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Testing Types in Software Testing
Testing Types in Software Testing

Testing Types in Software Testing

Published On: January 12, 2023

Types of Software Testing : All You Need to Know About Testing Types

Just finishing a software project isn’t good enough; testing is also required. But why is it important to test software?  Validating the correct operation of the software and its conformance to the documented criteria are key to software testing. Software testing’s primary objectives are defect resolution and enhancement of the software’s functionality, usability, and safety. Excellent software that consistently delights its users is the result of extensive testing.

Is software testing, however, necessary? But what if we don’t take action?

These days, software programs may be found just about anywhere: in clinics, on the roads, in stores, at businesses, etc. Consequently, it is risky to perform no testing on the software at all. It’s risky since it has the potential to lead to devastating consequences, including security breaches, financial losses, and even fatalities. If an app is shipped or released without proper testing, it could have a number of issues for users. The role of software testers is gaining emphasis owing to its prime role. Become a superior software tester, enroll in Softlogic’s software testing course in Chennai.

Software Testing Types

Functional testing and non-functional testing are two major kinds of software testing. Maintenance testing is a second, broader category of examination.

Performance Testing

To put it simply, functional testing is the process of verifying that a software program is, well, functional. It is imperative to thoroughly examine all features when doing functional tests. Evaluate the outcomes to find out if they are satisfactory.

Functional testing can be broken down into a number of subtypes, including:

  • Unit testing
  • White box testing
  • Black box testing
  • Interface testing
  • Regression testing
  • End-to-end testing
  • Integration testing
  • Acceptance testing
  • Smoke testing
  • Sanity testing

It’s common practice to employ both human testers and automated software while conducting functional tests. In this case, manual testing is straightforward, but tools should be used if and when they prove useful. Micro Focus UFT (formerly known as QTP, and UFT stands for Unified Functional Testing), Selenium, JUnit, soapUI, Watir, etc. are all examples of functional testing tools.

Non-Functional Testing

The term “non-functional testing” refers to the practice of evaluating an application’s non-functional properties, such as its performance, dependability, usability, security, and so on. As soon as the functional tests are complete, the non-functional testing can begin.

The quality of your program can be greatly enhanced by conducting non-functional testing. Although functional tests do a good job of boosting quality, non-functional testing offers the possibility of taking your program to an even higher level. The software can be fine-tuned by performing non-functional testing. Testing of this nature is not concerned with the functionality of the program being tested. The functionality of the software, among other factors, is more important.

Manual testing is rarely used for non-functional tests. Testing of this nature is notoriously challenging when done by hand. As a result, automated testing technologies are frequently used to conduct these assessments.

Non-functional testing can be broken down into a number of subcategories, including but not limited to:

  • Performance testing
  • Compatibility testing
  • Load testing
  • Security testing
  • Efficiency testing
  • Reliability testing
  • Failover testing
  • Compliance testing
  • Maintainability testing
  • Usability testing
  • Scalability testing
  • Volume testing
  • Stress testing
  • Localization testing
  • Endurance testing
  • Disaster recovery testing
  • Internationalization testing

Various Software Testing Methods

This page provides an explanation of a few of the most frequent methods of software testing.

Unit Testing

Unit testing involves verifying the functionality of individual parts of your software. A programming background is required to carry out such tests. Therefore, only programmers, and not testers, conduct these types of testing.  Because you should test every single piece of code in your project, unit testing is a must.

Accessibility testing

Accessibility testing is the process of verifying that your product can be used by individuals of all abilities. As part of these types of evaluations, you’ll want to ensure that users who are colorblind, visually impaired, or hearing impaired can effectively navigate your software.  Making your program usable by color-blind people requires careful consideration of color and contrast.

Integration testing

After the modules have been integrated, it is necessary to test their operability. Integration testing describes this sort of testing. There are fewer integration tests required compared to unit tests.  Jasmine, Mocha, etc. are excellent unit and integration testing tools.

User Interface Testing

The UI of an application is tested as part of user interface testing. The purpose of user interface testing is to ensure that the interfaces have been built as specified in the requirements specifications document.  The user interfaces of the applications can be improved by means of UI testing to make them more intuitive and aesthetically pleasing.  Monkey tests for Android, Saucelabs, and Protractor are just a few examples of excellent automated user interface testing tools.

End-to-end Testing

Comprehensive program functionality is tested via end-to-end testing. End-to-end testing is used to describe the process of testing the entire software system. It is not as necessary to run integration tests but rather end-to-end testing.  Excellent examples of end-to-end testing frameworks include Cucumber, Protractor, Jasmine, Karma, SpecFlow, etc.

Alpha testing

During alpha testing, we check for any and all problems with the software. This type of testing occurs in the final stage of app development and is carried out by the developers themselves, either before the product is released to the public or before it is delivered to the client. 

There must be some sort of beta testing done after the alpha testing has been completed.  There is no “real world” alpha testing. Instead, a virtual environment simulating the real world is created and used for the tests.

Beta testing

As was said earlier, alpha testing is followed by beta testing. The product goes through beta testing just before it hits the shelves. Testing is done by a small subset of actual customers or users in a realistic setting to ensure that the program is bug-free and runs without any hiccups. A few tweaks are performed to further enhance the software after hearing from those users and considering their opinions and suggestions.

Therefore, the name “beta version” is given to software that is now undergoing beta testing. Once this round of testing is finished, the program is made available to the general public.

Compatibility Testing

The purpose of compatibility testing is to ensure that the program functions correctly on a wide variety of platforms. It ensures the generated software program is compatible with various settings.

For instance, if the program is a Windows app, it needs to be tested on various Windows versions to ensure compatibility. If the product in question is a web app, its compatibility with the most popular browsers is checked. And if it’s an Android app, it needs to be tested to make sure it runs smoothly on the most popular Android versions.

Ad-hoc testing

Ad-hoc testing, as its name implies, is a sort of testing that is carried out on an ad-hoc basis, without the benefit of predetermined test procedures, test cases, test plans, documentation, or standardized tools. This sort of testing is conducted in an ad hoc way, in contrast to every other type of testing.

It’s true that it’s tough to uncover bugs without test cases, but there are some technical problems that are easy to spot in an ad hoc test but are much harder to spot in other testing methods. It’s possible for anyone working on the project to carry out this type of software testing.

Backward compatibility testing

When a new or updated version of an application is released, it must be tested to ensure that it is compatible with older versions of the environments (such as operating systems and web browsers) in which it is intended to function. An application may receive a special upgrade to bring it up to date with the norms and aesthetics of a different, more advanced system. Therefore, compatibility with older systems is an absolute requirement. To ensure that all users on previous versions of a given environment can run your product, you should perform backward compatibility testing.

Browser compatibility testing

The purpose of browser compatibility testing is self-explanatory: to ensure that a web app works across all major browsers. In particular, compatibility across the most popular browser versions is checked.

It’s a subset of compatibility testing that looks for very particular cases of incompatibility, as opposed to the more generic kind. Popular browser compatibility testing software includes CrossBrowserTest.com, LamdaTest, Browsershots, Experitest, Turbo Browser Sandbox, Ranorex Studio, Browsera, etc.

Performance testing

In order to determine if the program performs well, performance tests must be carried out. You can find performance issues in your app with the help of performance testing tools. When you take care of those problems, your program will run more smoothly.

WebLOAD, LoadView, NeoLoad, LoadNinja, Appvance, LoadRunner, Apache JMeter, Loadster, LoadImpact, Testing Anywhere, SmartMeter.io, Tricentis Flood, Rational Performance Tester, LoadComplete, etc., are all excellent performance testing tools, sometimes known as load testing tools, for web applications.

Regression testing

It is important to test the system as a whole after making any changes to individual parts or subsystems to ensure that everything is still operating as intended. The process of testing the entire system again after such changes is known as regression testing.

Recovery testing

The purpose of recovery testing is to determine if and how successfully the application recovers from failures. In these tests, the software’s ability to resume its usual execution sequence is evaluated. Accidents can happen at any time. Crashing is possible even with high-quality software. You can never predict when they will occur, which can be very frustrating for your users. It is therefore necessary to put into place processes that can swiftly restore the software application to a fully functional state.

Agile testing

Agile testing, performed by the QA team, is testing that adheres to the principles of the agile development framework. Tests of this nature are conducted from the perspective of genuine clients. Tools like JIRA, PractiTest, JunoOne, VersionOne, TestRail, SoapUI, etc. might be helpful during Agile testing.

Load testing

One sort of performance testing is known as load testing, and its purpose is to determine how much work a system can handle before its performance suffers. In order to determine if a system can handle a certain amount of traffic, it must first undergo a series of load tests. LoadRunner, WebLoad, JMeter, etc. are just a few of the load-testing tools available.

API testing

Testing at the API level is similar to unit testing at the code level. Unit testing is carried out by the development team, while API testing is the responsibility of the quality assurance (QA) team.

Black box testing

Black box testing is a method used by a company’s QA team to ensure an app works as intended without requiring any prior understanding of the app’s internal workings (such as the code’s logic, how it was written, or where and how it was structured).

White-box testing

White box testing, performed by the development team, is a testing method that is dependent on a thorough familiarity with the application’s code. It calls for in-depth familiarity with the app’s inner workings.

Security testing

To ensure your application is secure and prevent security breaches, you should run security tests on it. Professionals in the security industry use these tests to determine how well-protected your program is against intrusion and to identify any vulnerabilities that need to be patched. Popular website security testing tools include (but are not limited to) Grabber, Arachni, Iron Wasp, Nogotofail, SQLMap, W3af, Wapiti, Wfuzz, Zed Attack Proxy, and many more.

Reliability testing

The purpose of reliability testing is to determine whether or not the program can be relied upon. That is to say, it ensures that the software is reliable and functions without any hiccups. In the event, if a user’s crucial data, which has been safely kept in the software’s database, mysteriously disappears after a few months due to a bug in the code, we can conclude that the software is unreliable.

Usability testing

The term “usability testing” refers to the process of evaluating an app’s ease of use. Testing the app’s usability entails seeing how well it functions for its intended audience. Whether or not your software can be used by anyone with no problems is put to the test. Inviting a select group of users to test out your software is a great approach to ensure it’s easy to navigate and use. Test them to see if they can complete various tasks within your app without your assistance. Explore Optimizely, Qualaroo, Crazy Egg, Usabilla, Clicktale, Five Second Test, Chalkmark, and UXtweak for effective usability testing tools.

Scalability testing

Testing for scalability ensures that the program can grow as needed. In other words, it sees how well your app holds up under extreme conditions, such as when the number of users, the amount of data, or the volume of transactions all increase dramatically. A non-scalable software application could be disastrous for a company.

Acceptance testing

When deciding whether or not to acquire your software, the prospective buyer will do acceptance testing (sometimes called User Acceptance Testing) to ensure that it satisfies all of the buyer’s needs and preferences. Your client may ask for revisions to your software before accepting the project if it doesn’t match all the specifications or if the client doesn’t like any aspect of the program..

Closing Remarks

Numerous software testing methodologies were outlined in this article. Remember that not all of the testing described in this post is mandatory for your software. The nature of the software you’re creating, among other things, will determine the best tests to run. Test coverage is a good indicator of the quality of your tests and should be considered with the actual execution of tests. Istanbul is a helpful coverage measurement tool for JavaScript software development projects. Undiscovered bugs in your program might continue to irritate and frustrate consumers long after it has been released. You may forget about asking users to report issues if you use real-time error-checking technologies like Sentry and Newrelic.

A list of over a hundred different kinds of testing exists, however not all of them are used for every kind of project. As a result, we have discussed several Types of Software Testing that are typically employed during the testing process. It’s important to note that while several organizations may employ slightly different definitions or procedures, the core idea is universal.

As the project’s needs and scope evolve, so too must the testing methodologies, processes, and tools used to carry them out. If you want to become a software tester, join the empowering software testing course in Chennai at Softlogic which offers practical training with 100% job assistance. Become a software tester and obtain a rewarding position in a reputed IT firm.

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