You can use a variety of software testing techniques to ensure that changes to your code work as expected. In this post, we’ll explore various types of software testing that are usually used for testing the web or mobile applications.
What is Software Testing?
It is not enough to simply develop apps; we must also test it. But why should we be concerned with testing a software application?
The process of finding errors in a software application is known as software testing. Bugs in the code, missing requirements, glitches, and other issues are examples of errors. Software testing can also determine whether the outcome of using the application differs from what was expected.
There are different types of testing and each one has its own advantages, disadvantages, stakeholders etc. We’ll explore each one of them in this tutorial.
Different Ways of Software Testing
There are two commonly used ways of Software Testing.
- Manual Testing
- Automated Testing
The most popular testing method is manual testing, which is performed by all teams at some point of time. It goes without saying that manual testing is difficult to scale in today’s quick-paced software development lifecycle.
Automated Testing is carried out through test scripts, tools that automates the process of software testing. For example, tools like Cypress, Selenium, Virtuso etc are widely used for Software Testing.
Different Types of Software Testing
The fundamental types of software testing can be classified into Functional Testing and Non-Functional Testing. Below is a quick summary list of each of these software testing types.
- Functional Testing
- Unit Testing
- White Box Testing
- Gorilla Testing
- Integration Testing
- System Testing
- End to End Testing
- Black Box Testing
- Happy Path Testing
- Sanity Testing
- Smoke Testing
- Acceptance Testing
- Non-Functional Testing
- Security Testing
- Pen Testing / Penetration Testing
- Performance Testing
- Load Testing
- Stress Testing
- Soak Testing
- Usability Testing
- Accessibility Testing
- Cross Browser Testing
- Exploratory Testing
There are still quite a few buzz words or Key words that most software testers use but most of them should fall under one of the above categories.
Functional Testing
Unit Testing
Unit testing is a method of speeding up testing procedures and minimising unnecessary tests by examining small chunks of code to make sure that the various components of a program function properly on their own. Unit tests are very simple and located is very close to an application’s source code. They involve evaluating specific methods and operations of the classes, elements, or modules that your software uses. The Software Development Team usually uses various libraries like NUnit etc to integrate unit tests in to their application.
You must perform a lot of unit testing because every single piece of code in your project needs to be tested.
White Box Testing
White box testing examines the product’s underlying architecture, code, and structure to verify input-output flow and improve design, usability, and security.
Gorilla testing
Gorilla testing is a test methodology in which the developer and/or tester extensively test each module of the application. The Gorilla Testing focusses on each module.
Random valid and invalid inputs are sent into each module in a product until the module crashes. A comprehensive manual test is used to evaluate an application’s resilience.
Integration Testing
Software testing called “integration testing” involves logically grouping together two or more modules of an application and testing them together. This sort of testing focuses on identifying interface, communication, and data flow flaws between modules. In simple words, After integrating the modules, you must determine whether the combined modules function properly.
System Testing
End to End Testing
The functional testing of the entire software system is referred to as end-to-end testing. End-to-end testing is used when you test the entire software system. It validates that the various user flows function as expected. End-to-end tests are extremely useful, but they are costly to perform and can be difficult to maintain.
BlackBox Testing
A testing method known as “black box testing” involves examining an application’s operation without having any technical knowledge of the application, such as understanding the logic of the code, how the code operates, or knowing its internal structure.
Happy Path Testing
Software testing that uses known input and generates expected results is known as happy-path testing. The happy path just checks that the necessary functionality is present and works well and it does not replicate real-world scenarios.
Sanity Testing
Sanity testing is a type of software testing carried out following the delivery of a software build with minor code or feature modifications to ensure that the bugs have been fixed and no new problems have been brought about as a result of these changes.
Smoke Testing
Smoke tests are simple tests that examine an application’s fundamental operation. They are designed to be quickly carried out, and their purpose is to provide you with the confidence that the main system components are functioning as planned. They help you identify if you need to make further expensive tests or not after performing the smoke test.
Acceptance Testing
In order to assess whether the software is suitable for delivery, acceptance testing makes sure that the end-users can accomplish the objectives outlined in the business requirements. It is usually called as User Acceptance Testing.
Non- Functional Testing
Security Testing
To ensure that your application is secure and that security breaches can be avoided, security tests are carried out. These tests are carried out by security professionals to determine how secure your software is against assaults and to identify security flaws so that the app’s security can be improved.
Penetration Testing is one such security testing. There are plenty of software security testing tools that are available. Some of the Popular ones include Iron Wasp, Zed Attack Proxy, W3af etc.
Performance Testing
Performance tests assess how a system performs under a specific workload. These tests aid in determining an application’s dependability, speed, scalability, and responsiveness.
Load Testing
Load testing determines how the software application behaves when multiple users access it at the same time. Some of the Load Testing tools include JMeter etc. Here the focus will be to have the load/ users equal to or less than the number of expected users.
Stress Testing
Stress testing is the process of testing an application’s stability and response time by applying a load that is equal to or more than the application’s designed number of users.
Soak Testing
Soak testing includes putting a system through its intended workload in order to check for performance-related problems like stability and response time. The system is next assessed to determine whether it might operate effectively under a heavy load for a prolonged period of time, monitoring its response and examining its behaviour under prolonged use.
Usability Testing
Accessibility Testing
Testing your mobile and online apps for usability for users with and without disabilities, such as vision impairment, hearing loss, and other physical or cognitive issues, is known as accessibility Testing.
Cross Browser Testing
Cross-browser testing is the process of ensuring that web applications function as expected on a variety of operating systems, devices, and web browser configurations.
Exploratory Testing
The testing team does informal testing known as exploratory testing. In order to find any application flaws, this testing’s goal is to investigate the application by exploring and looking for defects.
