What Is Software Testing?
Software Testing is the process of identifying bugs in the software and evaluating whether it meets the business requirement specifications. It is a continuous process referred to as the software testing life cycle (STLC) which runs alongside the software development life cycle (SDLC). Besides delivering bug-free software, it helps to improve the overall functionality and usability of software applications.
Manual vs. Automated Testing
Based on how you approach (the process) software testing, the testing types can be classified as – manual testing and automated testing.
Manual Testing
It is the traditional and widely practiced method of testing software. It involves human testers who execute test cases by interacting with the software's user interface (UI) and verifying its behavior.
It is suitable for Human expertise , Early testing , Usability testing , Ad-hoc and exploratory testing , where human judgment and flexibility are crucial for projects with frequent changes.
Automated Testing
It involves using tools and scripts to execute test cases automatically. Here, testers write test scripts that can be run by testing tools in a repeatable and consistent manner.automated testing ideally for repetitive tasks and large test suites.
It is ideal for regression, load, and performance testing, providing faster and more efficient execution, and is suitable for projects with stable requirements and large test suites.
It is suitable for Speed and Efficiency , Repeatability and Consistency , Scalability , Reporting and Logging and Test Coverage.
Functional Testing
Functional Testing verifies each function of an application or software. The tester verifies functionality with a specified set of requirements. So the source code of a software or an application doesn’t play a major role in this case. Testing the behavior of the software is the main concern.
The different types of functional testing include:
- Unit testing : In unit testing, the tester checks individual software components. The aim is to test whether the components behave according to the requirements.
- Integration testing. : Integration testing deals with testing individual components or modules after they are combined in a group.
- System testing : Here, the tester executes test cases for verifying the compliance of integrated and completed software along with specifications.
- Sanity testing : This tests logical reasoning related to the working of the program.
- Smoke testing : Smoke testing tests simple and basic functionalities, such as if the user is able to log in or log out.
- Interface testing : These tests check whether the communication between two software systems is correctly carried out.
- Regression testing : This is probably one of the most important testing phases. Here, the old test cases of the entire application are executed after a new functionality has been implemented.
- Beta/acceptance testing : Here, the intended users try the product and report bugs.
Non-Functional Testing
Non-functional testing considers parameters such as reliability, usability, and performance. A non-functional test might be checking how many users can log in to the system at the same time.
Non-functional testing types include:
- Performance testing : The performance or speed of the application is tested under the required workload.
- Load testing : This tests an application’s behavior under a huge workload. So, if you’re testing a website, load testing checks the site’s functionality and performance under high traffic.
- Stress testing : Stress testing determines software robustness by assessing whether it’s working beyond regular operation.
- Volume testing : This tests the performance of the system by loading the database to an increased volume of data.
- Security testing : Here, test cases are executed to check whether the system is safeguarded against sudden or deliberate attacks from internal and external sources.
- Compatibility testing : Test cases are executed to check whether the application is compatible with varying environments. For example, if you’re testing a web application, compatibility testing deals with how the website works on different browsers or devices.
- Install testing : These tests check if a product works according to expectations after installation.
- Recovery testing : Here, testers determine an application’s capacity to recover from hardware crashes and failures.
- Reliability testing : This procedure checks where an application can perform a particular task without failure within a specific timeframe. For example, suppose you’re testing a cryptocurrency mining application. The scenario where the application can mine continuously for eight hours without crashing might be something you look for during reliability testing.
- Usability testing : Usability testing explores the end-user’s ease of use in terms of learning, operating, and preparing inputs and outputs.
- Compliance testing : This determines the system’s compliance with external and internal standards.
- Localization testing : Here, testers check the behavior of a product according to local or cultural settings and environment.
