Software Testing: Learning the Basics

by TestFortExpert on 06/2/2012

One of the most important parts of the whole software development cycle is software testing services, that focuses on producing of a perfect final product. This article has a goal to explain to the new entrant into this field the main learning basics of software testing.

Any product needs to be accurately tested for performance and functionality before it’s launched. To check whether it meets the real world requirements or not. ‘Testing’ is one of the vital parts of any software development life cycle in any field of industry. Testing of a developed program is one of the most critical steps that creates a finished product ready for real world application and provides quality assurance.

Some companies specialized, in particular, providing testing services and other big software companies, which have a large testing department dedicated for the purpose. This demand has made big opportunities for people who are intend to become a part of the IT industry. If you aim to engage this field, it’s significant to have a clear understanding of the software testing basics.

What is the main goal of Software Testing?

The completed software product like a stock market analysis or a computer game goes through many testing stages, before achieves the end user. All these testing levels are aimed at defining performance problems, bugs, deviations from expected functionality, that were unheeded in the phase of development.

The program has to meet all the expected functionality requirements and the software testing team must check this fact. There are a range of different testing methods used to determine bugs left over after development, because of various software programs types and no common testing methodology for everything. Here are some issues that you have to learn to become a software tester.

Software Testing: basics

Tester must think from the user’s point of view. The software testing techniques is the main knowledge that is needed by the tester. Let’s see the most important things, which are constituent of software testing.

Basic knowledge of a computer programming

To have a basic knowledge of computer programming and science is obligatory. So you have to understand what it means to ‘execute’, ‘code’ and ‘compile’ a program. Tester is much more concrete in pointing out programming errors within, when he has some basic knowledge of computer programming.

You need to understand what are the ‘variables’ and ‘programming loops’ in the programmer’s lingo and have elementary knowledge of programming. You are more engaged with checking functionality and executing the program under different input conditions.

An idea of Software Testing types variety

Different software testing methods are divided into two big groups — automated and manual testing. To have a thorough knowledge of testing methodology you need to know different sub-types of each.

The Software Testing Process’ Understanding

You need to know the main stages of testing process, which includes:

understanding the requirements of program functionality;
testing plan designing;
testing plan executing;
the results’ review;
the bugs determination.

Automated Tools for Software Testing

Standard software testing tools used in automated testing like LoadRunner, Quick Test Professional (QTP), Rational Robot and Winrunner have to be familiar to you. The most significant skills for a software tester are learning manual testing techniques and usage of these tools.

Knowing Metrics of the Software Performance

You have to find out how to measure the performance according to effictiveness metrics, besides searching for the bugs in a program that result in the functionality insufficiency. This involves the estimation of the output efficiency, speed and cost of the program.

Software Testing Qualification

Getting a certification as a professional tester is very helpful in searching for job. There are many training establishments, which conduct exams and offer certification.

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We Work With

Having one outside team deal with every aspect of quality assurance on your software project saves you time and money on creating an in-house QA department. We have dedicated testing engineers with years of experience, and here is what they can help you with.

Software is everywhere around us, and it’s essential for your testing team to be familiar with all the various types and platforms software can come with. In 21+ years, our QA team has tested every type of software there is, and here are some of their specialties.

There are dozens of different types of testing, but it takes a team of experts to know which ones are relevant to your software project and how to include them in the testing strategy the right way. These are just some of the testing types our QA engineers excel in.

The success of a software project depends, among other things, on whether it’s the right fit for the industry it’s in. And that is true not just for the development stage, but also for QA. Different industry have different software requirements, and our team knows all about them.

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