Problem description: why testing is necessary?
We live in a world of advanced technologies that are developing rapidly and will continue to do so. Today, digitalization affects all aspects of our lives: mobile applications, smart homes, control systems, tracking systems, social networks, and various devices, from motion cat toys to complex medical appliances.
However, even the most carefully developed software can contain defects. Testing allows you to evaluate the software quality and identify flaws. It also helps ensure compliance with specified requirements, specifications, regulatory demands, and generally accepted industry standards.Issues in software products fall into various categories:
- the software may not work as expected, produces wrong results or doesn’t work at all
- the application might be inconvenient, confusing, and difficult to use without looking at the instructions (nobody reads instructions, do they?). In short, not user-friendly at all
- the application may lack sufficient monitoring making it difficult to isolate a possible problem and identify its root cause
- the software may contain security flaws that allows attackers to hack it, steal confidential data, or use the software for illegal purposes
Testing deficiencies have negative consequences for companies:
- defects may lead to costly corrections, regulatory fines and other financial losses
- problems can damage the company's reputation and cause mistrust
- in critical systems like healthcare or transportation, software errors can pose a direct threat to human life and safety
- Low quality software products will result in a loss of profit.
What are the minimum testing requirements?
Several basic requirements should be met for effective testing:
- tests should cover at least 80% of the program's functionality, based on generally accepted industry practice. Particular attention should be paid to critical areas important to users and business
- Test coverage requirements vary based on the nature of the application. A training application needs less coverage than a CT Scanner
- different types of testing should be applied depending on the software functionality
- QA Engineers must have the necessary knowledge, skills, and understanding of the software being tested
- Collaboration across the entire project staff is essential for improving the testing process
What are the practical considerations of the QA Process?
Even in the best circumstances, testing faces limitations and challenges:
- while it may be possible to test all the scenarios and flows in complex systems, it will be very costly and time consuming. QA Engineers must find a balance and focus on “necessary and sufficient” and finding the “golden mean”
- testers, like anyone, can make mistakes. This can also occur due to incorrect interpretation and understanding of the particular software
- time and budget constraints are common challenges in software development. This does not always allow testers to conduct all the necessary types of tests in full. And often, they have to make compromises and concessions
- some types of defects, such as performance bottlenecks or security vulnerabilities, may be difficult to detect and reproduce
QA and testing plays one of the key roles in software development. And in the next articles we will go into more detail about testing
