Software Testing Methods: A Rundown Of The Main ProcessesWe all know that software testing is an important part of the development of software. Many times the testing takes longer than the development. Most engineers working on software claim over 50% of the development time is spent on the testing. Many different software-testing methods are used in the testing process of getting it ready for release. The whole purpose of testing software is to find errors within the program or checking on its quality and functionality. A major problem that affects software is bugs, which although are easy to detect are often more difficult to remove. Software may be successfully tested only to discover there is a bug. The bug is removed, the software tested again and it sometimes will not operate as it did before the bug was removed. This is type of testing and retesting can become very costly, but the seriousness of bugs makes it necessary. Serious consequences such as airplane crashes, stock market delays, and other disasters are possible if the bug is serious. Some of the testing for minor problems may need to be eliminated when the cost gets too high. The type of software testing methods that are used depends on the software and the type of problems that may arise. To make sure there are not serious bugs, there are tests run to maintain the quality in the software. When testing for quality, they use three types of criteria: functionality, engineering and adaptability. Functionality on the exterior side works with ensuring correctness, reliability, usability and integrity. Engineering which deals with the interiors strives for efficiency, testability, documentation and structure. Adaptability for the future is looking for flexibility, reusability and maintainability. Successfully testing the software for all these qualities are processes called verification and validation. A successful software testing method for functionality is black- box testing, which deals with the exterior view point of the software. Black box testing allows access to the source code. White-box testing is used for the engineering or interior part of the software. With white box testing, the engineer can see inside the software to determine how it is running. Gray box testing is also used. Gray is similar to black box testing except the test cases and test methods are based on having the knowledge of the inside of the data and flow structures. Performance, reliability and security testing are all vital to the success of the software. Testing is very expensive, especially manually testing. Automated testing costs less money and time, but there are not yet available in the test cases they need for all the different criteria. |