The delivery of an optimal quality software product that has unique and innovative features has always been the priority of the software industry worldwide. Therefore software testing is crucial. In this article, we will discuss a definition of software testing and why it's important.
What is software testing?
Software Testing is a method to check whether the actual software product matches expected requirements and to ensure that the software product is Defect free. It involves the execution of software/system components using manual or automated tools to evaluate one or more properties of interest. The purpose of software testing is to identify errors, gaps, or missing requirements in contrast to actual requirements.
According to ISTQB - Software testing is a way to assess the quality of the software and reduce the risk of software failure in operation.
According to ANSI/IEEE 1059 standard – A process of analyzing a software item to detect the differences between existing and required conditions (i.e., defects) and to evaluate the features of the software item.
Why is Software Testing Important?
Software Testing is Important because if there are any bugs or errors in the software, it could be expensive or even dangerous. Software bugs can potentially cause monetary and human loss. Properly tested software products ensure reliability, security, and high performance which further results in time-saving, cost-effectiveness, and customer satisfaction.
history is full of such examples:
Starbucks was forced to close about 60 percent of its stores in the U.S and Canada due to software failure in its POS system. At one point, the store served coffee for free as they were unable to process the transaction.
In 2015 fighter plane F-35 fell victim to a software bug, making it unable to detect targets correctly.
China Airlines Airbus A300 crashed due to a software bug on April 26, 1994, killing 264 innocent lives.
In May of 1996, a software bug caused the bank accounts of 823 customers of a major U.S. bank to be credited with 920 million US dollars.
conclusion:
Software testing It’s a vital process of ensuring that the software being delivered meets the specific expectations of the customer. When a software development project is going on, you need to know that errors may appear in any phase of the life cycle.
Software testing is necessary because we all make mistakes. Some of those mistakes are unimportant, but some of them are expensive or dangerous. We need to check everything and anything we produce because things can always go wrong