What Is Software Testing, Life Cycle & Bug Tracking?
The software development life-cycle contains a series of steps, including testing. The testing phase of software development includes system validation, user acceptance testing, and test case review and approval. Design mistakes comprise the majority of bugs found in software. When found, bugs move through additional development and testing phases.
Other People Are Reading
-
Purpose
-
Ensuring that the product or application meets the needs of the user with minimal problems is the purpose of software testing. Software testing, also called quality assurance, maintains congruity with the original business requirement and design specifications. Software testers also validate the software to ensure a lack of design flaws or development errors. This form of testing guarantees the software works in different circumstances. Software designers outline these circumstances during the design phase in the form of use cases and test cases.
Bugs
-
Software development generates bugs. Problems in the requirements document or the existence of development errors both contribute to bugs within software. When a tester finds a bug, he logs a defect, which a developer corrects. The bug then goes through another phase of testing. Bugs can cost companies money if not caught during software development. Testers or developers find bugs. Companies often utilize bug-seeking software to communicate bugs to the testers and developers working on them. This software often identifies not only the bug but also the functional component the bug affects.
-
Methods
-
Validation testing of the requirements uses the original specifications to test the functionality of the product. Testers conduct this form of testing by comparing the software to a requirements document. Testers enter actions into software to mimic the specification and validate the result of the action. Testers create test cases to conduct a different method of software testing. The test cases contain scenarios for the tester to use when validating the software. Another method, which tests how well the software performs under different levels of usage or data loading, provides testers with an overview of how well the software will perform for various users.
Automation
-
When companies experience a shortage of testers, some implement an automation process. This process reduces test time and labor requirements. Automation processes can generate testing scripts through analyzing the software requirements documentation. Due to the need for information gathering, software automation still requires a live tester to operate properly. Each automation test contains multiple test scripts for different components within the software. The automation program communicates bugs or defects found during the automation process.
User Acceptance Testing
-
When developing software for a set of users, companies utilize user acceptance testing. This form of testing allows users to test the software's functionality. This testing process allows users to identify bugs and communicate them to the development team or a software product manager. The product manager usually outlines the testing process for the users that serves as instructions during the testing phase. If bugs exists, the development team corrects the bugs and notifies the users who reported them to the product manager. The notification completes the user acceptance testing cycle.
-
References
- Photo Credit finger pressing esc key image by sheldon gardner from Fotolia.com
