In software development, testing is the process of checking developed software for bugs or errors. Testing software is necessary for several reasons, including determining whether or not the product is ready to be launched.
The 5 phases of testing software
- Static testing – The objective of static testing is to correct potential defects before they are implemented. In this phase, developers don’t execute code, but rather review the software’s supporting documents, looking for errors or ambiguities.
- Unit testing – Here, developers assess the software’s individual functions to ensure that each works on its own. Whenever a piece of code undergoes a change, the affected function can be unit tested, allowing for issues to be resolved quickly. Developers may perform unit tests before handing over the software to testers for formal testing.
- Integration testing – During this phase, all units of a piece of software are tested together to ensure the different functions interact with each other as expected.
- System testing – In this phase, the software is tested as a complete application. This phase is generally performed by independent testers who were not involved in the development. This is critical to ensuring the software meets the requirements.
- Acceptance testing – This is the final phase in software testing. Here, the software is evaluated to determine whether or not it’s ready for release and meets the needs of the target audience.
Additional phases
In addition to these phases, there are other types that may be required:
- Performance – Here, software is checked to see how well it performs under various workloads. The software may also be stress-tested to see how much it can handle before it fails.
- Regression – This is performed throughout the software development lifecycle and is done after a change is implemented to see if previous functionality still works as expected.
- Usability – This looks at the user experience, focusing on how easy the software is to learn and use by someone who isn’t a developer.
- Compatibility – Here, developers evaluate how the software performs on different operating systems and hardware.
- Security – This is an assessment of the software’s security risks, vulnerabilities and potential threats. Once these have been determined, they can be patched by the developers.
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