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Testing for dummies: understanding software testing

For those who do not work in the software or ICT industry, some terms often sound unfamiliar. Some of them are not even completely clear to those who do work in this area. This is the case of testing, a branch of development that focuses on evaluating software quality so that the product reaches the end user with the best possible standards.

In »more classical» development processes, Federico tells us, testing is a final stage of software development. However, the new models seek to integrate testing at each stage of development, as two overlapping procedures in which the quality of the product is evaluated from the beginning, at each stage of its evolution.

This model not only involves greater efficiency, since it avoids dragging problems to subsequent stages and working on errors in the product, but it is also more economical. If we find a problem earlier, it is less expensive to solve it», says Federico, and exemplifies with the testing applied to the requirements on which they are defined in the development of the product.

The human factor: what the tester does

When we think about who participates in testing, we usually think of the classic tester who is in charge of looking for faults or errors in the product he is evaluating, but it is more than that.

A tester must put himself in the user’s shoes to recreate the procedure in which he would face certain users. But imagination alone is not enough. He must have a high level of knowledge about the business or area where the software he is testing is to be implemented. You have to think of every situation where the user» could face an error, Reale adds, to anticipate problems that could arise in production.

Testing »is not just running tests,» it’s anticipating exercises. Doing a constant creative and mental exercise to identify possible errors in order to see them before the final product is finished and prevent them from reaching the user.

Federico delves into more concepts about testing, the different types of testers and the broad levels of testing in our latest episode of UR. Listen to it here.

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