What is the role of software testing?

What is the role of software testing?

 

Someone simply replied that software testing is to discover defects. But is software testing just to discover defects? Absolutely not.

Software testing has its function of verification. It is often said that V & V and verification verify product consistency and verify product consistency with requirement definition and product design; validation checks whether the product meets user requirements and whether each feature is what the user wants.

 

Some people say that software testing is one of the important measures to ensure quality. However, this answer is not clear enough. Some people have even refuted that quality is built and not tested by tests. The contribution of testing to quality is lower than that of development. But the tester will say that this does not play a negative role in testing. We help the team discover various defects and eliminate them, so that the quality of software products can be improved. Therefore, the product quality is guaranteed by developers and testers. It is impossible to rely on only one aspect, and there will be great risks.

 

So there are other answers to the role of software testing. Due to the time relationship, we will not list all different ideas here. Let's just make a conclusion.

 

The role of software testing can be summarized into the following four aspects:

1. Complete a comprehensive assessment of product quality, such as release of software products (such as acceptance testing), software system deployment (such as performance planning testing), software product qualification (third-party independent testing) information provided by the entrusting party and the entrusted party for Dispute Arbitration (independent tests by a third party) and other decisions;
2. Continuous testing (including Requirement Review, design review, and code review) can provide continuous and rapid feedback on product quality, in this way, the product quality can be continuously and timely improved throughout the development process, and various rework can be reduced to reduce the cost of software development;
3. Through testing, we can discover the defects of the products to be delivered, especially to discover all kinds of serious defects as much as possible, reduce or eliminate product quality risks, increase customer satisfaction, increase market share, and increase customer loyalty.
4. Analyze the defects to find out the root cause of the defects (Problems in the software process, including incorrect behavior patterns) or summarize the defect patterns of the software products, avoid making the same mistakes or produce similar product problems in the future to prevent defects.