Software Testing: Role and Importance in Software Development Life Cycle

Software testing is an activity to evaluate the actual results match with expected results and to ensure that the developed solution is bug free. Testing process helps to identify technical flaws, gaps or missing features according to the actual project contract. Testing can be done manually or by using automated tools. It involves execution of a software component or system component to evaluate one or more properties of interest.

Software Testing is one of the most debated topics, as many companies believe they have made the product as the way it supposed to be. But, one thing we all can agree on is, software testing is an integral part of Software Development Life Cycle.

Most of the businesses have had experience with software which did not work as expected. Any failure in the software or in the application can have a large impact on the business.

Importance of Software Testing

Before moving towards the importance of testing, let’s check history, where many businesses faced monetary loss due to software failure.

• Nissan – Nissan have to withdraw over 1 million cars from the market due to software failure in the airbag sensory detectors. 2 accidents were reported because of software failure.
• Starbucks – Starbucks was forced to close 60% of their stores in the US and Canada due to POS software failure. There was a time when they served coffee for free because they were unable to do a transaction.
• Amazon – Few of the 3^rd party sellers faced a heavy loss because of their product price reduced to some amount because of a software failure.
• A software bug caused the failure of a $1.2 billion military satellite launch, this was the costliest accident in the history.
• A bug caused the bank accounts of 823 people of a big bank in the US, to be credited with $920 million.

These are few instances among many known. Companies have started giving a lot of importance to software testing and it has become a very important part of software development process.

Let’s check few reasons which proves the important of software testing.

It is our responsibility to deliver the best application to our Clients and Users

Apogaeis principle is to add value in the business and process by providing software solution Software could be built for end users, clients or for internal purpose. It is Apogaeis responsibility to make sure the end product is something we can proud of and which can showcase our credibility. A bug in the software may be complex or simple. Any bug can break a software. Bug could be related to unsupported file, software upgrade, user privacy, security, performance, and unsupported feature. In any case, if a bug is not resolved, it can have a real impact on real people and business.

Multiple Platforms

We are fortunate enough to live in such a technological world, where we have options to choose. We can use a software either through a laptop, tablet, smartphone or desktop. Don’t forget there are various browsers and operating systems too. All these are good, but this also makes compatibility essential.

You never know how a user is going to use or view your webpage or business app. Things like responsive design become more critical for customer satisfaction. Software testing is important to check the compatibility in multiple platforms, devices, browsers, operating systems, screen sizes etc. to ensure the solution works fine.

Multiple Users

This is very common, the very same module within application is being used by multiple users concurrently and at the same time. We say it as “at time T0”. There are a high chances of server crashing down or software being extremely slow. You need to be sure that your software is working fine and always running, irrespective of the number of users or traffic. Software Performance Testing and Benchmarking is the key to discovering issues related to system performance when multiple users are using the web portal.

To ensure that the end product is was it supposed to be

Testing is needed to verify that all the features and functionalities are working fine as intended. A new feature may break a link, an old feature may not be working in one device, so at that time regression testing catches the problem before it reaches the end users. Regardless of the software development methodologies and development model used, the ultimate goal of testing is to make sure that the final output fulfils all the expectations.

Advantages of Testing

• If testing is introduced in the early stage of SDLC, the cost of fixing the bug could be minimized as compared to later stages.
• Quality speaks: In today’s competitive business market only the quality product succeed. Testing is the only way to ensure product matches the excellent quality.
• Testing happens in the all the phases Development, QA and Production environment. So you can expect a better improved product.
• User satisfaction is one key output of proper testing. This can land into more customer engagement and optimize productivity.
• Cost Saving: Testing can reduce the overall product development and maintenance cost.

Testing Process

Like software development, testing also undergoes various processes. It defines the steps, stages, phases in software testing lifecycle. However, there is no universal standard to follow, it may depend on software development life cycle or management approach.

Types of Testing

Typically software testing is classified into three categories.

There are many categories which will fall under these categories. We have highlighted the most important ones.

Conclusion

User satisfaction is the most important aspect for the growth of any business. Testing plays a very pivot role to make this happen. Testing process needs proper planning and execution. With high market competition, the need of quality assurance has increased significantly among enterprises in the current business world. Market trends are changing so rapidly and with the expected rise of Social Media, Mobile Computing, E-commerce, Cloud Computing etc. the importance of testing services has caught its maximum height.

Apogaeis testing services are highly recommended backed by their domain specialists. Zero additional recreation cost, enterprise ready product, high efficiency, reduce time to market are few of our testing service advantages. Contact Us now to understand more on how we can add value to your current software infrastructure and can develop customize business solutions for your business. Stay tuned for more updates.