Software testing is one of the most essential phases of the software development life cycle. Software testing is a method that enables businesses and developers to test their digital products before they are deployed.
Every professional and developer in the IT sector needs to have a strong understanding of testing. We will learn about the various kinds of software testing utilized in the technology sector in this article.
Table of Contents
- What is software testing
- Categories of software testing
- Manual testing
- Automatic testing
- Conclusion
What is Software Testing?
Software testing is a process in which the software/products are checked with the help of various software testing tools. Testing involves checking whether the product meets the requirements, criteria, and specifications.
With the help of testing, companies can identify the bugs in their product before it is published and is available for users. Testing is not only limited to the deployment phase. Requirement analysis, design analysis, running, and testing by the developer are also called testing. You can become a skilled software tester by opting for a software testing course that will help you enhance your software testing skills. A lot of software testing courses are available online so you can learn them from the comfort of your home.
According to ANSI/IEEE standards, testing is defined as the process of analyzing a software component to detect the differences between the existing and required product to evaluate the features of the software item.
Many IT companies hire professionals for the roles like software tester, quality assurance engineer, quality assurance analyst, etc. to run a smooth developer experience.
Categories of Software Testing
Many tools help in the testing of a product. These testing tools greatly increase the efficiency of the tester by automating testing tasks. Software testing can be mainly classified into two categories.
- Manual Testing – The tester manually checks the entire product by validating on his own using test cases and test situations.
- Automatic Testing – Automatic testing uses automation testing tools to validate, and cross-check the products for errors and bugs.
Manual Testing
Software that has been manually tested, without the use of any pre-existing software testing tool or script. In this process, the tester simulates an end user and evaluates the software to find any bugs or unlikely behavior. There are multiple stages for manual testing.
To guarantee that software testing is efficient as testers utilize manual testing techniques like using test cases to test software on their own.
- Unit Testing
Unit testing is an example of manual testing in which the testing is performed by the developer before the product is delivered to the testing team for full-fledged testing. In unit testing, the entire codebase of the project is divided into small pieces and tested individually.
- Integration Testing
- Integration testing is another step in the manual testing process. Integration testing is done by testing more than one part of the product at a time by following Bottom integration or Top-down integration
- In bottom-up integration testing, individual units of the product are taken with low-level units. The testing is further continued with higher-level combinations of units which are tested later.
- Similarly, Top-down testing follows testing with the vice versa approach.
- System Testing
System testing examines the entire system. The application as a whole is carefully tested to ensure that it complies with the established quality standards after all of the components have been merged. A specialist testing team conducts this kind of testing.
- The application is rigorously tested to ensure that it satisfies the functional and technical requirements.
- The application is tested in a setting that closely resembles the one used in production and then application deployment is planned.
- User Acceptance Testing
- User acceptance testing is very important because it is carried out by the QA team, which will determine whether the application satisfies the client’s requirements.
- The user acceptance testing will determine whether the product is ready for deployment in the real world because, in this testing, the final tests on the project will be done to check the standards of the project.
Automatic Testing
Automatic testing involves using tools to automate repetitive tasks which are involved in the process of testing before the product is finally set for production using scripting tools.
Automated testing greatly enhances efficiency, accuracy, better reports, and analysis, reduces errors, helps in bug detection, and reduces the manual work and requirements for the tester. Automatic testing makes developers concentrate more on adding and developing the features into the product rather than focusing on bugs, errors, etc.
A bunch of open-source tools are available for the developers and testers which comes in handy to developers as well as testers to automate the testing process. Some examples are Selenium, Rybotium, etc.
Conclusion
The software testing process ensures the product is securely built & the project is free from errors, bugs, development issues, incomplete features, etc. The automatic tools of software testing will greatly enhance the developer’s experience and productivity. It’s worth investing time into learning these automation tools, and scripts and learning the software testing techniques to become a more efficient software developer.
