Common Software Testing Questions
From Software testing and development
This page of Common Software Testing Questions provides answers to typical queries asked about testing and quality assurance.
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[edit] What is Software Testing?
The British Standards Institution, in their standard BS7925-1, define testing as "the process of exercising software to verify that it satisfies specified requirements and to detect faults; the measurement of software quality". Where the actual behaviour of the system is different to the expected behaviour a fault is considered to have occurred. This fault may be in the expectations or the actual behaviour, either way it needs to be investigated and rectified.
The principal aim of testing is to detect faults so that they can be removed before the product is made available to customers. Errors in software are made for a variety of reasons, from misinterpreting the requirements through to simple typing mistakes. It is the role of software testing and quality assurance, to reduce those mistakes and identify the errors.
[edit] What is Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance encompasses the entire software development process including processes such as code reviews and release management. Software testing is a subset of Quality Assurance; it is one of the processes for ensuring software quality.
Quality Assurance can be thought of as a means of preventing software faults, whereas testing is a means of detecting them.
[edit] Some Standard definitions
CMM "Software Quality Assurance involves reviewing and auditing the software products and activities to verify that they comply with the applicable procedures and standards and providing the software project and other appropriate managers with the results of these reviews and audits."
[edit] Why is Testing Necessary?
People make mistakes. Mistakes can come from:
- Poor requirements
- Poor planning, leading to rushed work and increased pressure
- Miscommunication - incorrect assumptions, different interpretations.
- Developer inexperience
- Development environment not identical to production environment
[edit] Who can do Testing?
Test to break attitude, strong desire for quality, attention to detail, ability to communicate both technically (to developers) and non-technically (customer and business). Domain experts
- Article Choosing and Managing the Ideal Test Teamby Lloyd Roden
[edit] When should we do Testing?
Testing should be done as soon as possible in a project. When a module or a part of the application is ready, it should be release to Qa team for an first overview and general appreciation. The more the application is closer from an alpha the more the test should be precise and deep.
