Software Testing

2616 Words6 Pages

Software Testing

Software development follows a specific life cycle that starts with designing a solution to a problem and implementing it. Software testing is part of this software life cycle that involves verifying if each unit implemented meets the specifications of the design. Even with careful testing of hundreds or thousands of variables and code statements, users of software find bugs. “Software testing is arguably the least understood part of the development process” and is also a “time-consuming process that requires technical sophistication and proper planning” (Whittaker 71) It is important to comprehend this concept by understanding the different characteristics and aspects of software testing, and then to examine the techniques, procedures and tools used to apply this concept. This will enable the user to realize the problems faced by software testers and the importance of software testing.

Software testing is the “process of executing a software system to determine whether it matches its specification and executes in its intended environment” (Whittaker 71). It is often associated with locating bugs, program defects, faults in the source code, which cause failures during execution that need to be removed from the program. Locating and removing these defects is called debugging, which is different from the testing that establishes the existence of these defects. Specifications are crucial to testing because they identify correct behavior so that software failures corresponding to incorrect behavior can be identified. Failures can vary in their nature ranging from wrong output, system crash to systems using too much memory or executing too slowly. These Bugs in software can be due to untested code executed, u...

... middle of paper ...

...essional Programmer, Nov2002, Vol. 27 Issue 11, p24, 5p, 2 diagrams; (AN 7501083)

Testing One Two. By: Nisley, Ed. Dr. Dobb's Journal: Software Tools for the Professional Programmer, May2003, Vol. 28 Issue 5, p80, 4p, 1c; (AN 9457433)

The top five software-testing problems and how to avoid them. By: Mats, Lars. EDN Europe, Feb2001, Vol. 46 Issue 2, p37, 3p; (AN 4121152)

Users losing billions due to bugs. By: Thibodeau, Patrick; Rosencrance, Linda. Computerworld, Jul2002, Vol. 36 Issue 27, p1, 2p; (AN 6955885)

What Information is Relevant when Selecting Software Testing Techniques? By: Vegas, Sira; Juristo, Natalia; Basili, Victor. International Journal of Software Engineering & Knowledge Engineering, Dec2002, Vol. 12 Issue 6, p657, 18p; (AN 9199276)

What Is Software Testing? And Why Is It So Hard? James A. Whittaker,IEEE SOFTWARE January/February 2000

Open Document