Importance of Software Testing in the Process of Software Development

Abstract

Software Testing is the process to check whether the software is defect-free or not. It is the process of verification and validation of software service or application by checking whether it is meeting the user requirements and what all is implemented as per the characteristics. Software testing plays a vital role in the process of developing a high quality software. Testing is necessary because we all make mistakes. Some of those mistakes are unimportant but some of them are expensive and dangerous. Therefore, there is a need to check everything that we produce. Hence, this paper presents an introduction to Software Testing and its importance with strong exemplary illustrations. It not only provides a vivid account of the need, objectives and principles of testing but also summarises traits of an excellent Software tester. At last, this paper includes a comparative study of present scenario of software testing with regard to testing in early days. Moreover, this paper focuses on "Why to test" not How to test, so that the need of carrying out Software testing can be crystal clear in a more effective manner.

Full text

IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 6, Issue 12, 2019 | ISSN (online): 2321-0613
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141
Importance of Software Testing in the Process of Software Development
Azeem Uddin1 Abhineet Anand2
1,2Galgotias University, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract— Software Testing is the process to check whether
the software is defect- free or not. It is the process of
verification and validation of software service or application
by checking whether it is meeting the user requirements and
what all is implemented as per the characteristics. Software
testing plays a vital role in the process of developing a high
quality software. Testing is necessary because we all make
mistakes. Some of those mistakes are unimportant but some
of them are expensive and dangerous. Therefore, there is a
need to check everything that we produce. Hence, this paper
presents an introduction to Software Testing and its
importance with strong exemplary illustrations. It not only
provides a vivid account of the need, objectives and
principles of testing but also summarises traits of an excellent
Software tester. At last, this paper includes a comparative
study of present scenario of software testing with regard to
testing in early days. Moreover, this paper focuses on “Why
to test” not How to test, so that the need of carrying out
Software testing can be crystal clear in a more effective
manner.
Key words: Software Testing, Need of Software Testing,
Software Testing Objectives, Software Testing Principles,
Software Testing Importance, A Good Software Tester
I. INTRODUCTION
Testing is not a PIT, it is a LADDER…!
In simple words, Testing is finding out how well something
works. Relating it to the software, Software Testing is the
process to check the correctness, completeness and accuracy
of developed computer software. In technical terms, we can
say, Testing is the combination of Verification and
Validation.
This can be well-explained with the help of the
simplest example. Suppose, you have to buy a pen from the
stationary shop. You will ask the shopkeeper about the same,
he will give you a new pen. Now, there can be two
possibilities, that particular pen can be working and at the
same time, it can be defective as well. So, in order to check
it, you will ask the shopkeeper for a rough page, you will
write something and you will test it whether it is defective or
not. This is nothing but a straightforward example of Testing.
Developing a software is not a cakewalk. Everyone wants to
get things that work well. They don’t want to receive a
defective piece and that’s quite obvious as well. Applying this
concept to customer service, customers also expect an error-
free software from the development team that is made
according to their requirements. Hence, from here, Testing
plays a very crucial role in the development of a high quality
software. Therefore, by summing up all these ideas, Software
Testing may be defined as the process of exercising or
evaluating a system by manual or automatic means to verify
that it satisfies specified requirements or to identify
differences between actual and expected results. A successful
test is one that does detect a fault. Testability is one of the
most important Software Quality Attributes that influence the
Software product.
So, this paper is all about understanding the need of
Software Testing so that an error-free, reliable, flexible and
efficient Software can be delivered to customers.
II. NEED OF SOFTWARE TESTING
In order to understand the need of Software Testing in a better
way, we should go back to 1960s and 1970s when software
crisis occurred and there were many difficulties in the
development of software systems. Some examples are stated
below-
A. The Northeast Blackout In 2003
It has been major power system failures in the history of
North America that involves 100 power plants, suddenly, the
power plant was failed. 50 million customers faced this
problem and there was a financial loss of $6 billion.
B. Arian 5-Space Rocket
In 1996, Arian 5- space rocket, developed at cost of $7000
million over a period of 10 years was destroyed within less
than one minute after its launch as there were software bugs
in Rocket Guidance system.
C. US Banks Credit
In 1996, US banks credited $924 lakhs in the accounts of
nearly 800 customers. This problem was due to programming
bugs in the Banking System.
If we try to find out the causes of above failures,
then, there can be many factors responsible for the same.
They can be
 Hardware oriented World
 Inexperienced developer
 User changing requirements
 Rapid increase in software cost
But, the main aspect that is totally responsible for
the failures in big projects is LACK OF PROPER TESTING
because at that time also, developers were trying their level
best to develop a robust software according to the available
resources, skills and technology, but they were lagging in
Testing process that resulted in severe loss of time and money
due to the absence of appropriate testing methodologies, tools
and knowledge.
Therefore, to know how to test the system is an
issue, more importantly, one should know why to test the
system that requires knowledge of goals, objectives and
principles of testing.
III. OBJECTIVES OF SOFTWARE TESTING
The major role of Software Testing is that there should be no
discrepancy in software development process. The goals and
objectives of testing are numerous, which when achieved help
developers build a defectless and satisfactory software.
Some of the Objectives of Software Testing are summarised
below-

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142
A. To Find and Prevent Defects
The foremost task of a tester is to find defects in the software
and report them to developer so that they can be rectified. A
tester must form best set of test cases so that maximum
defects can be arised. After all, Testing shows presence of
defects.
B. Satisfies the SRS & BRS
Another objective of testing is to check whether the
developed software satisfies the Software Requirement
Specification and Business Requirement Specification or not
because until or unless the software is satisfying user
requirements, it is of no use to the customer inspite of using
best programming skills, designing and tools.
C. Writing High Quality Test Cases
A test case is a set of conditions under which a tester will
determine whether an application under test satisfies
requirements or works correctly. The process of developing
test cases can also help problems in the requirement or design
of an application. The more accurate are the test cases, the
better will be testing process.
D. Software Reliability Estimation
Testing also helps to estimate the reliability of software.
Software reliability is the probability of failure-free software
operation for a specified period of time in a specified
environment. Reliability estimation helps to find the number
of failures occurring in a specified amount of time to find the
mean life of software and to discover main cause of failure
etc.
E. Minimum Cost and Effort
Testing is too expensive- it’s a myth. There is always a saying
that we should pay less for testing and more for maintenance.
But in actual, if there will be no proper testing, it
may result in improper design of software that will be
expensive to handle and there will be great loss of time and
money.
F. Gain Customer Confidence
Software testing helps to gain confidence of customers by
providing them a quality product.
IV. TOP QUALITIES OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE TESTERS
A. Keen Observer
A good software tester must be a keen observer so that he can
keep track of all the details about the project and can organise
the testing in a better way. This attribute helps the tester to
remain updated and informed about the test progress.
B. Good Communication Skills
One of the most important skills that a tester must have is-
Good communication skills. A tester must have good verbal
and written communication skills so that he can excel in
writing test plans, test cases, handling defects etc.
C. Analytical Skills
Analytical skill is the skill of performing an analysis and
analysis is the key process of testing. Therefore, proper
analytical and technical skills are required to become a good
software tester so that correct requirement analysis and test
plans can be conducted.
D. Good Time Manager
Time is the biggest constraint in the process of software
development. A software with extraordinary functionalities,
best coding, and proper design can be of no use to customer
if it is not delivered on desired time. Testing is the part of
software development lifecycle (SDLC), hence, early testing
must be done at each and every phase of SDLC to prevent
delay in software delivery process. For this, testers must be
able to manage time in such a way that desired testing results
can be achieved and at the same time, software can be
delivered on time.
E. Quality-Oriented
Great testers are always passionate and quick learners. They
keep a positive attitude. Quality-oriented nature means a
tester should always think about how quality of software can
be enhanced. A tester must be user-oriented, he should always
think about user requirements so that proper software quality
attributes can be achieved.
Other traits of a good software tester can be creative
mind, Out of box thinking, great attitude, intellectual
curiosity etc.
V. PRINCIPLES OF SOFTWARE TESTING
Principles are basic ideas or rules that explains or control how
something happens or works. There are seven principles of
Software Testing-
A. Testing Shows Presence of Defects
The first principle states that testing talks about the presence
of defects and don’t talk about the absence of defects. The
goal of testing is to make the software fail. In case, testers are
unable to find defects after repeated regression testing does
not mean that software is bug-free.
B. Exhaustive Testing Is Impossible
The process of testing the functionality of a software in all
possible inputs (valid or invalid) and preconditions is known
as exhaustive testing. Instead of exhaustive testing, risk
analysis and priorities should be used to focus testing efforts.
For example, if we are testing a text box that accepts numbers
between 0 to 100, we would test for boundary values, on less
than boundary value, one more than boundary value, middle
number, few random numbers, that’s it and assume that if it
is working fine for these numbers, it will work for other
numbers also. We can’t test for each number, that’s very
impractical and complicated.
C. Early Testing
To find the defect in the software, early test activity shall be
started. The defect detected in early phases of Software
Development Lifecycle will be less expensive. So,
conducting early testing reduces the cost of fixing defects.
D. Defect Clustering
It states that, in a project, a small module can contain most of
the defects. Pareto principle states that 80% of the problems
are found in 20% of the modules. Most of the reported defects
are related to small number of modles within a system.

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E. Pesticide Paradox
If you keep running the same set of tests over and over again,
chances are no more new defects will be discovered by those
test cases. To overcome this, the test cases need to be
regularly reviewed and revised, adding new and different test
cases to help find more defects.
F. Testing Is Context Dependent
Testing approach depends on context of software developed.
Different types of software need to perform different types of
testing. For example- The testing of E-commerce site is
different from the testing of the Android application.
G. Absence of Errors- Fallacy
99% of bug-free software may still be unusable, if wrong
requirements were incorporated into the software and the
software is not addressing the business needs. In this case,
finding and fixing defects does not help. “No Amount of
Testing Can Prove a Software Right a Single Test Can Prove
a Software Wrong”
VI. LEVELS OF TESTING
A level of testing is the stage at which the software must be
tested. There are four recognized levels of testing-
A. Unit Testing
In Unit testing, the smallest testable parts of an application
called units are tested independently. It focuses on smallest
element of the software system called module. That’s why, it
is also called module testing. It is done by developers.
1) Example
Consider the example of Calculator. To conduct unit testing
on the calculator system, individual modules like Addition,
subtraction, multiplication, division must be tested
independently.
B. Integration Testing
The purpose of integration testing is to expose faults in the
interaction between integrated units. It is the process of
testing the interface between two software units. It can be
done in three ways- Big-bang approach, top down approach
and bottom up approach.
C. System Testing
System testing is nothing but the testing of complete system.
It is the last test that the developer performs before delivering
the software to public for acceptance testing. Different types
of system testing are followed like usability testing, stress
testing, regression testing etc. First and important step in
system testing is to prepare System test plan.
D. Acceptance Testing
It is a level of testing where a system is tested for
acceptability. It has various types’ like- Alpha testing, beta
testing, user acceptance testing and business acceptance
testing. It is done by end users. Its outcome provides an
important quality indication for the customer to determine
whether to accept or reject the product.
VII. EXEMPLAR ILLUSTRATION OF SOFTWARE TESTING
For practical and better understanding, some test scenarios of
WHATSAPP- Messaging application are provided below.
These are not the actual test cases in a test case format but a
general layout how manual testing is performed. There would
be numerous test cases for Whatsapp, but here, tests are
limited to some of the high level features according to their
functionality.
A. Installation Testing
This type of testing is performed to verify if the software has
been installed with all the necessary components or not.
Whatsapp will be tested whether it can be installed or not.
 Check that user can download the Whatsapp application
from play store or not.
 Check that user can register with a new mobile number.
 Check that user is getting a verification code on his
mobile…..
B. Test Case on Status
 Check that user can set DP (Display Picture).
 Check that user can set status on Whatsapp.
 Check the status privacy and settings.
 Check that recent updates are available or not.
C. Test Case on Chats
 Check that Chats window contains the entire chat list.
 Check that Chats window shows the last updated chat
time.
 Check that Chats window contains the group chat list.
 Check that Chats window contains the users whose DP
is not available.
 Check that user can send and receive media files in chat
to individuals.
 Check that user can check all messages delivered and
received.
 Check that CREATE NEW GROUP is available or not.
 Check that user can give group name.
D. Test Case on Calls
 Check that call history is available or not.
 Check that call history shows the called date and time.
 Check that search is working fine or not.
 Check that user can call and receive calls from person in
his contact list.
E. Design based Testing
Design based testing is the testing in which test cases are
designed according to the detailed or architectural design of
the system.
 Does the Whatsapp follow the design specification?
 Check that call section is available or not.
 Check that Chat section is available or not.
F. Non-Functional Testing
It is the testing of software for its non-functional
requirements.
 Test whether the application looks like an application.
 Look and feel must be good.

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G. Negative Test Cases
 Check that how Whatsapp perform when user try to send
data to blocked group.
 Check that how Whatsapp perform when app gets
crashed.
 Check that how Whatsapp perform when user(Not
admin) try to remove a person from group.
Hence, the above mentioned test scenarios prove that Testing
is a broad concept. We not only need to write POSITIVE test
cases, but NEGATIVE test cases as well. Therefore, each and
every functionality must be tested in order to attain
favourable testing results. So, this was just a clear-cut
example that summarised the significance of Software
testing.
VIII. SOFTWARE TESTING LIFE CYCLE (STLC)
Software testing lifecycle is a sequence of activities
conducted to perform software testing in a systematic and
planned manner. In STLC, different activities are carried out
to improve the quality of product. STLC is a subset of
Software Development life Cycle (SDLC). The phases of
STLC are explained below-
A. Requirement Analysis
In this first phase of STLC, test team studies the requirements
and checks whether the requirements are testable or not.
Business requirement specification and Software requirement
specification play a very important role in this phase.
B. Test Planning
Once the test team is clear with the requirements, the testers
can start making test plans. Test plan is nothing but a proper
strategy or approach with the help of which, testers conduct
their testing.
C. Test Case Development
This phase involves the creation of test cases and test cases
are also reviewed after their finalization. Test team also
prepares the Requirement Traceability Matrix in this phase.
D. Test Environment Setup
Test environment decides on which conditions software is
tested. This phase can run in parallel with design phase. The
deliverables in this phase are test environment and smoke test
results.
E. Test Execution
After test environment setup, execution of test cases is
performed based on the defined test plan. All the positive and
negative test cases must be executed and documented in a
proper format. Defect report should be prepared for failed test
cases and should be reported to the development team for
rectification.
F. Test Closure
Once testing is completed, matrix, reports and results are
documented. It is the last phase of STLC.
STLC is a very important phase of SDLC and final
product cannot be released without passing through testing
process. The different phases of Software Testing Life cycle
must be executed in the same order in which they are defined
from start till end, otherwise desired testing results will not
be noticeable. Moreover, to conduct testing well, the various
terminologies involved in the testing process must be crystal
clear to the testers.
IX. SOFTWARE TESTING TOOLS
Software testing is of two types- Manual and automation.
Automation testing can be done with the help of several tools.
There are many software testing tools available, so it becomes
quite difficult to select the best tool for the project and these
tools are also classified on the basis of certain parameters like
Test management tools, load testing tools, mobile testing
tools, defect tracking tools, security testing tools etc. Some of
the general testing tools are summarised below-
A. Selenium
Selenium is a free open source portable framework for testing
web applications. It is written in Java. It has many
components like Selenium IDE, Selenium Client API,
Selenium web driver, Selenium remote control etc.
B. Testpad
Testpad is a simple test management tool. There are many
features of testpad like it is mobile and tablet friendly, easy
in, easy out, natural way to test, drag and drop organisation
etc.
C. Zephyr
Zephyr, a test management software provides a suite of tools
to optimise speed and quality of testing. When the test load
increases, agile team expands, Zephyr ensures reliability and
testability.
Apart from the above tools, there are many other
tools such as qTest, QMetry, QAComplete, Ranorex etc.
X. A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PRESENT SCENARIO OF
SOFTWARE TESTING WITH REGARD TO SOFTWARE TESTING IN
THE EARLY DAYS
TESTING IN THE
EARLY DAYS
PRESENT SCENARIO
OF TESTING
1
Management style was
command and control.
Management style is
leadership and
Collaboration.
2
Risk was high.
Risk is low.
3
Scope of testing in the
early days was limited.
Scope of testing in the
present world is
Mature and widespread.
4
Reuse was low.
Reuse is high.
5
Planning of testing was
predictive.
Planning of testing is
adaptive.
6
Communication
between developers
and testers was formal.
Today, the
communication is
informal.
7
Primary objective was
high safety.
Primary objective is
quick value.
8
Remodelling was
expensive.
Remodelling is less
expensive.
9
User involvement was
low.
User involvement is
high.

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10
Knowledge
management was
explicit.
Knowledge
management is tacit.
11
INPUT+PROGRAM+
COMPUTATION
RESULTS
INPUT+RESULT+CO
MPUTATION
PROGRAM
Table 1:
CONCLUSION
Software Testing is an activity that is performed for
evaluating software quality and also for improving it. It is one
of the broader topics that wants immediate attention in this
era of new and higher demand of Quality Software. To carry
out testing in a more effective manner, this paper presented a
comprehensive account of all the terminologies that are
related to software testing. Generally, it happens that people
know the best techniques, methodologies, tools that are
involved in testing, but they don’t know the basic testing
goals and this is reflected in their bad testing reports. So, to
perform testing efficiently and accurately, everyone involved
in testing should be familiar with basic software testing goals,
objectives, principles and concepts. Then only, a robust,
reliable, accurate, flexible and efficient Software can be
delivered to public. It is the need of the hour to focus more on
WHY TO TEST rather than HOW TO TEST because when
the WHY is clear then, the HOW is easy.
KEEP CALM AND TEST ON…!
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