Software Testing and Quality Assurance

Software testing can be defined as the process in which the tester aims at checking the software for errors and also, verifying that the functional requirements of a software are met. The system is examined under controlled conditions. The basic orientation is detection of faults within the system.

In this process, a program or an application is executed with the intentions of improving its quality. One strives to find the bugs within the software. As software industry has now grown in both size and complexity, so has its wide area of applications. We see soft wares in banking industry, in gaming industry, in management applications etc. Each has its own target customers and users. Before any software is launched, one must attempt to make an assessment as to its audience, customers, etc. The process of testing aims to aid in this regard.


Verification and Validation


Verification is a thwarting mechanism which helps in detection of all the possible weak points within a software before the process of testing actually begins.

Validation takes place after verification and this is where the concrete testing begins. One aims at finding the defects present in the functional requirements or the software's specifications.


Software Quality


The quality of any software can be determined by the following yardsticks:

- It must be free of bugs
- It must be delivered on the due date
- It must be complete within the budget initially allotted
- It must meet all the requirements and expectations of the client


Software quality assurance


Software Quality Assurance or SQA, as it is popularly known, is a method by which one aims at monitoring the whole process of software engineering and take measures at appropriate durations for ensuring that the quality of the software is not compromised with. This is approached by use of audits of quality management system by which the system was initially built. A few examples of the quality standards are CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) or ISO 9000.

SQA covers the whole process of development of any software and includes the design, coding, control of the code, reviews of the code, managing the configurations and the release of the final product. It is basically a method to control the processes of software development.

Advantages of SQA
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Reduced cost of development
- Reduced cost of maintenance
- Methodology of SQA
- Validation testing
- Data comparison
- Usability testing
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