated are error-free or not.

System testing: Under this technique, your software is compiled as a unit and afterwards tested as a unit. This testing approach verifies the functionality, security, portability, among others.

Program Testing-

Program Testing in software testing is a process of running an actual software program with the objective of testing program behavior and detecting errors. The software program is run with test case data to examine the program behavior or reaction to the test data. A good program testing is one which has high possibilities of detecting bugs.

Summary of Software Testing Basics

Define Software Testing/Software Testing Definition: Software testing is an activity to verify if actual results are in accordance with expected results and confirm that the software system is Defect free.

Testing is necessary because software bugs may be costly or even harmful.

The key reasons why software testing should be used are: cost-effective, security, product quality, and customer satisfaction.

Generally Testing is of three types functional testing, non-functional testing or performance testing, and maintenance.

The key strategies in software engineering are: unit testing, integration testing, validation testing, and system testing.