Did you know that you cannot make software 100% bug-free? The goal of software testing is to identify and eliminate as many bugs as possible. However, it is impossible to identify them all.
There are many different software testing types and approaches to testing software, which is sometimes referred to as Software QA (Quality Assurance). Each kind of testing has distinct features, advantages, and disadvantages.
While this post will not cover all types of software testing, it will focus on the most prevalent. Let’s take a look.
Software Testing Types
Why Choose QualityLogic for Outsourced QA? It will be the safest option. You will have concerns about the exhaustive list of available software testing methods and services as a business.
Understanding Functional Testing
This testing method ignores the internal components and only checks the output to see whether it meets the requirements. These are the tests that confirm the software does what it’s developed to do.
There are two common methods for performing functionality testing:
- Testing based on requirements contains all the functional specifications used to conduct all of the tests
- Testing based on business scenarios has information on how the system is viewed from a business process standpoint
Functional testing divides into several categories, each of which can be used depending on the situation. Here a few.
Unit Testing
Developers often carry out unit testing. They create various code units that may or may not relate to achieving specific functionality. This usually requires building unit tests.
These units call each unit’s methods and validate them when you give the proper parameters, and the return result is as expected.
Integration Testing
Integration testing is used to validate end-to-end software scenarios. These scenarios depend on many functional modules that operate separately but must work together to create an end-to-end scenario.
Regression Testing
Testing is important to verify that the addition of new code, improvements, and bug fixes does not damage current functionality nor cause instability. Ideally, it shows that everything still functions as it should.
Regression tests do not need to be as comprehensive as functional tests. Instead, they should provide just enough coverage to verify that the functionality is reliable.
Beta or Pre-release Testing
In a production-like environment, you expose the software to real customers who test the product. You use this to determine the user’s comfort level, and feedback is obtained. User acceptance testing is a good example of this.
Functional or behavioral testing produces an output based on the supplied inputs. It then evaluates if the system is operating as intended.
Non-Functional Testing Explained
What is non-functional testing? Non-functional software testing includes, amongst other things, the following:
- load testing
- stress testing
- security testing
- volume testing
- recovery testing
NFT testing aims to see if a software or application’s response time is fast enough for the business requirements.
It should not take long for any page or system to load, and it should remain stable during high loads. This sort of testing usually has its own team, known as the non-functional test (NFT) team or, in some cases, the performance team.
Automated Testing
Automation is one of the most important and growing demands in today’s day and age. Nowadays, everyone is looking for anything that would make their work easier or reduce their daily problems. Testing is no different.
Many everyday jobs in manual testing are repetitive and follow the same procedure. Such jobs can easily be identified by a QA and automated using off-the-shelf tools or even macros.
Automation can assist by:
- Reducing the amount of time spent on manual labor
- Inspiring the QA team to learn and adapt to logical thinking and technical upskilling
A QA team may repurpose automated test scripts to guarantee that each check is performed consistently. Also, automated testing enables a team to identify problems during the early phases of development quickly. That may result in reduced total project time and expense.
What Is Agile Testing?
Agile testing is a kind of testing that adheres to agile software development’s rules and concepts. Unlike the Waterfall approach, Agile Testing may begin right at the start of a project, with development and testing working in tandem.
The agile testing approach is not sequential. It is not sequential in the sense that it’s carried out only after completing the development process. But it is rather continuous and iterative by nature.
The Importance of Security Testing
You use a specialized team of testers in this type of testing.
Security testing examines how safe software, applications, and websites are. That is from both internal and external threats. This testing entails determining how safe software is against harmful programs and viruses and the security and strength of the authorization and authentication methods.
Vulnerability testing involves discovering flaws in software, hardware, and networks. If the system is subject to such attacks, viruses, and worms, a hacker can control the system using malicious applications.
As a result, it is vital to verify whether those systems have undergone vulnerability testing before production. It may be able to detect serious faults in the security system.
It also examines how the software reacts in the event of a hacker attack or malicious application. Also, how software is maintained for data security following such an incident.
Stress and Load Testing
When a system is under stress beyond its specifications, you expose failures of a completely different nature. These include turnaround time and performance.
You do this by placing the system under stress, sometimes by simulating a large number of users or sending abnormally high transaction volumes to the software.
The purpose of performance testing is to see if the system meets the performance criteria. This testing is done with a variety of performance and load tools.
Testing Is Best
So, we’ve gone over some of the most frequent types of software testing that are commonly utilized throughout the testing life cycle.
The software testing types discussed in this article are only a subset of testing.
There is still a list of over 100 different forms of testing. However, you do not use all of them in all types of projects. And as the project, requirements, priorities, and scope change, these testing types alter.
The truly massive complexity involved with software testing and QA means it is often-times sensible to partner with experts in testing.
Keep the bugs away, and check out our blog for more informative tips!
