Software testing is a process to ensure that the software, product, or application performs correctly and meets specific requirements. The primary objectives of software tests are to eliminate bugs and enrich the software regarding user experience, performance and security.
Depending on the specific goal, type of software and other considerations, different types of software testing can take place.
Below are the various types of testing available and, which are used to test the application or the software.
| Functional Testing | Non-Functional Testing |
| Focuses of evaluating user interfaces, client/server applications, and functionality of a software application. | Focuses on non-functional aspects, such as stability, security, and usability, are functioning as anticipated |
| Identifying software application functionality issues before they escalate into major issues. | Providing a higher level of security safeguarding systems against online threats. |
| Verifying that required features work as expected and evaluating the system’s ability to handle unexpected conditions. | Ensuring the system’s capability to handle concurrent user usage without performance degradation. |
| Ensuring the software applications meet end users’ expectations and are bug-free. | Contributing to the enhancement of the system’s overall efficiency. |
| Monitoring progress and adjusting testing plans as needed. | Contributing to the enhancement of the system’s overall efficiency. |
Unit Testing:
Unit testing is the first level of testing and is often performed by the developers themselves. It is the process of ensuring individual components of a piece of software at the code level are functional and work as they were designed to. Developers in a test-driven environment will typically write and run the tests prior to the software or feature being passed over to the test team. Unit testing will also make debugging easier because finding issues earlier means they take less time to fix than if they were discovered later in the testing process.
Integration Testing
After each unit is thoroughly tested, it is integrated with other units to create modules or components that are designed to perform specific tasks or activities. These are then tested as group through integration testing to ensure whole segments of an application behave as expected (i.e, the interactions between units are seamless). These tests are often framed by user scenarios, such as logging into an application or opening files.
Component testing: Component testing, also known as module testing, is an approach that evaluates individual modules or components within broader software applications. This form of testing concentrates on individual test objects, like modules, classes, objects, and programs, without merging them with other components.
System integration testing: System integration testing (SIT) is a form of software testing executed in an integrated hardware and software environment to validate the entire system’s behavior. It involves testing the complete, integrated system to ascertain its conformity with the specified requirements.
System Testing
System testing is a black box testing method used to evaluate the completed and integrated system, as a whole, to ensure it meets specified requirements. The functionality of the software is tested from end-to-end and is typically conducted by a separate testing team than the development team before the product is pushed into production.
End-to-end tests
End-to-end testing replicates a user behavior with the software in a complete application environment. It verifies that various user flows work as expected and can be as simple as loading a web page or logging in or much more complex scenarios verifying email notifications, online payments, etc...
End-to-end tests are very useful, but they're expensive to perform and can be hard to maintain when they're automated. It is recommended to have a few key end-to-end tests and rely more on lower level types of testing (unit and integration tests) to be able to quickly identify breaking changes.
Smoke Testing
Smoke testing is done to verify that the most critical parts of the application work as intended. It’s a first pass through the testing process, and is not intended to be exhaustive. Smoke tests ensure that the application is operational on a basic level. If it’s not, there’s no need to progress to more detailed testing, and the application can go right back to the development team for review.
Sanity Testing
Sanity testing is in some ways a cousin to smoke testing, as it is also intended to verify basic functionality and potentially avoid detailed testing of broken software. The difference is that sanity tests are done later in the process in order to test whether a new code change has had the desired effect. It is a “sanity check” on a specific change to determine if the new code roughly performs as expected.
Acceptance Testing
Acceptance testing is the last phase of functional testing and is used to assess whether or not the final piece of software is ready for delivery. It involves ensuring that the product is in compliance with all of the original business criteria and that it meets the end user’s needs. This requires the product be tested both internally and externally, meaning you’ll need to get it into the hands of your end users for beta testing along with those of your QA team. Beta testing is key to getting real feedback from potential customers and can address any final usability concerns.
Alpha testing: Alpha testing is done by the in-house developers (who developed the software) and testers. Sometimes alpha testing is done by the client or outsourcing team with the presence of developers or testers.
Beta testing: Beta testing is done by a limited number of end-users before delivery. Usually, it is done in the client’s place.
User Acceptance Testing: is a specific type of acceptance testing carried out by end-users of software applications. The primary focus of UAT is to validate the software application from the user’s perspective and ensure that it meets their needs and requirements. Typically performed towards the end of the Software Development Life Cycle, UAT ensures user satisfaction.
Regression Testing
Regression Testing is a type of software testing that verifies recent code changes haven’t affected existing features. It involves re-executing a selection of previously executed test cases to ensure the functioning of existing features. The testing is crucial to confirm that new code changes do not produce any impact on existing functionalities.
NON FUNCTIONAL TESTING:
Performance testing
Performance testing is one of the types of software testing to check how well a software application maintains stability, speed, scalability, and responsiveness under specific workloads. In other words, it includes different tests that check the speed, robustness, reliability, and appropriate sizing of the software application.
Stress Testing: Determines how the software behaves under extreme workloads, testing its limits and identifying its breaking point.
Load Testing: Evaluates the software’s performance under expected user loads to ensure it can handle anticipated traffic without degradation of performance.
Endurance Testing: Checks the software’s ability to sustain the expected load over an extended period, ensuring reliability over time.
Spike Testing: Assesses the software’s reaction to sudden large spikes in user load, such as a surge in web traffic, to ensure it can handle abrupt changes in demand.
Soak Testing: Involves testing the software under a significant load extended over a long duration to identify issues like memory leaks.
Scalability Testing: Determines the software’s effectiveness in scaling up or down in response to varying loads, ensuring it can adapt to growth and change in user demand.
Usability testing
Usability testing, also referred to as user experience (UX) testing, involves evaluating the functionality of a website or web app by observing actual users as they engage with it to accomplish tasks. Primary focus of usability testing is evaluating the user interface and the overall user experience of a software application. Consequently, the testing process involves real users interacting with the software application to measure its ease of use, efficiency, and overall user satisfaction.
Accessibility Testing
The aim of the Accessibility Testing is to determine whether the software or application is accessible for disabled people or not.
Here, disability means deafness,color blindness, mentally disabled, blind, old age, and other disabled groups. Various checks are performed, such as font size for visually disabled, color and contrast for color blindness, etc.
Compatibility Testing:
It is one of the crucial non-functional tests that ensure your software application can operate seamlessly across diverse hardware, operating systems, applications, network environments, or mobile devices.
- Cross-browser testing: Cross browser testing verifies the functioning of websites across various browsers, operating systems, and devices. It includes testing the website’s functionality, performance, and user interface on various web browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari, and Opera.
Security Testing
It is a type of software testing that checks the vulnerability of the software application against cyber threats. This is done by evaluating its susceptibility to attacks and the impact of malicious or unexpected inputs on its functionality.
These are the different types of software testing types, there are also numerous other types of software testing and their sub-categories exist. Testing extends beyond merely finding bugs—it is essential for developing trust and confidence in your software application. Therefore, it is essential to approach software testing holistically throughout the entire development life cycle and utilize a diverse toolkit of complementary testing methods.