What is software testing?
Software testing is the process of evaluating and verifying that a software product or application does what it is supposed to do. It is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the software product or service under test.
Software testing is a way of assessing the quality of the applications to reduce the risk of software failure in operation. It is an activity which involves controlling the quality of the software and being sure that it matches the software requirements and satisfies consumers.
Who is a software tester?
A software tester is an individual that tests software for bugs, errors, defects or any problem that can affect the performance of computer software or an application. Software testers are part of a software development team and perform functional and non-functional testing of software using manual and automated software testing techniques.
A software tester is responsible for designing test scenarios for software usability, running these tests, and preparing reports on the effectiveness and defects to the production team. A software tester is also known as a software test engineer or a Quality Assurance (QA) Engineer.
Importance of having a software tester while building your project
Sometimes, clients do not know what they want, most times, they do know what they want they just don’t know how to achieve it. In this case, a Refinement session is carried out. A refinement session is a scrum meeting where ideas are clarified so that company or team members can find a solution for problems a customer might or is experiencing.
As a software tester, you can suggest software improvements, but it doesn’t mean It would be taken into account, depending on the value or the huge impact on the software. A software tester is as equally important to the team as a developer.
Testing should start as early as possible to reduce the cost and time to rework and produce error-free software that is delivered to the client. However, in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), testing can start from the Requirements Gathering phase and continue till the deployment of the software.
A tester test manually, report bugs or defects and pass them to the developer to fix, the defect or bug is fixed and the tester carries out regression testing to ensure that previously developed and tested software still performs after a change. Once the update has been fully tested, the software is deployed to the live environment.
Why is software testing important?
Testing helps with the early detection of defects before they get to production environments. This goes a long way in ensuring reliability, securing and high performance of software product development which further results in time-saving, cost-effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Responsibilities of a software tester
Here are some of the responsibilities of a software tester:
A software tester tests products throughout the whole development process and ensures the product meets high-quality standards before releasing it to the public.
A software tester participates in design reviews and provides input on requirements, product design, and potential problems
A software tester prepares reports on all aspects related to the software testing carried out and reports to the design team
A software tester reviews software requirements and prepares test scenarios.
A software tester analyzes test results on database impacts, errors or bugs, and usability.
A software tester executes tests on software usability
A software tester writes bug reports
A software tester designs test to mitigate risk
A software tester carries out stress testing, performance testing, functional testing
A software tester tests and evaluates new and existing programs to identify and help remove bugs, glitches, and other user experience issues
Principles of software testing
7 Principles of testing
Testing shows the presence of defects, not their absences
Exhaustive testing is impossible
Early testing saves time and money
Defects cluster together
Beware of the pesticide paradox
Testing is context dependent
The absence of errors is a failure
Conclusion
Many companies underestimate software testing which causes them a lot of damage. All team is responsible for the quality of the software, the main goal of the team is to deliver high-quality products, efficiency and in a short time.
The test process starts much earlier in the project with activities such as test planning and reviewing documents particularly specifications and source code. Other activities occur before test execution including identifying test conditions, designing test cases, and implementing test procedures.
Many other test activities occur after test execution including reporting test failures, reporting test progress and evaluating exit criteria.