Software Testing and Quality

Assurance
 Unit-1:
Fundamentals of Software Testing
 Introduction
• Software testing is a process of identifying the correctness of software by
considering its all attributes (Reliability, Scalability, Portability, Re-usability,
Usability) and evaluating the execution of software components to find the
software bugs or errors or defects.
 Basics of Software Testing

• Software testing is an important process in the software development

lifecycle. It involves verifying and validating that a software application is
free of bugs, meets the technical requirements set by
its design and development, and satisfies user requirements efficiently
and effectively.
• This process ensures that the application can handle all exceptional and
boundary cases, providing a robust and reliable user experience. By
systematically identifying and fixing issues, software testing helps deliver
high-quality software that performs as expected in various scenarios.
• The process of software testing aims not only at finding faults in the
existing software but also at finding measures to improve the software in
terms of efficiency, accuracy, and usability.
• What is Software Testing?
• Software Testing is a method to assess the functionality of the software
program. The process checks whether the actual software matches the
expected requirements and ensures the software is bug-free. The purpose
of software testing is to identify the errors, faults, or missing requirements
in contrast to actual requirements. It mainly aims at measuring the
specification, functionality, and performance of a software program or
application.
• Software testing can be divided into two steps
• Verification: It refers to the set of tasks that ensure that the software
correctly implements a specific function. It means “Are we building the
product right?”.
• Validation: It refers to a different set of tasks that ensure that the software
that has been built is traceable to customer requirements. It means “Are
we building the right product?”.
 Importance of Software Testing

• Defects can be identified early: Software testing is important because if there

are any bugs they can be identified early and can be fixed before the delivery of
the software.
• Improves quality of software: Software Testing uncovers the defects in the
software, and fixing them improves the quality of the software.
• Increased customer satisfaction: Software testing ensures reliability, security,
and high performance which results in saving time, costs, and customer
satisfaction.
• Helps with scalability: Software testing type non-functional testing helps to
identify the scalability issues and the point where an application might stop
working.
• Saves time and money: After the application is launched it will be very difficult
to trace and resolve the issues, as performing this activity will incur more costs
and time. Thus, it is better to conduct software testing at regular intervals during
software development.
 Need for Software Testing
• Software bugs can cause potential monetary and human loss. There are many examples in
history that clearly depicts that without the testing phase in software development lot of
damage was incurred. Below are some examples:
• 1985: Canada’s Therac-25 radiation therapy malfunctioned due to a software bug and
resulted in lethal radiation doses to patients leaving 3 injured and 3 people dead.
• 1994: China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed due to a software bug killing 264 people.
• 1996: A software bug caused U.S. bank accounts of 823 customers to be credited with 920
million US dollars.
• 1999: A software bug caused the failure of a $1.2 billion military satellite launch.
• 2015: A software bug in fighter plan F-35 resulted in making it unable to detect targets
correctly.
• 2015: Bloomberg terminal in London crashed due to a software bug affecting 300,000
traders on the financial market and forcing the government to postpone the 3bn pound
debt sale.
• Starbucks was forced to close more than 60% of its outlet in the U.S. and Canada due to a
software failure in its POS system.
• Nissan cars were forced to recall 1 million cars from the market due to a software failure in
the car’s airbag sensory detectors.
•
• Different Types Of Software Testing
• Explore diverse software testing methods
including manual and automated testing for improved quality assurance.
Enhance software reliability and performance through functional and
non-functional testing, ensuring user satisfaction. Learn about the
significance of various testing approaches for robust software
development.
• Software Testing can be broadly classified into 3 types:
• Functional testing: It is a type of software testing that validates the software
systems against the functional requirements. It is performed to check whether
the application is working as per the software’s functional requirements or not.
Various types of functional testing are Unit testing, Integration testing, System
testing, Smoke testing, and so on.
• Non-functional testing: It is a type of software testing that checks the
application for non-functional requirements like performance, scalability,
portability, stress, etc. Various types of non-functional testing are Performance
testing, Stress testing, Usability Testing, and so on.
• Maintenance testing: It is the process of changing, modifying, and updating the
software to keep up with the customer’s needs. It involves regression
testing that verifies that recent changes to the code have not adversely affected
other previously working parts of the software.
•
• Apart from the above classification software testing can be further divided
into 2 more ways of testing:
• Manual testing: It includes testing software manually, i.e., without using
any automation tool or script. In this type, the tester takes over the role of
an end-user and tests the software to identify any unexpected behavior or
bug. There are different stages for manual testing such as unit testing,
integration testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing. Testers
use test plans, test cases, or test scenarios to test software to ensure the
completeness of testing. Manual testing also includes exploratory testing,
as testers explore the software to identify errors in it.
• Automation testing: It is also known as Test Automation, is when the
tester writes scripts and uses another software to test the product. This
process involves the automation of a manual process. Automation Testing
is used to re-run the test scenarios quickly and repeatedly, that were
performed manually in manual testing.
• Different Types of Software Testing Techniques
• Software testing techniques can be majorly classified into two categories:
• Black box Testing: Testing in which the tester doesn’t have access to the
source code of the software and is conducted at the software interface
without any concern with the internal logical structure of the software
known as black-box testing.
• White box Testing: Testing in which the tester is aware of the internal
workings of the product, has access to its source code, and is conducted by
making sure that all internal operations are performed according to the
specifications is known as white box testing.
• Grey Box Testing: Testing in which the testers should have knowledge of
implementation, however, they need not be experts.
 Different Levels of Software Testing

• Software level testing can be majorly classified into 4 levels:

• Unit testing: It a level of the software testing process where individual
units/components of a software/system are tested. The purpose is to
validate that each unit of the software performs as designed.
• Integration testing: It is a level of the software testing process where
individual units are combined and tested as a group. The purpose of this
level of testing is to expose faults in the interaction between integrated
units.
• System testing: It is a level of the software testing process where a
complete, integrated system/software is tested. The purpose of this test is
to evaluate the system’s compliance with the specified requirements.
• Acceptance testing: It is a level of the software testing process where a
system is tested for acceptability. The purpose of this test is to evaluate
the system’s compliance with the business requirements and assess
whether it is acceptable for delivery.
 Benefits of Software Testing

• Product quality: Testing ensures the delivery of a high-quality product as the

errors are discovered and fixed early in the development cycle.
• Customer satisfaction: Software testing aims to detect the errors or
vulnerabilities in the software early in the development phase so that the
detected bugs can be fixed before the delivery of the product. Usability testing is
a type of software testing that checks the application for how easily usable it is
for the users to use the application.
• Cost-effective: Testing any project on time helps to save money and time for the
long term. If the bugs are caught in the early phases of software testing, it costs
less to fix those errors.
• Security: Security testing is a type of software testing that is focused on testing
the application for security vulnerabilities from internal or external sources.
•
• A Definition. Software testing is the process of finding errors in the
developed product. It also checks whether the real outcomes can match
expected results, as well as aids in the identification of defects, missing
requirements, or gaps. Testing is the penultimate step before the launch of
the product to the market.
 Software Testing | Basics

• Software testing can be stated as the process of verifying and validating

whether a software or application is bug-free, meets the technical
requirements as guided by its design and development, and meets the
user requirements effectively and efficiently by handling all the
exceptional and boundary cases.
• The process of software testing aims not only at finding faults in the
existing software but also at finding measures to improve the software in
terms of efficiency, accuracy, and usability. It mainly aims at measuring the
specification, functionality, and performance of a software program or
application.
• Software testing can be divided into two steps:
1. Verification: it refers to the set of tasks that ensure that the software
correctly implements a specific function.

• 2. Validation: it refers to a different set of tasks that ensure that the

software that has been built is traceable to customer requirements.
• Verification: “Are we building the product right?”
Validation: “Are we building the right product?”
• Different types of software testing:

• Software Testing can be broadly classified into two types:

• 1. Manual Testing: Manual testing includes testing software manually, i.e.,
without using any automation tool or any script. In this type, the tester
takes over the role of an end-user and tests the software to identify any
unexpected behavior or bug. There are different stages for manual testing
such as unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and user
acceptance testing.

• Testers use test plans, test cases, or test scenarios to test software to
ensure the completeness of testing. Manual testing also includes
exploratory testing, as testers explore the software to identify errors in it.
• 2. Automation Testing: Automation testing, which is also known as Test
Automation, is when the tester writes scripts and uses another software to
test the product. This process involves the automation of a manual
process. Automation Testing is used to re-run the test scenarios quickly
and repeatedly, that were performed manually in manual testing.
• Apart from regression testing, automation testing is also used to test the
application from a load, performance, and stress point of view. It increases
the test coverage, improves accuracy, and saves time and money when
compared to manual testing.
• What are the different types of Software Testing Techniques ?
• Software testing techniques can be majorly classified into two categories:
• 1. Black Box Testing: The technique of testing in which the tester doesn’t have
access to the source code of the software and is conducted at the software
interface without any concern with the internal logical structure of the software
is known as black-box testing.
• 2. White-Box Testing: The technique of testing in which the tester is aware of
the internal workings of the product, has access to its source code, and is
conducted by making sure that all internal operations are performed according
to the specifications is known as white box testing.
• What are different levels of software testing?

• Software level testing can be majorly classified into 4 levels:

• 1. Unit Testing: A level of the software testing process where individual
units/components of a software/system are tested. The purpose is to
validate that each unit of the software performs as designed.

• 2. Integration Testing: A level of the software testing process where

individual units are combined and tested as a group. The purpose of this
level of testing is to expose faults in the interaction between integrated
units.
• 3. System Testing: A level of the software testing process where a
complete, integrated system/software is tested. The purpose of this test is
to evaluate the system’s compliance with the specified requirements.

• 4. Acceptance Testing: A level of the software testing process where a

system is tested for acceptability. The purpose of this test is to evaluate
the system’s compliance with the business requirements and assess
whether it is acceptable for delivery.
Different levels of software testing
• Test Approach:

• A test approach is the test strategy implementation of a project, defines

how testing would be carried out. Test approach has two techniques:
• Proactive - An approach in which the test design process is initiated as
early as possible in order to find and fix the defects before the build is
created.

• Reactive - An approach in which the testing is not started until after design
and coding are completed.
 Essential of Software Testing

• The following advice should help clarify your thinking about software
testing and help you improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your
testing. It is helpful to think about software testing in terms of five
essential elements:
• A test strategy that tells you what types of testing and the amount of
testing you think will work best at finding the defects that are lurking in
the software
• A testing plan of the actual testing tasks you will need to execute to carry
out that strategy
• Test cases that have been prepared in advance in the form of detailed
examples you will use to check that the software will actually meet its
requirements
• Test data consisting of both input test data and database test data to use
while you are executing your test cases, and
• A test environment which you will use to carry out your testing.
• Test Strategy
• The purpose of testing is to find defects, not to pass easy tests. A test
strategy basically tells you which types of testing seem best to do, the
order in which to perform them, the proposed sequence of execution, and
the optimum amount of effort to put into each test objective to make your
testing most effective. A test strategy is based on the prioritized
requirements and any other available information about what is important
to the customers. Because you will always face time and resource
constraints, a test strategy faces up to this reality and tells you how to
make the best use of whatever resources you do have to locate most of
the worst defects
• Testing Plan
• A testing plan is simply that part of your project plan that deals with the
testing tasks. It details who will do which tasks, starting when, ending
when, taking how much effort, and depending on which other tasks. It
provides a complete list of all the things that need to be done for testing,
including all the preparation work during all of the phases before testing. It
shows the dependencies among the tasks to clearly create a critical path
without surprises. You will be able to start filling in the details of your
testing plan as soon as your test strategy is completed. Both your test
strategy and testing plan are subject to change as the project evolves.
Modify your strategy first, if you need to, and then your testing plan.
• Test Cases
• Your test cases (and automated test scripts if called for by your strategy)
are prepared based on the strategy which tells you how much of each type
of testing to do. Test cases are developed based on prioritized
requirements and acceptance criteria for the software, keeping in mind
the customer’s emphasis on quality dimensions and the project’s latest risk
assessment of what could go wrong. Except for a small amount of ad hoc
testing, all of your test cases should be prepared in advance of the start of
testing. There are many different approaches to developing test cases. Test
case development is an activity performed in parallel with software
development.
• Test Data
• In addition to the steps to perform to execute your test cases, you also
need to systematically come up with test data to use. This often equals
sets of names, addresses, product orders, or whatever other information
the system uses. Since you are probably going to test query functions,
change functions and delete functions, you will most likely need a starting
database of data in addition to the examples to input. Consider how many
times you might need to go back to the starting point of the database to
restart the testing and how many new customer names you will need for
all the testing in your plan. Test data development is usually done
simultaneously with test case development.
• Test Environment
• You will need a place to do the testing and the right equipment to use. Unless
the software is very simple, one PC will not suffice.
• You will need all of the components of the system as close as possible to what it
will eventually be.
• Test environments may be scaled-down versions of the real thing, but all the
parts need to be there for the system to actually run.
• Building a test environment usually involves setting aside separate regions on
mainframe computers and/or servers, networks and PCs that can be dedicated
to the test effort and that can be reset to restart testing as often as needed.
• Sometimes lab rooms of equipment are set aside, especially for performance or
usability testing.
• A wish list of components that will be needed is part of the test strategy, which
then needs to be reality checked as part of the test planning process.
 Misconception about testing
• Any one can do testing and no special skills are required for testing :
--Test planning , test case writing and test data definition using different
methodologies may not be possible with unskilled people.
--So there is waste of money and time t train the unskillful people.
-- It may result in disaster for customer.
• Testers can test quality of product at the end of development process:
--Few test cases out of infinite set of possibilities are used for certifying
whether the software application works or not.
-- The customer may be dissatisfied as the application does not perform
well as per his expectations.
-- Sometimes the defects remain hidden for an entire life cycle of software
without anybody knowing that there was a defect.
• Defects found in testing are blamed on developers:
---Two third of defects are due to wrong requirements and some surveys
indicate that most of the defects cab be attributed to faulty development
processes. Designers role is convert design into code by using standard
guidelines.

• Defects found by customers are blamed on tester:

---No one can say that testing can ensure 100% coverage. If no defect is
found during testing it does not indicate the software program is error
free.
----There may be few defects left in the product which can be found only in
real life.
 Defect Life Cycle
• What is Defect Life Cycle?
• Defect life cycle, also known as Bug Life cycle is the journey of a defect
cycle, which a defect goes through during its lifetime. It varies from
organization to organization and also from project to project as it is
governed by the software testing process and also depends upon the tools
used.
 Defect Life Cycle States

• New - Potential defect that is raised and yet to be validated.

• Assigned - Assigned against a development team to address it but not yet resolved.
• Active - The Defect is being addressed by the developer and investigation is under
progress. At this stage there are two possible outcomes; viz - Deferred or Rejected.
• Test - The Defect is fixed and ready for testing.
• Verified - The Defect that is retested and the test has been verified by QA.
• Closed - The final state of the defect that can be closed after the QA retesting or
can be closed if the defect is duplicate or considered as NOT a defect.
• Reopened - When the defect is NOT fixed, QA reopens/reactivates the defect.
• Deferred - When a defect cannot be addressed in that particular cycle it is deferred
to future release.
• Rejected - A defect can be rejected for any of the 3 reasons; viz - duplicate defect,
NOT a Defect, Non Reproducible.
 Defect Management Process
• Defects are basically considered as destructive in all software development stages.
Any unexpected things that occur in software stages are defective in that particular
software. To establish a defect management process is the most attractive and best
way to increase and improve the quality of software. There is no such software
that is present without any defect.
• Defects are present in whole life of software because software is developed by
humans and “to err is human” i.e. it is natural for human beings to make mistakes.
Number of defects can be reduced by resolving or fixing but it is impossible to
make a software error or defect-free. Defect Management Process (DMP), as
name suggests, is a process of managing defects by simply identifying and
resolving or fixing defects. If defect management process is done in more efficient
manner with full focus, then less buggy software will be available more in the
market.
 Goals of Defect Management Process (DMP) :

• Prevent the defect

• Detection at an early stage
• Reduce the impact or effects of defect on software
• Resolving or fixing defects
• Improving process and performance of software
The main purpose of DMP for different projects or organization
is given below

• Operational support for simply resolving and retesting defects being

found.
• To give input for status and progress report regarding defect.
• To give input for advice regarding release of defect.
• To identify the main reason that the defect occurred and how to handle it.
 Advantages of DMP

• Availability of automation tools :

Defect tracking is one of the most important processes of defect
management process. There are several automation tools available for
defect tracking. Different tools are available nowadays to track different
types of defects such as software tools to detect or track non-technical
problems, user-facing tools to detect defects that are related to production
or use of internal automated tools to detect defects by development team.
• Ensure Resolution :
This defect management process also helps to ensure that whether or not
all defects that were found or were tracked are resolved or fixed or not. In
simple words, it helps us to ensure the resolution of defects being tracked.
• Provide Valuable Metrics :
DMP also provides valuable defect metrics along with automation tools.
These defect metrics help in reporting and continuous improvements.
 Disadvantages of DMP

• If DMP is not handled properly, then there will a huge increased cost in a
creeping i.e. increase in price of product.
• If errors or defects are not managed properly at early stage, then
afterwards, defect might cause greater damage, and costs to fix or resolve
the defect will also get increased.
• There will be other disadvantages also like loss of revenue, loss of
customers, damaged brand reputations if DMP is not done properly.
 Essentials of Software Testing
• Software testing is disciplined approach.
• It executes software work products and fins defects in it.
• The intention of software testing is to find all possible failures ,So that these
are eventually eliminated and good product is given to customer. We can
build the software on the basis of strengths of process of development and
testing and overcome weakness in the processes to the extent possible
• Strengths: Some area of software are very strong and no defects or very less
defects are found during testing of such areas. The areas in terms of some
modules, screens, algorithms or process like requirement definition ,design,
coding and testing . This represents strong processes present in these areas
supporting development of a good product.
• Weakness: The areas of software where requirement compliance is on the
verge of failure may represent weak area. It may be on the boundary
condition of compliance and if something goes wrong in production
environment, it will result into defect or failure of software product. The
processes in these areas represent some problems. An organization needs to
analyze such processes and define the root causes of problems leading to
these possible failures.
 Essentials of Software Testing
• Opportunity: Some areas of the software which satisfy requirements as
defined by the customer or implied requirements but with enough space
available for improving further. The improvement may lead by customer
delight. The improvement represents ability of developing organization to
help the customer and give competitive advantage.
• Threats: Threats are problems or defects with the software which result
into failures. They represents problem associated with some processes in
the organization such as requirement clarity, knowledge, base and
expertise. An organization must invest in making these processes stronger.
Threats clearly indicate the failure of an application and eventually may
lead to customer dissatisfaction.
Challenges in Testing
 Software Testing Methodologies

• Software Testing Methodologies

• Software testing methodologies are the various strategies or approaches
used to test an application to ensure it behaves and looks as expected.
These encompass everything from front to back-end testing, including unit
and system testing.
 Functional vs. Non-functional Testing

• Functional vs. Non-functional Testing

• The goal of utilizing numerous testing methodologies in your development process
is to make sure your software can successfully operate in multiple environments
and across different platforms. These can typically be broken down between
functional and non-functional testing. Functional testing involves testing the
application against the business requirements. It incorporates all test types
designed to guarantee each part of a piece of software behaves as expected by
using uses cases provided by the design team or business analyst. These testing
methods are usually conducted in order and include:
• Unit testing
• Integration testing
• System testing
• Acceptance testing
• Non-functional testing methods incorporate all test types focused on the
operational aspects of a piece of software. These include:
• Performance testing
• Security testing
• Usability testing
• Compatibility testing
• The key to releasing high quality software that can be easily adopted by
your end users is to build a robust testing framework that implements
both functional and non-functional software testing methodologies.
 Integration Testing

• Integration Testing
• After each unit is thoroughly tested, it is integrated with other units to
create modules or components that are designed to perform specific tasks
or activities. These are then tested as group through integration testing to
ensure whole segments of an application behave as expected (i.e, the
interactions between units are seamless). These tests are often framed by
user scenarios, such as logging into an application or opening files.
Integrated tests can be conducted by either developers or independent
testers and are usually comprised of a combination of automated
functional and manual tests.
 Unit Testing

• Unit Testing
• Unit testing is the first level of testing and is often performed by the
developers themselves. It is the process of ensuring individual components
of a piece of software at the code level are functional and work as they
were designed to. Developers in a test-driven environment will typically
write and run the tests prior to the software or feature being passed over
to the test team. Unit testing can be conducted manually, but automating
the process will speed up delivery cycles and expand test coverage. Unit
testing will also make debugging easier because finding issues earlier
means they take less time to fix than if they were discovered later in the
testing process. TestLeft is a tool that allows advanced testers and
developers to shift left with the fastest test automation tool embedded in
any IDE.
 System Testing

• System Testing
• System testing is a black box testing method used to evaluate the
completed and integrated system, as a whole, to ensure it meets specified
requirements. The functionality of the software is tested from end-to-end
and is typically conducted by a separate testing team than the
development team before the product is pushed into production.
 Acceptance Testing

• Acceptance Testing
• Acceptance testing is the last phase of functional testing and is used to
assess whether or not the final piece of software is ready for delivery. It
involves ensuring that the product is in compliance with all of the original
business criteria and that it meets the end user’s needs. This requires the
product be tested both internally and externally, meaning you’ll need to
get it into the hands of your end users for beta testing along with those of
your QA team. Beta testing is key to getting real feedback from potential
customers and can address any final usability concerns.
 Performance Testing
• Performance testing is a non-functional testing technique used to
determine how an application will behave under various conditions. The
goal is to test its responsiveness and stability in real user situations.
Performance testing can be broken down into four types:
• Load testing is the process of putting increasing amounts of simulated
demand on your software, application, or website to verify whether or not
it can handle what it’s designed to handle.
• Stress testing takes this a step further and is used to gauge how your
software will respond at or beyond its peak load. The goal of stress testing
is to overload the application on purpose until it breaks by applying both
realistic and unrealistic load scenarios. With stress testing, you’ll be able to
find the failure point of your piece of software.
• Endurance testing, also known as soak testing, is used to analyze the behavior of
an application under a specific amount of simulated load over longer amounts of
time. The goal is to understand how your system will behave under sustained use,
making it a longer process than load or stress testing (which are designed to end
after a few hours). A critical piece of endurance testing is that it helps uncover
memory leaks.
• Spike testing is a type of load test used to determine how your software will
respond to substantially larger bursts of concurrent user or system activity over
varying amounts of time. Ideally, this will help you understand what will happen
when the load is suddenly and drastically increased.
• Security Testing
• With the rise of cloud-based testing platforms and cyber attacks, there is a
growing concern and need for the security of data being used and stored in
software. Security testing is a non-functional software testing technique used to
determine if the information and data in a system is protected. The goal is to
purposefully find loopholes and security risks in the system that could result in
unauthorized access to or the loss of information by probing the application for
weaknesses. There are multiple types of this testing method, each of which
aimed at verifying six basic principles of security:
• Integrity
• Confidentiality
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Availability
• Non-repudiation
• Usability Testing
• Usability testing is a testing method that measures an application’s
ease-of-use from the end-user perspective and is often performed during
the system or acceptance testing stages. The goal is to determine whether
or not the visible design and aesthetics of an application meet the
intended workflow for various processes, such as logging into an
application. Usability testing is a great way for teams to review separate
functions, or the system as a whole, is intuitive to use.
• Compatibility Testing
• Compatibility testing is used to gauge how an application or piece of
software will work in different environments. It is used to check that your
product is compatible with multiple operating systems, platforms,
browsers, or resolution configurations. The goal is to ensure that your
software’s functionality is consistently supported across any environment
you expect your end users to be using.
• Testing With TestComplete
• TestComplete is our robust automated GUI testing tool that excels in
compatibility and integration testing. It helps QA teams create and run
tests across desktop, mobile, and web applications – enabling testing
professionals to speed up delivery cycles and improve software quality.
Testcomplete comes with built-in support for various test environments,
integrations to performance testing tools, as well as support for developer
friendly SCMs, allowing you to seamlessness integrate it into your
development process. Using TestComplete will enable you to build a
robust testing framework that utilizes the broad spectrum of available
software testing methodologies.
Thank You