Software testing is one of the most critical stages in creating any product (program, website, mobile application, etc.). It allows you to identify the slightest mistakes that the developer makes. That is why many corporations pay as much as 60% of the entire budget on this process. It allows you to make the product as high quality and valuable as possible. Testing should be carried out throughout the software development life cycle (SDLC) to get the best result.
When should you start testing?
Many people think that testing is done at the end of the SDLC, just before the release of the finished product. But, practice shows that this approach is false. Firstly, at the last stage, it becomes much more difficult to identify errors; secondly, one small mistake at the very beginning of the code can lead to many new errors. It is where the snowball effect comes into play.
So, it is always better to start testing at the very beginning of the SDLC, when there is still a lot of work and fixes ahead. It will allow you to identify errors at the earliest stages of development and thus prevent the emergence of new ones.
The earliest phase of SDLC is requirements gathering or requirements analysis. At this stage, developers strive to understand the product’s main functions and how it will work. Based on this, they choose the tools they will use to achieve their goals. Also, at this stage, developers should assess the possible risks and problems that will need to be solved in the future.
At this stage, the primary technical documentation is being developed, which will describe the main points (functions, design features, tools, protection methods, and much more). Also, these documents should specify the main types of testing and tools that will be used based on what functions the product will perform and what technologies (programming languages, frameworks, libraries, etc.) will be used.
You can create these source documents yourself or use software testing outsourcing services. It is beneficial if you are not well versed in the testing process and want to ensure that this stage is performed as efficiently as possible.
As long as you don’t have the software, you can only guess what kind of errors might occur; however, you should anticipate some problems. The better you can predict risks, the better.
By testing during the requirements gathering phase, you can ensure that the system works as expected and that there are no significant flaws. If you can identify problems early on, they can quickly fix them before too much time and money is invested in development.
After the design phase ends, you can start developing software and writing code. Practice shows that it will be most effective to test each module after writing it. It will allow you to identify the slightest errors in the early stages. In the future, when you connect modules, you must also test these connections. The fact is that new modules can block the work of old ones, which also leads to big problems.
Pay attention to performance and scalability testing
Many developers, when conducting testing, pay a lot of attention to functionality and user interface and completely forget about performance. It leads to the fact that the program or site begins to freeze heavily on peak days.
When developing software, you need to look to the future. If only a few people use the product in the first months, then in a month, the number of users can increase many times over. You must ensure that your mobile app or eCommerce website can withstand heavy loads, especially if you plan to run various promotions, special offers, and other ways to attract new customers. Nobody wants to wait. If your site loads in less than 5 seconds, then most likely, the user will refuse to cooperate with your company, which means you will incur losses.
Integration testing ensures all parts fit together correctly, while system testing ensures that the whole product works as expected. Your product can enter the market only after all tests are completed and bugs are fixed. However, many experts advise further tests:
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT) – Potential users do this to ensure that all features work correctly;
- Regression testing – allows you to understand whether the corrections have led to new problems;
- Accessibility testing.
Often, relatively small programs enter the market, further refined, and introduced with new features. Your product must have good scalability, which means it can evolve.
What is the testing phase, and what does it do?
It is a time-limited action that allows you to evaluate the quality of the product. The primary purpose of this stage is to identify possible defects and check the quality of the product.
To accomplish this task, specialists use requirements specification documents developed in the early stages of development.
Testing stages are divided into 2 categories: manual and automated. In the first case, testing aims to understand how valuable the product will be for the use and whether all functions work. This type is relatively inexpensive but can take a long time to complete. Automated testing uses various tools to reveal performance, specifications, security, and more. Compared to manual testing, automated testing is a more expensive type of testing, as it involves the use of paid tools. It can be done in a few hours and fully completed in a few days if the specification is correctly drawn. You can find out what other benefits might get from automated testing on this resource. Ideally, it is necessary to conduct both types of testing simultaneously, but unfortunately, not all projects have such a financial opportunity.
Why is testing better to take place at the beginning of the project?
Some of the benefits of early software testing include:
- errors detected at an early stage are much easier to correct;
- allows you to identify various defects in the program code;
- the more time for testing and fixing bugs, the better;
- cost reduction.
Fixing bugs early in programming is much cheaper, so you can put the money you save into advertising and other needs.
In the end
All developers want to release high-quality products to the world that will be very popular with users. You can achieve such results only if you conduct testing on time and with high quality. Only after all the bugs have been fixed will you be able to release your program, website, or mobile application into the world and get good user ratings.
