Software Testing: The Basic Testing Process

Software testing categorized on the basis of purpose of testing are functional and performance testing. These are the most important software testing basics and are necessary for the overall quality of the software. In functional testing, the focus of testing is on functional aspects of the system. In this test cases are written to check the expected output and are normally performed in all the test phases from unit to system testing; however, some people test the software only at the fag end of the software development. Detecting the bugs in the software and debugging of the software is easy if the testing is carried out starting from the initial stages of development.

Functional testing is testing that makes sure that every individual function works, as envisaged. All the functions together are what make the system perform correctly The functional testing covers installation tests, Regression testing, upgrade and backward compatibility testing, accessibility testing, internationalization and local testing, API testing and testing of  user interface, database management, security and networking. During this testing the software is also tested for functions such as user commands, searches, user screens, integrations and data manipulation. Functional testing also helps in the following areas.

	Determines the functioning of the software during downloads and after
	System performance on execution of all the commands required
	The functionality of the software will be good on a specific system, but it fails when the user transfers the data to some other system; this anomaly will be corrected by the software testing basics
	In the field of computers there has been technological improvements occurring constantly and the users upgrade the product frequently because of obsolescence. Hence it is important that all the software on the system can be upgraded as well.

Performance testing is normally conducted after the completion of functional testing and during the System Testing phase which is near about the final stages of software testing cycle. Many people consider performance testing is the same as functional testing. Although they appear similar they are distinctly different. Objective of performance testing is to check whether the system meets performance requirements. Some of the tests conducted during performance testing determine the time taken for loading the program, time taken for each transaction, extent of work that the program can do at any one time etc. The software stress tests determine the performance of the system when the system has low resources, little memory etc. It also tests the amount of data it can take without any system failure. Further, the point of failure is determined so that correction can be done for better performance.

The performance of certain modules will be satisfactory when tested at a point of time. However, addition of any other module to this software will cause malfunctioning of the software and requires debugging. This is one of the reasons why it is essential that the software testing basics is followed during the entire development of the software. This facilitates localizing the problems from early stages and rectifying them. Net result of this will be saving in time and research efforts.

To improve the efficiency of software testing a number of software testing tools are available. Some of them are detailed in later articles. The whole process of testing requires a lot of effort; however, they need to have proper software testing basics for it to become effective.