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Web Software Testing: Ensuring Web Software Functionality
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There are various phases in software development life cycle (SDLC). On of the significant phases among this is software testing. Different types of testing are employed in each phase beginning with development till it reaches the market. The testing spans over all the stages in the SDLC. Moreover there are different varieties of the software that needs to be tested before it is released to the costumer.
One variety is software for web applications. With the advent of the Internet web software has significantly increased in importance, as the Internet has had a substantial impact on our daily lives. Most security risks come from Internet. Therefore it's crucial to test the software thoroughly prior to releasing it on the market.
The time available to develop and test web software is always limited. While the web software is being designed and developed it is also being tested by the testing's engineers using different types of tests. The different types of tests can be grouped in code testing, load testing, compatibility testing, functional testing and regression testing.
The web software is usually released using a pattern of software release known as alpha/beta testing. This is a simulated or actual operational test conducted by potential users or an independent test team at the developers' site. The software is incomplete at this point and testing is done only for small modules of the software. Alpha testing is frequently employed for off-the-shelf software as a method of internal acceptance testing. Software that has been alpha tested cannot be released until all the major functional parts have been coded and tested.
After the alpha testing is completed the software is permitted to undergo the beta phase of testing. In beta testing the web software I completely built. The software is made available for use to a restricted number of customers intended for software testing previous to the official release. In case of website design it is easy to put together the various pages as the website design uses HTML. So the alpha/beta technique is generally not used for website development. This imply that it is possible to build and test one page at a time and later go to the next one with independent testing for each one.
In code testing the software testing or development engineer examines the codes for software bugs. It's essential for the software to be free of bugs because the web development process is very quick. Paired-programming is one of the popular methods used by highly qualified technicians to achieve error free coding.
The Paired programming is a method in software development where two programmers work simultaneously at one keyboard. One programmer types in the code when the other person observes and reviews each line at the same time. The judgment behind taking up this method is the following. The Economist proclaims that, "Laurie Williams of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City has shown that paired programmers are only 15% slower than two independent individual programmers, but produce 15% fewer bugs."
The fact that the software is tested many times during the development process should provide bug free software by the end of it. Load testing is used to check if a web-site/application will fail or loss performance under the added pressure of heavy loads or inputs from multiple users log-in, mail servers, etc. Load testing will provide information regarding the amount of users that could connect simultaneously to a site, the number of transactions that the system can cope at the same time and its responsiveness under different circumstances or amount of traffic.
The testing done to estimate the compatibility of the application with the different interacting hardware of software is the Compatibility testing. This method tests how good the software is in interactions with operating system, peripherals, database, browser etc. It also tests the computing capacity of the hardware platform and the peripherals.
Functional testing asses the alignment between the application and its specifications checking that it provides all the required functions. To do that an extensive range of both normal and erroneous data will be input to validate the behavior caused by each of the software features. Regression testing is carried out to check that any changes made to the code in order to enhance it or to fix defects has not affected any functionality.
When iterative methodology is used to develop software regression testing is crucial. In iterative programming, new modules are added to the core module to increase the functionality provided by the application, this needs to be done with the certainty that the added module does not affect the original functionality of the running module. The aim of regression testing is to discover regression bugs. All the types of test mentioned above are necessary to provide complete web software testing.
About the Author
Software Testing Basics cover the basic steps for software testing. Our site provides additional information on software testing. For example Black Box Testing uses a users point of view to test the software.
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