From tracking your products across continents to systems that manage movements of automated vehicles in a manufacturing unit, the software has become essential. Due to the increased reliance of businesses on software-based functionality, the need for software solutions has become more evident.
However, no company would like to roll out an untested product. So, they need software testing to ensure that they have the right product in the market. Software testing is a process that allows the determination of a software’s performance and functionality. Organizations look to test their software on different aspects like functionality, user experience, reliability, security, and others.
While some companies prefer manual testing, others look towards automation. For example, Adobe’s Lifevyre program under AEM (Adobe Experience Manager)leveraged software testing automation powered by Nightwatch.js with a selenium instance. The result was a successful platform for brands to add content to their websites and social media accounts to create a cohesive content strategy.
Similarly, organizations can leverage software testing to ensure that their products perform as expected and improve user experience. Here we will discuss the top reasons you have a comprehensive software testing system for your business. But, first, let’s start with software testing fundamentals.
Software Testing: Fundamentals
Software testing has several benefits, like reduced maintenance costs, higher security, and lower development expenses. It is an umbrella of several different types of testing, with each test linked to a specific software attribute.
Types of software testing
There are several types of software testing with different objectives and strategies to understand the product’s performance.
#1. Acceptance testing is a type of test that allows you to determine whether the software is acceptable compared to business requirements and other industry standards. It also has several sub-types: internal acceptance, external and customer acceptance testing(CAT), and user acceptance testing(UAT).
Acceptance testing helps validate business needs that software must fulfill, especially execution of the logic and reducing defects that can affect productivity.
#2. Integration testing is a type of test where several software modules are integrated as a group. For example, there are several software modules in a typical project, each developed by different programmers. The sole purpose of these tests is to determine whether these modules interact properly to execute the custom logic and offer the desired response.
Integration testing helps in the execution of user-based scenarios to test the software response to different user requests. It also helps in identifying the ad-hoc tests that you will need for your software.
#3. Regression testing is a type of testing that helps verify the changes made to your codebase and its impact on your existing software functionality. These code changes can include adding new features, bug fixes, and even updates of existing features.
In layman’s terms, it is a process of re-testing your software for recent changes and comparing it with the existing one to ensure that the performance is as expected. Let’s take the example of regression testing to understand it. Suppose you are to develop software for the client with an initial build that has core features.
You develop an MVP or Minimum Viable Product and conduct regression testing with about 500 test cases. Now you send the build along with test results to the client for feedback. Once everything is fine, you deploy the initial build.
If the client asks to add new features, you will have to execute regression tests again. Here, if you conduct 50 new regression tests, you will also have to run the earlier conducted 500 tests.
#4. Functional testing is a type of testing where each function of a software system is verified by first providing input and then comparing the output with a specific set of parameters. It is often termed as a black box testing practice where it’s not about testing the codebase.
Rather than that, it involves testing APIs, databases, server communications, user interfaces, and other software components for functionality assessments. Some of the essential tests that are included in the functional tests are:
- Mainline tests- For testing of the main functionality
- Basic usability testing- It checks whether the user can navigate through different screens easily
- Ease of access- Checks on the accessibility of the user
- Error identification- Helps in determining error conditions
#5. Unit testing is a type where you can test individual components and elements of a software application. It allows you to understand the efficiency of individual parts that form the system’s response to a user request. There are two approaches for unit testing- manual and automated.
While manual testing needs more time and effort, automated testing is much faster as you can first create a test code to run it automatically.
There are several other types of tests apart from the ones we discussed here, as it differs from business to business for testing requirements. Now let’s discuss some of the significant benefits of software testing for your business.
Top Benefits of Software Testing
There are several benefits to software testing, like reduced costs, higher security, and product quality. This is the reason why software testing is essential for your business.
Product Quality
To understand why software testing has a massive impact on product quality, let’s take an example of Nissan’s software issues. In 2014, Nissan had to recall more than 1 million cars due to a problem with their airbag sensory system.
The system was designed to identify passengers based on the weight in front of the airbags. Unfortunately, due to software issues, airbags were unable to detect weight restricting the deployment of airbags in case of accidents. If the software were tested well, Nissan would not have to face such issues with their products.
Similarly, software testing can help you avoid such scenarios and build trust among customers with high-quality products. Software testing also helps in improving the security of systems and preventing malicious injections through vulnerability detection.
High Security
Businesses have seen a significant increase in cyber attacks in 2020. According to the State of the Software Supply Chain 2020 Report | Download (sonatype.com), there was a 420% increase in the number of cyberattacks on supply chain businesses. Software testing ensures that there are no vulnerabilities that go undetected which can be exposed to cyber-attacks.
For example, with unit testing, you can ensure whether different components of your software have vulnerabilities by customizing the test cases. As a result, software testing helps you with high security and better quality of products and enables cost reduction.
Low Development Costs
Software testing is an essential aspect of the entire software development process. It allows you to reduce development costs through the reduction of errors and expenses on fixing the issues. But, unfortunately, one of the highest costs that software testing can reduce is the amount spent on bugs.
According to a report, the US economy suffers from $60 billion worth of losses annually due to software defects. Software testing can reduce such costs by detecting bugs and providing ample time for developers to fix them before deploying the software.
Conclusion
With the surge in software development worldwide in several markets, the need for testing will be more evident. Software testing is not just about ensuring the performance of your product but also about checking on the security aspects. However, what types of software testing you need for your products will depend on specific business requirements. So, it is essential to assess your systems and then devise a software testing plan.
Conduct software testing. these are mandatory actions after its development. Testing helps you detect, troubleshoot, and improve security. I think that every specialist in this field is obliged to conduct tests.
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