As testers, we’re familiar with several forms of software testing, such as Functional Testing, Non-Functional Testing, Automation Testing, Agile Testing, and their sub-categories. 

On our testing path, every one of us would have encountered many sorts of testing. We may have heard about some and worked on some, but not everyone is aware of all the many forms of testing. 

Each sort of testing has its own set of characteristics, benefits, and drawbacks. However, we have covered almost every sort of software testing that we utilise in our day-to-day testing lives in this article.

What is Software Testing

Software testing is the process of evaluating the functionality of a software programme with the goal of determining whether the generated software matched the defined requirements and identifying errors in order to deliver a quality product.

There Are Several Types Of Software Testing 

Functional Testing

Functional testing is divided into four categories.

1. Unit Testing

Unit testing is a sort of software testing that examines the corrections of a single unit or component. Unit testing is often performed by the developer during the application development phase. A method, function, procedure, or object can be considered a unit in unit testing. For test execution, developers frequently use test automation tools such as NUnit, Xunit, and JUnit. 

We can uncover more faults at the unit test level, which is why unit testing is so crucial. 

There is a simple calculator application, for example. For additional functionality, the developer can construct a unit test to see if the user can enter two integers and get the right sum.

a) White Box Testing

A method of testing in which the tester can see and interact with an application’s internal structure or code is known as white box testing. Using this technique, it is straightforward to find weaknesses in an application’s design or flaws in business logic. Statement coverage and decision coverage/branch coverage are two white box testing methodologies.

b) Gorilla Testing

Gorilla testing is a test method in which the tester and/or developer extensively examine each module of the application from every angle. Gorilla testing is used to determine the robustness of your application. 

For example, the tester is evaluating the website of a pet insurance firm, which offers services such as purchasing an insurance policy, a pet tag, and lifetime membership. The tester can concentrate on a single module, such as the insurance policy module, and extensively test it using positive and negative test scenarios.

2. Integration Testing

Integration testing is a sort of software testing that involves logically grouping and testing two or more modules of an application as a whole. This sort of testing focuses on finding defects in the interface, communication, and data flow between modules. When integrating modules into the overall system, a top-down or bottom-up strategy is applied. 

This form of testing is carried out on a system’s integrating modules or between systems. A user, for example, may purchase a flight ticket from any airline website. When purchasing a ticket, users can access flight details and payment information, but flight details and payment processing are two separate systems. When integrating an airline website with a payment processing system, integration testing should be performed.

a) Gray box testing

Gray box testing is a hybrid of white-box and black-box testing, as the name implies. Testers only have a rudimentary understanding of an application’s fundamental structure or code.

3. System Evaluation 

System testing is a sort of testing in which the tester assesses the entire system against the requirements. 

a) Testing from beginning to end 

It entails putting an entire application environment through its paces in a scenario that closely resembles real-world use, such as connecting with a database, leveraging network connections, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems as needed. 

A tester, for example, is evaluating a pet insurance website. Buying an insurance policy, LPM, tag, adding another pet, updating credit card information on users’ accounts, updating user address information, receiving order confirmation emails, and policy paperwork are all examples of end-to-end testing.

b) Testing in a Black Box 

Blackbox testing is a software testing technique in which the system under test’s fundamental structure, design, or code is unknown. Testers should concentrate solely on the input and output of test objects.

c) Smoke Testing

Smoke testing is used to ensure that the system under test’s basic and critical functions are working properly at a high level. 

When the development team provides a new build, the Software Testing team evaluates it and guarantees that no severe issues exist. The testing team will check that the build is stable before moving on to a more extensive level of testing.

d) Sanity Checks 

Sanity testing is done on a system to ensure that new features or bug patches are working properly. On a stable build, sanity testing is performed. The regression test is a subset of this test. 

e) Path of Happiness Testing 

The goal of Happy Path Testing is to successfully test an application on a positive flow. It makes no attempt to detect negative or incorrect circumstances. Only legitimate and positive inputs are used to generate the intended result by the application.

f) Testing with monkeys 

A monkey tester considers that if the monkey uses the app, the monkey will submit random input and values without knowing or understanding the programme. 

The purpose of monkey testing is to see if an application or system fails by providing it with random data and input variables. Monkey testing is done at random, with no test cases written in advance and no prior knowledge of the system’s full functioning necessary.

Non-Functional Testing

Non-Functional testing is divided into four categories. 

1. Security Testing

It is a type of testing carried out by a specialised group. Any hacking technique can be used to get access to the system. 

Security testing examines how safe software, applications, and websites are against internal and external threats. This testing entails determining how safe software is against harmful programmes and viruses, as well as the security and strength of the authorisation and authentication methods. 

It also examines how the software responds to hacker attacks and harmful programmes, as well as how software is maintained for data security following such an assault.

(a) Penetration Testing 

Penetration testing, often known as pen testing, is a type of security testing that is carried out as a legitimate cyberattack on a system in order to identify the system’s security flaws. 

Outside contractors, also known as ethical hackers, undertake pen-testing. As a result, it’s often referred to as ethical hacking. Contractors carry out tasks such as SQL injection, URL manipulation, Privilege Elevation, session expiration, and report generation for the company.

2. Performance Testing

Performance testing involves putting a load on a programme to see how stable it is and how fast it responds. 

The term “stability” refers to the ability of an application to endure a load. The response time of an application refers to how quickly it is available to users. Tools are used to perform performance testing. Good tools on the market include Loader.IO, JMeter, LoadRunner, and others. 

a) Load testing

Load testing is the process of evaluating an application’s stability and response time by applying a load that is equal to or less than the intended number of users.

b) Stress testing 

Stress testing involves putting a load on a programme that is greater than the number of users that the application was built for. 

c) Testing for Scalability 

Scalability testing involves putting a load on an application that is more than the number of users that the application was built for.

d) Quantity testing (flood testing) 

By transmitting a significant amount of data to the database, volume testing can determine an application’s stability and reaction time. It basically evaluates the database’s ability to handle the data. 

e) Endurance Evaluation (Soak Testing) 

Endurance testing verifies that an application’s stability and response time are acceptable by constantly applying stress for a prolonged length of time.

3. Usability Testing

Usability testing examines an application’s appearance and feel as well as its user-friendliness from the user’s perspective. 

For example, a tester is conducting usability testing on a mobile app for stock trading. Testers can look at scenarios such if the mobile app is easy to use with one hand, whether the scroll bar is vertical, whether the app’s backdrop colour is black, and whether the price and stock are presented in red or green. 

The basic principle behind usability testing for this type of software is that the user should be able to look at the market as soon as they open it.

a) Exploratory testing

Exploratory Testing is a type of testing that is done informally by the testing team. The goal of this testing is to check through the application and find any problems that may present. To test the application, testers leverage their expertise in the business domain. The exploratory testing is guided by test charters. 

b) Cross-browser testing

Cross-browser testing involves evaluating an application’s appearance and feel and performance across a variety of browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices.

What are some of the advantages of software testing?

The following are some of the advantages of software testing:

• Cost-effectiveness: Timely testing of any IT project allows you to save money in the long run. It is less expensive to correct issues discovered early in the software testing process.
• Security: People are looking for products that they can trust. It aids in the early detection of hazards and issues.
• Product quality: Testing guarantees that buyers receive a high-quality product.
• Customer Satisfaction: The primary goal of every product is to provide customer satisfaction. The optimal user experience is ensured by UI/UX testing.