What do you infer from Software Testing?

Software Testing is a method for figuring out whether the real piece of software meets requirements and is accurate with no errors involved. It involves running software or system components manually or automatically in order to assess one or more intriguing qualities. The goal is to find flaws, gaps, or unmet requirements compared to the requirements as written.

Why do we even need to test software?

Testing is important because bugs in software can be costly and even dangerous. Software bugs have the potential to cause financial and human loss, and history is replete with such examples.

In April 2015, the Bloomberg terminal in London crashed due to a software bug, affecting over 300,000 traders in financial markets and forcing the government to delay a £ 3 billion debt sale. Nissan cars recalled more than a million cars from the market due to a software bug in the airbag sensor detectors. Two crashes have been reported due to this software error. Starbucks was forced to close about 60% of its stores in the United States and Canada due to a software glitch in its point-of-sale system. On one occasion, the store served free coffee because the transaction could not be processed. In 2015, the F-35 fighter plane fell victim to a software bug that prevented it from detecting targets correctly. China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed on April 26, 1994, due to a software error killing 264 innocents alive in 1985. In May 1996, a software error caused $ 920 million to be credited to the bank accounts of 823 customers of a large US bank.

What are Some benefits of Testing Software?

Here are the benefits of using software testing:

1.)Affordable:  This is one of the most important advantages of software testing. Timely testing of IT projects will help save you money in the long run. If bugs are discovered earlier in software testing, they cost less to fix.

2.)Security: This is the most vulnerable and sensitive advantage of software testing. People are looking for reliable products. This helps eliminate risks and problems earlier.

3.) Product quality: Any software product must meet this requirement. Testing makes sure that clients receive a high-quality product.

4.) Customer satisfaction: Any product’s primary goal is to please its customers. The optimal user experience is ensured by UI/UX testing.

Types of software tests

Software tests are generally classified into two main categories: functional tests and non-functional tests. There is also another common type of test called a maintenance test.

Functional tests

Testing a software application’s functionality is known as functional testing. When performing functional testing, each functionality must be tested. You have to see if you get the desired results or not.

There are different types of functional tests, such as:

• Unit testing
• Integration testing   
• End-to-end testing    
• Smoke testing   
• Health testing 
• Regression testing  
• Admission testing   
• White box testing  
• Black box testing
• Interface testing

Functional testing is performed both manually and with automation tools. Manual testing is easy for this type of testing, but you should use tools when needed.

Some tools you can use for functional testing are Micro Focus UFT (formerly known as QTP, and UFT stands for Unified Functional Testing), Selenium, JUnit, soapUI, Watir, etc.

Non-functional testing

Non-functional testing tests non-functional aspects of an application, such as Performance, reliability, usability, security, etc. Non-functional tests are performed after functional tests.

With non-functional testing, you can significantly improve the quality of your software. Functional testing also improves quality, but non-functional testing gives you the opportunity to further improve your software. Non-functional testing is used to improve the software. This type of testing is not about whether the software works or not. Rather, it is about how the software works and many other things.

Non-functional tests are generally not performed manually. It is even difficult to perform these types of tests manually. So these tests are usually performed using tools. There are different types of non-functional tests, such as:

• Performance testing
• Security testing
• Load testing
• Failover testing
• Compatibility testing
• Usability testing
• Scalability testing
• Volume testing
• Stress testing
• Maintainability testing
• Compliance testing
• Efficiency testing
• Reliability testing
• Endurance testing
• Disaster recovery testing
• Localization testing
• Internationalization testing

Obviously, explaining all the types of software testing is beyond the scope of this blog hence this blog discusses some of the most common types of software testing.

1. Unit testing

Testing each component or module of your software project is called unit testing. Programming skills are required to perform this type of test. So only programmers do this type of test, not testers.You have to run a lot of unit tests because you have to test every unit of code in your project.

2. Integration testing

You must test the merged modules to determine if they function as a unit after integration.

This type of test is known as an integration test. You should do less integration testing than unit testing.Some good tools for unit and integration testing are Jasmine, Mocha, etc.

3. End-to-end testing

Functional testing of the entire software system is known as end-to-end testing.If you are testing the entire software system, these tests are called end-to-end testing. You should perform less end-to-end testing than integration testing. Cucumber, Protractor, Jasmine, Karma, SpecFlow, etc. are great end-to-end testing tools.

4. User interface testing

UI testing is testing the user interface of the application. The purpose of user interface testing is to verify that user interfaces have been developed as described in the requirements specification document.

By running UI tests, you can make application user interfaces more user-friendly and visually appealing. Some great tools for testing automated user interfaces are Monkey Test for Android, Saucelabs, and Protractor.

5. Accessibility testing

Testing whether or not your software is accessible to people with disabilities is called accessibility testing. For these types of tests, you need to verify that disabled people, such as color blind, blind and deaf, can use your application. To make your software accessible to color-blind people, you need to make the right color and contrast choices.

6. Alpha test

The alpha test is a type of test to look for all errors and problems in the entire software. This type of testing is performed in the final stage of app development and is performed at the developer site, prior to a product launch or before delivery to the customer to ensure that the user/customer receives an error-free software application. The alpha test is done before the beta test, which means you should run the beta test after you have run the alpha test.

The alpha test is not performed in the real environment. Instead, this type of testing is performed by creating a virtual environment that looks like a real one.

7. Beta test

As mentioned above, the beta test takes place after the alpha test. Beta testing is done before the product launch. It is conducted in a real user environment by a limited number of customers or real users to ensure that the software is completely bug-free and works properly. After collecting feedback and constructive criticism from these users, some changes are made to improve the software. Therefore, when software is in beta testing, it is referred to as beta software. Once these tests are completed, the software will be released to the public. 

8. Backward Compatibility Test

Backward compatibility testing is performed to test whether a new or updated version of an application is compatible with previous versions of the environments (e.g. operating systems and web browsers) on which the software runs . Sometimes an app is specially updated to match the standard and style of a newer, more modern environment. In this case, backward compatibility support is required.

Backward compatibility testing ensures that anyone using older versions of a given environment can use your software. 

9. Browser Compatibility Test

As the name suggests, the browser compatibility test checks the compatibility of a web application with the browser. Specifically, it is tested whether the web application can be accessed without any problems from all versions of popular web browsers.It is a specific form of compatibility test, while compatibility tests check general compatibility.

Some popular tools to check browser compatibility are CrossBrowserTesting.com, LamdaTest, Browsershots, Experitest, Turbo Browser Sandbox, Ranorex Studio, Browser, etc. 

10. Performance tests

Performance tests are performed to check whether the performance of the software is good or not. There are performance testing tools that analyze your application’s performance and show you performance issues. By fixing these issues, you can increase the performance of your software application. Some excellent performance testing tools also known as load testing tools for web applications are LoadView, LoadNinja, WebLOAD, NeoLoad, Appvance, LoadRunner, Apache JMeter, Testing Anywhere,, Rational Performance Tester, LoadComplete,  Loadster, LoadImpact, etc. 

11. Stress test

Load testing is a type of performance test that tests how much load a system can sustain before software performance begins to degrade. By running stress tests, we can determine the capability of a system.

You can load tests using tools like LoadRunner, WebLoad, JMeter, etc.

12. Regression test

If you need to make changes to a component, module or function, you must verify that the whole system will work correctly after these changes. Testing the whole system after such changes is called regression testing.

13. Agile tests

The agile test, performed by the QA team, is a type of test performed according to the rules of the agile methodology. This type of testing is done from the perspective of the actual customer.

Some useful tools you can use for Agile testing are JIRA, PractiTest, JunoOne, VersionOne, TestRail, SoapUI, etc.

14. Black box test

Black box testing, performed by a company’s quality control team, is a testing technique where the functionality of the application is checked without any technical knowledge of the application, such as knowledge of the logic of the code, of how it works the code, knowledge of the internal structure, etc.

15. White box test

White box testing, performed by the development team, is a testing method that requires an understanding of the application code. It requires a great knowledge of the internal logic of the app.

16. Scalability testing

Scalability tests check whether the software is scalable or not. In other words, it verifies that your application performs well when the number of users, the amount of data, or the number of transactions increases significantly. A non-scalable software application can lead to huge business losses.

17. Background check

Reliability testing is a type of software testing that checks whether the software is reliable or not. In other words, it is checked whether the software works properly and whether you can rely on it. For example, if a user’s important information stored in the software database is suddenly deleted after a few months due to a bug in the code, the software can be said to be unreliable.

18. Acceptance Test

The customer purchasing the software performs the acceptance test (also known as the user acceptance test) to check whether the software can be accepted or not by verifying that the software meets all the customer’s requirements and preferences. If your software doesn’t meet all requirements, or if your client doesn’t like something in the app, they may ask you to make changes before accepting the design.

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