When to Start and stop testing

1) When to Start Testing

An early start to testing reduces the cost, time to rework and error free software that is delivered to the client. However in Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) testing can be started from the Requirements Gathering phase and lasts till the deployment of the software. However it also depends on the development model that is being used. For example in Water fall model formal testing is conducted in the Testing phase, but in incremental model, testing is performed at the end of every increment/iteration and at the end the whole application is tested.

Testing is done in different forms at every phase of SDLC like during Requirement gathering phase, the analysis and verification of requirements are also considered testing. Reviewing the design in the design phase with intent to improve the design is also considered as testing. Testing performed by a developer on completion of the code is also categorized as Unit type of testing.

2)  When to Stop Testing

Unlike when to start testing it is difficult to determine when to stop testing, as testing is a never ending process and no one can say that any software is 100% tested. Following are the aspects which should be considered to stop the testing:

· Testing Deadlines.

· Completion of test case execution.

· Completion of Functional and code coverage to a certain point.

· Bug rate falls below a certain level and no high priority bugs are identified.

· Management decision.

Who does Testing?

It depends on the process and the associated stakeholders of the project(s). In the IT industry, large companies have a team with responsibilities to evaluate the developed software in the context of the given requirements. Moreover, developers also conduct testing which is called Unit Testing. In most cases, following professionals are involved in testing of a system within their respective capacities:

      Software Tester

      Software Developer

      Project Lead/Manager

      End User

Different companies have difference designations for people who test the software on the basis of their experience and knowledge such as Software Tester, Software Quality Assurance Engineer, and QA Analyst etc.

It is not possible to test the software at any time during its cycle. The next two sections state when testing should be started and when to end it during the SDLC.

Why join software testing field?

I like software testing because it is NOT straightforward. It's not like you need to do 100 things for small applications and 10,000 things for bigger applications and done with it. And it's not like you're good if you have a certain number of unit tests, functional tests ,integration tests and system tests. It's not about the quantity; it is actually about the quality. There are so many things to consider when we're testing something. Different aspects of problems that the application solves, technology that is used, business expectations, user behavior, priorities, threats, performance, dead line date, project team, process, and etc. Finding best possible testing strategy and execution around this environment is great fun. And every feature, every story(in agile) provides different testing problems.

I like software testing because of its exploring nature. I like the thinking process of how it(new feature or project) might not work in the system and problem that comes as a consequence. I love to apply the Systems Thinking on this. Many people say going over test cases are boring. But coming up with test cases (written or not) or trying something with some suspicion about the application is great fun. "I try this because I've seen similar things before. I try this because from my understanding this new thing might cause problem on certain features that are already exist." Understanding the interactions in the system and explore the possibilities of unexpected interaction issue is really a beauty of testing. And this process start from spec reviews (sprint planning in agile) and I get to know more and more and exploring goes to many interesting directions.

I like software testing because I have many different options to execute tests and there are tons of tools out there to choose from. I would say this is more of test execution fun. This is not about writing automation code I would say. Coming up with best test execution strategy is great fun. What kind of tool is useful for data driven testing? How about model based testing? What's best test automation strategy for agile process? Experience in several different test framework and tools. Quick experiment on new tools. What if we just choose to go with manual for testing this feature? How can we represent our test results and communicate with the team? This requires endless learning. Learn to design good test framework,  learn new languages and new tools, learn how to represent test results, learn how to optimize test execution time, learn, learn and learn.

What is Software Testing?

What is Software Testing? 

Testing is the process of evaluating a system or its component(s) with the intent to find that whether it satisfies the specified requirements or not. This activity results in the actual, expected and difference between their results. In simple words testing is executing a system in order to identify any gaps, errors or missing requirements in contrary to the actual desire or requirements. According to ANSI/IEEE 1059 standard, Testing can be defined as “A process of analyzing a software item to detect the differences between existing and required conditions (that is defects/errors/bugs) and to evaluate the features of the software item”.

Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software implementation. 

Test techniques include the process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding software bugs (errors or other defects), and to verify that the software product is fit for use.