Software testing is the process of evaluating and verifying that a software product or application does what it’s supposed to do. The benefits of good testing include preventing bugs and improving performance.
Software testing today is most effective when it is continuous, indicating that testing is started during the design, continues as the software is built out, and even occurs when deployed into production. Continuous testing means that organizations don’t have to wait for all the pieces to be deployed before testing can start. Shift-left, which is moving testing closer to design, and shift-right, where end-users perform validation, are also philosophies of testing that have recently gained traction in the software community. When your test strategy and management plans are understood, automation of all aspects of testing becomes essential to support the speed of delivery that is required.
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There are many different types of software tests, each with specific objectives and strategies:
In each case, validating base requirements is a critical assessment. Just as important, exploratory testing helps a tester or testing team uncover hard-to-predict scenarios and situations that can lead to software errors.
Even a simple application can be subject to a large number and variety of tests. A test management plan helps to prioritize which types of testing provide the most value—given available time and resources. Testing effectiveness is optimized by running the fewest number of tests to find the largest number of defects.
Software testing arrived alongside the development of software, which had its beginnings just after World War II. Computer scientist Tom Kilburn is credited with writing the first piece of software, which debuted on 21 June 1948 at the University of Manchester in England. It performed mathematical calculations by using machine code instructions.
Debugging was the main testing method at the time and remained so for the next two decades. By the 1980s, development teams looked beyond isolating and fixing software bugs to testing applications in real-world settings. It set the stage for a broader view of testing, which encompassed a quality assurance process that was part of the software development lifecycle.
Few can argue against the need for quality control when developing software. Late delivery or software defects can damage a brand’s reputation, which leads to frustrated and lost customers. In extreme cases, a bug or defect can degrade interconnected systems or cause serious malfunctions.
Consider Nissan having to recall over 1 million cars due to a software defect in the airbag sensor detectors, or a software bug that caused the failure of a USD 1.2 billion military satellite launch.1 The numbers speak for themselves. Software failures in the US cost the economy USD 1.1 trillion in assets in 2016. What’s more, they impacted 4.4 billion customers.2
Though testing itself costs money, companies can save millions per year in development and support if they have a good testing technique and QA processes in place. Early software testing uncovers problems before a product goes to market. The sooner development teams receive test feedback, the sooner they can address issues such as:
When development leaves ample room for testing, it improves software reliability and high-quality applications are delivered with few errors. A system that meets or even exceeds customer expectations leads to potentially more sales and greater market share.
Software testing follows a common process. Tasks or steps include defining the test environment, developing test cases, writing scripts, analyzing test results and submitting defect reports.
Testing can be time-consuming. Manual testing or ad hoc testing might be enough for small builds. However, for larger systems, tools are frequently used to automate tasks. Automated testing helps teams implement different scenarios, test differentiators (such as moving components into a cloud environment), and quickly get feedback on what works and what doesn't.
A good testing approach encompasses the application programming interface (API), user interface and system levels. The more tests that are automated, and run early, the better. Some teams build in-house test automation tools. However, vendor solutions offer features that can streamline key test management tasks such as:
Continuous testing
Project teams test each build as it becomes available. This type of software testing relies on test automation that is integrated with the deployment process. It enables software to be validated in realistic test environments earlier in the process, which improves design and reduces risks.
Configuration management
Organizations centrally maintain test assets and track what software builds to test. Teams gain access to assets such as code, requirements, design documents, models, test scripts and test results. Good systems include user authentication and audit trails to help teams meet compliance requirements with minimal administrative effort.
Service virtualization
Testing environments might not be available, especially early in code development. Service virtualization simulates the services and systems that are missing or not yet completed, enabling teams to reduce dependencies and test sooner. They can reuse, deploy and change a configuration to test different scenarios without having to modify the original environment.
Defect or bug tracking
Monitoring defects is important to both testing and development teams for measuring and improving quality. Automated tools allow teams to track defects, measure their scope and impact, and uncover related issues.
Metrics and reporting
Reporting and analytics enable team members to share status, goals and test results. Advanced tools integrate project metrics and present results in a dashboard. Teams quickly see the overall health of a project and can monitor relationships between test, development and other project elements.
IBM Engineering Workflow Management acts as the critical link between required and delivered work by enabling teams to manage plans, tasks and project status.
IBM Engineering Test Management is a collaborative, quality management solution that offers end-to-end test planning and test asset management, from requirements to defects.
A comprehensive testing and virtualization platform to help ensure application quality throughout the software lifecycle.
IBM DevOps Test Workbench provides software testing tools to support API testing, functional UI testing, performance testing and service virtualization.
IBM DevOps Test Virtualization enables early and frequent testing in the development lifecycle.
IBM DevOps Automation helps improve productivity, reduce business risk and deliver applications faster using generative AI and automation.
IBM DevOps Deploy is an application-release solution that infuses automation into the continuous delivery and continuous deployment process and provides robust visibility, traceability and auditing capabilities.
Velocity automates processes in your release lifecycle and gathers insights into your DevOps processes.
Continuous testing plays a crucial role in accelerating software development, improving code quality, and avoiding costly bottlenecks.
Software development refers to a set of computer science activities dedicated to the process of creating, designing, deploying and supporting software.
This ebook explores why testing earlier and more often is critical for achieving the IBM DevOps goal of faster software delivery.
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1 "What is Software Testing?" (link resides outside ibm.com), Thomas Hamilton, guru99.com, updated 3 January 2024
2 "The glitch economy: Counting the cost of software failures" (link resides outside ibm.com), Dalibor Siroky, 30 October 2017