Introduction to Types of Testing
As developers, we are aware of the various forms of software testing such as Functional Testing, Non-Functional Testing, Automation Testing, Agile Testing, and their subtypes, etc. Many of us will have come across a range of forms of tests during our test journey. We might have heard some of them, and we might have worked on some of them, but not everybody has knowledge of all the types of testing.
Common application testing types
If you purchase a new web page or cell application from a computer software enhancement business, for instance, tests expert services are incorporated in the growth approach by default.
But how does it materialize? As a rule, the 1st QA engineers accomplish a need analysis. It allows testers to have an understanding of what the app ought to do and how to keep away from bugs.
Functional Software Testing
This type includes the following
Functional Testing
- Unit Testing
- Integration Testing
- System Testing
- Sanity Testing
- Smoke Testing
- Interface Testing
- Regression Testing
- Beta/Acceptance Testing
Non-functional Testing
- Performance Testing
- Load Testing
- Stress Testing
- Volume Testing
- Security Testing
- Compatibility Testing
- Install Testing
- Recovery Testing
- Reliability Testing
- Usability Testing
- Compliance Testing
- Localization Testing
What is black box testing?
Black box testing is functional testing, not based on any knowledge of internal software design or code. Black box testing is based on requirements and functionality.
In this type of testing the internal system, the design is not considered. Testing is based on demands and functionality. Detailed data about the Black Box Testing advantages, disadvantages, and types can be seen in this.
Boundary Value Testing
This type of testing inspects the application’s behaviour at the boundary level. Boundary Value Testing is conducted to determine if defects at limit values occur. Boundary-value testing is used to test a different number range. For each range, there is a top and bottom boundary and testing is performed on those boundary values.
When testing includes a test set of numbers from 1 to 500, Boundary Value Analysis will be conducted at 0, 1, 2, 499, 500 and 501 values.
What is Equivalence Partitioning Testing
It is a black box computing methodology and kind of research. In this Partitioning of Equivalence, a group collection is chosen and a few values or figures are obtained for checking.
All values from that group are understood to generate the same output. The aim of this test is to eliminate redundant test cases within a particular group producing the same output but no defects.
Suppose the framework accepts values between -10 to +10 so using equivalence partitioning the values taken for testing are zero, one positive, one negative. Therefore, the Partitioning Equivalence for this test is -10 to -1, 0, and 1 to 10.
What is Exploratory Testing
Exploratory Testing is an informal examination conducted by the research team. The purpose of this research is to explore the application and check for flaws that occur in the application.
Often it may happen that a big fault found during this test can also cause a system failure. During Exploratory Testing, it is good to place track about what flow you were testing and what activity you were doing before the particular flow started.
This type of testing ignores the interior parts and focuses only on the output to see if it is as per the need or not.
What is the Graphical interface (GUI) Testing
The purpose of this GUI testing is to verify the GUI according to the business requirement. Within the Comprehensive Design Document and Interface mockup screens, that appliance’s intended Interface is listed.
The GUI Testing includes the dimensions of the buttons and input field present on the screen, alignment of all text, tables, and content within the tables.
It also validates the menu of the appliance, after selecting the different menu and menu items, it validates that the page does not fluctuate and therefore the alignment remains same after hovering the mouse on the menu or sub-menu.
What is Monkey Testing?
Monkey Testing is administered by a tester assuming that if the monkey uses the appliance then how random input, values are going to be entered by the Monkey with none knowledge or understanding of the appliance.
The objective of Monkey Testing is to see if an application or system gets crashed by providing random input values/data.
What is Mutation Testing?
Mutation Testing may be a sort of white box testing during which the ASCII text file of 1 of the program is modified and verifies whether the prevailing test cases can identify these defects within the system.
The change within the program ASCII text file is minimal in order that it does not affect the whole application, only the precise area having the impact and therefore the related test cases should ready to identify those errors within the system.
What is Gorilla Testing
Gorilla Testing maybe a testing type performed by a tester and sometimes by the developer. In Gorilla Testing, one module or the functionality within the module is tested thoroughly and heavily. The target of this testing is to see the robustness of the appliance.
What is happy Path Testing?
The objective of Happy Path Testing is to check an application successfully on a positive flow. It does not search for negative or error conditions. The main target is merely on the valid and positive inputs through which application generates the expected output.
What is white box testing?
A: White box testing is based on knowledge of the internal logic of an application’s code. Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths, and conditions.
White Box Testing is predicated on the knowledge about the interior logic of an application’s code. It is also referred to as Glass box Testing. Internal software and code working should be known for performing this sort of testing. Under these tests are supported the coverage of code statements, branches, paths, conditions, etc.
What is unit testing?
Unit testing is the first level of dynamic testing and is first the responsibility of developers and then that of the test engineers. Unit testing is performed after the expected test results are met or differences are explainable/acceptable.
Testing of a private software component or module is termed as Unit Testing. It is typically done by the programmer and not by testers because it requires detailed knowledge of the interior program design and code. It is going to also require developing driver modules or test harnesses.
What is Static Testing?
Static Testing may be a sort of testing which is executed with none code. Static Testing is additionally applicable for test cases, test plan, design document.
It is necessary to perform static testing by the testing team because the defects identified during this sort of testing are cost-effective from the project perspective.
What is parallel/audit testing?
Parallel/audit testing is testing where the user reconciles the output of the new system to the output of the current system to verify the new system performs the operations correctly.
What is Split Testing?
This is really a new domain for testing. Initially, it was a part of analytics but nowadays in the time of large web 2 marketing, people really want to test their web by testing guys.
What is functional testing?
Functional testing is a black-box type of testing geared to the functional requirements of an application. Test engineers should perform functional testing.
The tester verifies that possibly the computer software satisfies the requirements of the graphical consumer interface and if it is built in one model.
It resembles screening with various monitor resolutions, compatibility with many Internet browsers, as effectively as the testing of localized versions – translation precision and identifies the size of interface things.
What is usability testing?
Usability testing is testing for ‘user-friendliness’. Clearly this is subjective and depends on the targeted end-user or customer. User interviews, surveys, video recording of user sessions, and other techniques can be used. Test engineers are needed because programmers and developers are usually not appropriate as usability testers.
QA engineers must comprehend how to make the closing product person-pleasant. So they put themselves in the shoes of popular buyers – they have to have to check the software package’ usability, and obtain out if it is effortless-to-use or not.
Under Usability Testing, User-friendliness check is completed. The appliance flow is tested to understand if a replacement user can understand the appliance easily or not, Proper help documented if a user is stuck at any point. System navigation is checked during this testing.
What is incremental integration testing?
Incremental integration testing is continuous testing of an application as new functionality is recommended. This may require that various aspects of an application’s functionality are independent enough to work separately, before all parts of the program are completed, or that test drivers are developed as needed.
This type of testing may be performed by programmers, software engineers, or test engineers.
Testing of all compatible modules after deployment is called Compatibility Testing to validate the merged features.
What is integration testing?
Upon completion of unit testing, integration testing begins. Integration testing is black-box testing. The purpose of integration testing is to ensure distinct components of the application still work in accordance with customer requirements.
Test cases are developed with the express purpose of exercising the interfaces between the components. This activity is carried out by the test team. Integration testing is considered complete when actual results and expected results are either inline or differences are explainable/acceptable based on client input.
What is system testing?
System testing is black-box testing, performed by the Test Team, and at the start of the system testing the complete system is configured in a controlled environment. The purpose of system testing is to validate an application’s accuracy and completeness in performing the functions as designed.
System testing simulates real-life scenarios that occur in a “simulated real-life” test environment and test all functions of the system that are required in real life. System testing is deemed complete when actual results and expected results are either in line or differences are explainable or acceptable, based on client input.
Upon completion of integration testing, system testing is started. Before system testing, all unit and integration test results are reviewed by SWQA to ensure all problems have been resolved. For a higher level of testing, it is important to understand unresolved problems that originate at unit and integration test levels.
Under System Testing technique, the whole system is tested as per the wants. It is a Black-box type testing that has supported overall requirement specifications and covers all the combined parts of a system.
What is end-to-end testing?
End-to-end testing is similar to system testing, the *macro* end of the test scale; it is the testing a complete application in a situation that mimics real-life use, such as interacting with a database, using network communication, or interacting with other hardware, application, or system.
What is regression testing?
The objective of regression testing is to ensure the software remains intact. A baseline set of data and scripts is maintained and executed to verify that changes introduced during the release have not “undone” any previous code.
Expected results from the baseline are compared to the results of the software under test. All discrepancies are highlighted and accounted for, before testing proceeds to the next level.
If a piece of Software is modified for any reason testing needs to be done to ensure that it works as specified and that it has not negatively impacted any functionality that it offered previously. This is known as Regression Testing.
What is sanity testing?
Sanity testing is cursory testing; it is performed whenever a cursory testing is sufficient to prove the application is functioning according to specifications. This level of testing is a subset of regression testing. It normally includes a set of core tests of basic GUI functionality to demonstrate connectivity to the database, application servers, printers, etc.
Then it is concentrated testing oriented for confirmation that just one operation or yet another is functioning according to necessities said in the specification. It is a subset of regression testing.
Sanity Testing is completed to work out if a replacement software version is performing tolerably to simply accept it for a serious testing effort or not. If the application is crashing for the beginning state and use then the system is not stable enough for further testing.
What is installation testing?
Installation testing is the testing of a full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall process. The installation test is conducted with the objective of demonstrating production readiness.
This test includes the inventory of configuration items, performed by the application’s System Administration, the evaluation of data readiness, and dynamic tests focused on basic system functionality. Following installation testing, a sanity test is performed when necessary.
Installation and Uninstallation Testing is completed on full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall processes on different operating systems under different hardware or software environment.
What is security/penetration testing?
Security/penetration testing is testing how well the system is protected against unauthorized internal or external access or willful damage. This type of testing usually requires sophisticated testing techniques.
Accessibility Testing is another part of security testing. That is exactly where QA engineers should check how the authorization process is operating in the software package that’ being tested.
For case in point, you are a normal person, and it would have been very strange if you had accessibility to the administrator’s entry legal rights, would not it? And testers want to make confident that everything is operating thoroughly.
It is a kind of testing performed by a special team of testers. A system are often penetrated by any hacking way. Security Testing is completed to see how the software, application, or website is secure from internal and external threats.
This testing includes what proportion software is secure from the computer virus, viruses and the way secure and powerful the authorization and authentication processes are. It also checks how software behaves for any hackers attack and malicious programs and the way software is maintained for data security after such a hacker attack.
What is Accessibility Testing
The purpose of Accessibility Testing is to assess whether or not the device or service is available to people with disabilities.
Here, disabilities are classified as deaf, colour blind, mentally ill, blind, elderly and other ill classes. Various checks are carried out, such as font size for visually disabled persons, colour and contrast for vision loss, etc.
What is recovery/error testing?
Recovery/error testing is testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.
It is a kind of testing, which validates how well the appliance or system recovers from crashes or disasters. Recovery Testing determines if the system is in a position to continue the operation after a disaster.
Sometime later, plug the network cable; then the system should start receiving data from where it lost the connection thanks to network cable unplugged.
What is compatibility testing?
Compatibility testing is testing how well software performs in a particular hardware, software, operating system, or network environment.
What is comparison testing?
Comparison testing is testing that compares software weaknesses and strengths to those of competitors’ products.
Comparison of weaknesses and strengths of a product with its preceding editions or other related products is called Comparison Testing.
What is acceptance testing?
Acceptance testing is black-box testing that gives the client/customer/project manager the opportunity to verify the system functionality and usability prior to the system being released to production.
The acceptance test is the responsibility of the client/customer or project manager, however, it is conducted with the full support of the project team. The test team also works with the client/customer/project manager to develop the acceptance criteria.
Testers confirm if the program fulfils all accepted standards. Then it is up to the shopper to make a conclusion wherever the program will be sent for revision or will be recognized.
The Acceptance Check is conducted by the company, verifies whether the end-to-end operation of the system is as per the business needs, and is as per the needs of the end-user. The client accepts the software only when all features and functionalities are functioning as expected
It is the last phase of development, after which the program goes into production. It is often referred to as User Acceptance Testing.
Know more about software testing: What is CAST-Computer Aided Software Testing?
What is smoke Test
A smoke test is related to acceptance tests. At this stage, QA engineers make a limited cycle of assessments to check how the new product or service fulfils its features, how it will work, and how it is launched.
Whenever the event team provides a replacement build then the Software Testing team validates the build and ensures that no major issue exists.
The testing team ensures that the build is stable and an in-depth level of testing is administered further. Smoke Testing checks that no showstopper defect exists within the build, which can prevent the testing team to check the appliance intimately.
If testers find that the main critical functionality is weakened at the initial stage itself then the testing team can reject the build and inform accordingly to the event team. Smoke Testing is administered to an in-depth level of any Functional or Regression Testing.
What is alpha testing?
Alpha testing is testing of an application when development is nearing completion. Minor design changes can still be made as a result of alpha testing. Alpha testing is typically performed by end-users or others, not programmers, software engineers, or test engineers.
This is the most common type of testing used in the software industry. The purpose of this test is to detect any potential issues or defects before it is submitted to the market or to the consumer. Alpha Testing is performed at the end of the development phase of the software but before the Beta Testing. However, minor design improvements may be made because of such testing.
Alpha Testing is performed at the developer’s site. For this form of research, in-house virtual user experience can be developed.
What is beta testing?
Beta testing is testing an application when development and testing are essentially completed and final bugs and problems need to be found before the final release. Beta testing is typically performed by end-users or others, not programmers, software engineers, or test engineers.
As nowadays we are migrating to a fast-paced agile way of developing software and testing, the testing varieties need to be updated. Whole 22 testing methods are cut shorted into 6 methods.
Beta Testing is a standardized method of software testing conducted by the consumer. It is carried out in the real world situation before the product is released on the market for the actual end-users.
Beta Testing is implemented to ensure that there are no significant bugs in the software or product and that it meets the company requirements from the point of view of end-users. Beta Testing is successful when the client accepts the program.
Typically, end-users or someone else does this testing. This is the final check conducted prior to the publication of a commercial application. Typically, the Beta version of the program or product released is restricted to a number of users in a particular region.
Therefore, the end-user probably uses the app and shares reviews with the company. The company then takes the necessary acts before releasing the product to the world.
What is Ad-hoc Testing?
The name itself indicates that this test is carried out on an ad hoc basis, i.e. without reference to the test case but also without any plan or guidelines in place for such a type of test. The aim of the test is to detect defects and to break the application by performing any application flow or random functionality.
Ad-hoc testing is an informal way to detect defects and it can be performed by anything in the project. Errors are not easy to search without making a test case, but sometimes it is possible that defects found during ad hoc testing may not have been identified using existing test cases.
Agile testing varieties – why are they essential?
In most cases, all test varieties deemed above can help experts to make the good screening. But if your merchandise is non-regular, the requirement in innovative screening may crop up. Superior tests incorporate the pursuing:
Sprint exercise. It suggests that QA specialists start tests even ahead of the software is completed. It tends to make it attainable to keep away from bugs at an early stage.
Automatic Useful and Regression screening. Automation tends to make it possible to get brief effects and to take care of all bugs as shortly as feasible. Also, the form of this test enables you to launch the take a look at various parameters: a handful of variations of entering and envisioned facts.
What is the software package testing?
As opposed to software package testing that entails the tests of distinct capabilities or parts of software in opposition to predefined results, software QA engineering is significantly far more assorted and all-encompassing.
A software excellent engineer performs with the advancement workforce to style and design and build the resource codes. He or she conducts other allied duties these kinds of as tests, integrating, and deploying the software package.
What is Compatibility testing?
It is important to realize how the product or service is appropriate with method features and other applications.
Interrupt tests. Anything is basic here – a comprehending of how the product will do the job immediately after an unanticipated interruption.
Load testing. What will occur to your application if far too numerous people start out employing it simultaneously? That is what testers ought to uncover out and then make the most load for the software.
Security screening. Tests for protection from feasible net assaults.
what is Browser Compatibility Testing?
It is a subcategory of the Compatibility Testing (explained below) and is performed by the testing team. Web Compatibility Testing is conducted for web applications and guarantees that the program can run with a variety of various browsers and operating systems.
This method of testing often validates whether or not web application is running on all variants of all browsers.
What is Back-end Testing?
Once information or data is entered in the front-end program, it is stored in the database and the checking of the database is known as Database Testing or Backend Testing.
There are various databases, such as SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, etc. Database Testing involves checking the configuration of the table, the schema, the stored procedure, the data structure and so on. In the Back-end Testing GUI, the testers are directly connected to the database with proper access and the testers could even easily evaluate the information by running a few queries in the database.
Issues can be identified such as data loss, deadlock, corruption of data, etc. during this back-end test, and these issues are critical to repair even before the system goes into the actual market.
What is Backward Compatibility Testing?
A kind of testing validates whether or not the newly created software or modified software fits well with the older environment version.
Backward Compatibility Testing tests if the current software version fits well with the file format created by an older software version; it also fits well with data tables, data files, data structure generated by the older software version. If any of the software is revised then it should work well enough on top of that software’s previous model.
What is Non-Functional Testing?
It is a kind of testing that every organization having a separate team that usually called as Non-Functional Test (NFT) team or Performance team.
Non-Functional Testing involves testing of non-functional requirements like Load Testing, Stress Testing, Security, Volume, Recovery Testing, etc.
The target of NFT testing is to make sure whether the reaction time of software or application is quick enough as per the business requirement. It should not take much time to load any page or system and will sustain during peak load.
What is performance testing?
Performance testing verifies loads, volumes, and response times, as defined by requirements. Although performance testing is a part of system testing, it can be regarded as a distinct level of testing.
This term is usually used interchangeably with ‘stress’ and ‘load’ testing. Performance Testing is completed to see whether the system meets the performance requirements. Different performance and cargo tools are wont to do that testing.
What is load testing?
Load testing is testing an application under heavy loads, such as the testing of a web site under a range of loads to determine at what point the system response time will degrade or fail.
It is a kind of Non-Functional Testing and therefore the objective of Load Testing is to see what proportion load or maximum workload a system can handle with none performance degradation.
Load Testing helps to seek out the utmost capacity of the system under specific load and any issues that cause software performance degradation.
This testing is performed using some famous tools like JMeter, LoadRunner, WebLoad, Silk performer, etc.
What is Volume Testing?
Volume Testing may be a sort of Non-Functional Testing performed by the Performance Testing team. The software or application undergoes an enormous amount of knowledge and Volume Testing checks the system behaviour and reaction time of the appliance when the system found such a high volume of knowledge. This high volume of knowledge may affect the system’s performance and speed of the time interval.
What is Vulnerability Testing?
The testing, which involves identifying weakness within the software, hardware and therefore the network, is understood as Vulnerability Testing.
Malicious programs, the hacker can take hold of the system, if it is susceptible to such quite attacks, viruses, and worms. Therefore, it is necessary to see if those systems undergo Vulnerability Testing before production.
It is going to identify critical defects, flaws within the security.
What is Stress Testing?
This testing is completed when a system is stressed beyond its specifications to see how and when it fails. This is often performed under heavy load like putting sizable amount beyond storage capacity, complex database queries, and continuous input to the system or database load.
What is Risk-Based Testing (RBT)?
In Risk-Based Testing, the functionalities or requirements are tested supported their priority. Risk-Based Testing includes testing of highly critical functionality, which has the very best impact on business and during which the probability of failure is extremely high.
The priority decision is predicated on the business need, so once priority is about for all functionalities then high priority functionality or test cases are executed first followed by medium then low priority functionalities. The low priority functionality could also be tested or not tested supported the available time.
Risk-Based Testing is administered if there is insufficient time available to check entire software and software must be implemented on time with none delay.
Summary
We can see that the test method is not less difficult than improvement. There are a lot of vital challenges to be regarded as and a critical progress business should really pay consideration to them.
If you do not want to lose your consumers, you need to not skip on high-quality assurance. Apart from basic tests, superior tests can also be related to seriously fantastic last products.
The Software Testing Forms listed above are just a part of testing. There is also already a list of over 50 forms of testing, however, not all types of testing are used in all kinds of projects.
Therefore, I discussed several common Software Testing Forms that are often used in the life cycle of the test. Sometimes, in various organizations, alternate concepts or methods are used, but the basic idea is the same everywhere.
Such types of assessments, procedures and their methods of implementation tend to evolve when and when the project, specifications, and scope changes.
