Key takeaways
- Software testing ensures that applications meet user expectations, quality standards, and business goals.
- Both functional testing and non-functional testing are important for software testing, validating how the software works and performs.
- Early and continuous testing reduces risks, costs, and production failures.
- A balanced mix of manual and automated testing delivers optimal results.
- Modern test automation tools like Zoho QEngine help teams scale testing efficiently.
Introduction
From buying groceries to healthcare to banking transactions, we depend on a myriad of applications today, and a minor bug in any of these applications can cause reputational damage, revenue loss, or, in the worst cases, property damage or injury. So how are software development companies keeping up with the demand for cutting-edge applications? How are they ensuring the release of bug-free apps or updates that meet user expectations? That's where software testing comes in.
Software testing plays a critical role in the software development lifecycle, identifying bugs, improving quality, and delivering reliable applications to end users. In this article, let's delve in to the basics of software testing, key testing concepts, and the importance of testing in software engineering.
What is software testing?
Software testing is a process that evaluates software or an application for errors, bugs, integration issues, and more. It also helps determine whether the developed application meets business goals and aligns with end-user requirements. The software testing process involves either testing each component manually or using a test automation tool to identify bugs, missing features, or compatibility issues with existing functionality. Along with finding bugs, software testing also ensures the application is stable, reliable, secure, and user-friendly.
Software testing basics
Software testing ensures you're building a product that offers a smooth and seamless user experience across all platforms, including your mobile or web applications. Why is it important to test your product before release and global adoption?
Imagine launching a long-awaited feature in your app only for the user to abandon it within minutes. It could be because buttons don't work, search is showing an error, or pages load slowly. Poor software quality increases user frustration and impacts the overall business.
Software testing usually validates three main areas:
Functionality
Does the software align with the business requirements or user expectations?
Performance
Does it perform well under various conditions, such as heavy traffic or across different devices?
Usability & security
Is it easy to use for the end user, and is it secure?
Testing is a continuous activity that evolves with changes in software and the project's scale.
Why is testing in software engineering essential?
A 2022 report by CISQ found that poor-quality software costs the US economy almost $2.4 billion. Whether it's an outage of top ecommerce sites during a major sale, a trading software bug during a market peak, or fatal aircraft crashes due to inadequate software validation, these incidents underscore the importance of software testing before an update or launch.
Here are some key reasons that make testing a critical phase in software development:
- Finds and fixes defects early, preventing costly failures.
- Ensures product functionality meets user expectations.
- Detects vulnerabilities at an early stage and enhances security.
- Reduces downtime and software crashes.
- Detects compatibility with various devices, operating systems, or platforms.
- Helps boost customer expectation and engagement.
How software testing works
Before the launch of an ecommerce sale, a tester will validate:
- Product searches and the checkout process.
- Pricing, discount coupon application, and payment gateway integration.
- Order confirmation, cancellation, and refunds.
- Delivery and order tracking.
- Load testing and reliability during a high-traffic event, such as a holiday sale.
All this ensures customers can access reliable applications with accurate pricing calculations and a perfect process flow, resulting in seamless customer purchase experience and healthy revenue.
Types of testing: Manual vs. automation
Software testers primarily rely on two approaches: manual testing and automated testing. Understanding the difference between manual and automation testing methods is important for quality software delivery.
Manual testing
Manual testing is a method in which testers manually search for defects, bugs, or other issues in software. It's great for exploratory testing, ad-hoc testing, UI or UX testing, or small projects. This method of software testing is hard to scale, prone to human error, and time-consuming.
Test automation
Test automation uses software testing tools to write and execute test scripts. Test automation is fast, accurate, and scalable for projects of all sizes. Automated testing tools are excellent for regression testing, performance testing, load testing, and more.
Companies often use a project-centric approach when deciding which software testing method to use.
Software testing techniques
Depending on the testing approach, specific test design methods, and testing levels in the software development life cycle, software testing techniques are categorized into black-box, gray-box, and white-box testing.
Black-box testing
The tester validates the system without knowledge of its internal code or structure. The tester focuses solely on the inputs and outputs as defined by the requirements.
White-box testing
The tester has knowledge of the internal code, its structure, and design, and uses this information to design the tests for the specific requirements.
Gray-box testing
The tester has partial knowledge of the software, its internal structure, and the data, making it a combination of black-box testing and white-box testing.
Types of software testing
Today's app development landscape is evolving rapidly, shaped by continuous testing in CI/CD pipelines, AI-powered automation, and emerging software testing trends.
Software testing is broadly categorized into functional testing and non-functional testing.
Functional testing verifies whether the application aligns with business expectations. It basically checks whether the software is doing what it's supposed to do.
There are various types of functional testing:
Unit testing
This checks whether individual components are functioning correctly.
Integration testing
This type of testing checks whether various modules or components work well together.
System testing
This checks the system as a whole to verify if it meets all required business expectations.
Acceptance testing
This type of software testing happens in a real-world environment to ensure it meets user needs.
Regression testing
This checks if existing functionality is affected by new code changes, bug fixes, or feature updates.
Smoke testing
This checks the stability of the software's basic and critical functionality.
Sanity testing
This checks the specific, immediate functionality of the software after changes or minor bug fixes.
Non-functional testing, on the other hand, checks for the performance, security, reliability, and scalability of the system. It focuses on how the system works in every condition.
Non-functional testing includes:
Performance testing
This evaluates how fast a system responds and its stability.
Load testing
This checks performance against user loads.
Stress testing
This checks how the system performs under heavy load or high volume.
Security testing
This checks for vulnerabilities, data protection, and more.
Usability testing
This checks for the user-friendliness of the UX and its ease of use.
Compatibility testing
This checks for cross-environment compatibility.
Scalability testing
This validates how a system can scale according to business growth.
Software testing life cycle
Software testing is an integral part of the software development lifecycle. The software testing process includes:
Analysis of requirements:
It's essential to understand the scope of testing and business requirements, and identify the right scenarios to test.Test planning:
This step includes defining the scope of testing, testing strategy, testing tools, resources needed, and project timelines.Test case creation:
This involves writing and creating test cases for various scenarios based on the requirement and and test data is prepared for execution.Test environment:
The required hardware, software, tools, browsers, and configurations are set up to mirror the production environment.Test execution:
This step includes running the test cases, collecting analytics, and logging any errors or bugs.Defect reporting & tracking:
Reported defects are tracked, fixed, and retested to ensure they are resolved correctly.Test closure:
Testing activities are concluded, reports are prepared, and lessons learned are documented to improve future releases.Benefits of software testing
Software testing is crucial to ensure that defect-free, high-performing, and easy-to-use software is released to end users. Here are some benefits of testing in software engineering:
- Early defect detection reduces repair costs significantly.
- Proactive testing improves product quality and reliability.
- Bug-free software boosts user satisfaction and retention.
- Early testing minimizes risk, losses, and brand damage.
- Accelerates releases and shortens time to market.
- Ensures stronger security and compliance readiness.
Best practices in software testing
As we now understand the fundamentals of software testing and why we require it, we should also ensure it's effective. Here are some best practices to keep in mind:
- Introduce software testing early on in the project lifecycle.
- Employ the right testing tools for your project size and complexity.
- Focus on high-risk areas and functionality critical to the application.
- Engage in test automation, especially with repetitive tasks.
- Maintain proper analytics, learning outcomes, and documentation.
- Integrate testing into the existing DevOps environment or CI/CD pipelines.
- Review, catch bugs early, fix them, and retest.
- Ensure there's wide test coverage with various environments.
- Involve testing with actual users in real-world scenarios.
- Encourage open and transparent communication between teams.
What's the best approach to software testing?
The best approach or strategy for software testing depends on factors like:
- Project size and complexity.
- Project budget and timelines.
- Release frequency of features or updates.
- Coding skill or knowledge level across teams.
Introducing testing early in the project development phase, ensuring the use of manual and automated testing as needed, and focusing on risk-based prioritization helps develop the best software testing strategy for your organization.
How to choose a software testing tool
An automated testing tool helps organizations speed up software testing and improve its accuracy. While there's no one-size-fits-all solution, the best test automation tool for a company depends on the project needs, team capabilities, budget, and goals. Here’s what you need to look at when trying to get the right software testing tool for your organization:
- The right automated testing tool should align with your testing needs and scope, as well as the types of testing you wish to perform.
- It should be easy to use and should have a short learning curve.
- Ideally, it should cater to testers of all coding skill levels.
- It should have a scalable infrastructure, such as a cloud-based one.
- It should include easy test management and broken test locators using modern technologies like artificial intelligence.
- It should easily integrate with your existing automation software and DevOps tools, such as GitHub or Jenkins.
- It should have a comprehensive and robust analytics and reporting dashboard.
- It should fit in your budget and align with your technical and business goals.
Why Zoho QEngine is the go-to software testing tool
Zoho QEngine is a comprehensive test automation tool that caters to users of all technical levels and manages the entire software testing lifecycle for web, mobile, and API applications. Here’s why it should be your choice of software testing tool:
- Versatile test creation for testers of all coding levels with its low-code, no-code, and pro-code test case creation.
- Smart test maintenance with AI-powered self-healing and manual test creation.
- Wide test coverage through cross-platform testing across various operating systems, browsers, and devices.
- Faster feedback loops through seamless integration with existing CI/CD and project management tools.
- Detailed analytics and reporting.
- Cloud-based infrastructure, so it's agile and scalable.
Conclusion
Software testing is the backbone of the software development lifecycle. An effective software testing strategy and a strong test automation tool that aligns with project goals ensures faster release of reliable, scalable, user-friendly, and high-performing applications. Software testing improves software quality and user retention while accelerating delivery in today’s fast-paced digital environment.