Software Testing Throughout the Process

It may pain any managers, designers and developers to hear it but software testing is crucial at every part of a product’s development.

From the initial conception, to the design and development and even the finished product testing should occur to keep the product on task for completion.

ISEB/ ISTQB Foundation Software Testing Training teaches delegates about testing throughout the entire software life cycle.

Testing at the last stage is inadvisable as any necessary changes will mean running the product back through the entire process.

Testing should be done at four stages:

• Planning
• Design
• Development
• End product

The below diagram shows how a problem at each stage of the software cycle can affect the final product:

Testing During the Planning Stage

The Design and Development stages may be spot on, but if the wrong requirements are introduced during the planning stage then the wrong product will be produced. Ensuring that all the correct requirements are in place is vital to design and development of the correct product.

Finding flaws in the requirement at the end of the cycle could mean the entire process has to be done from scratch.

Testing During the Design Stage

It is common knowledge that designers do not think like testers. They often come up with their idea for the perfect product without considering possible bugs and issues. If the testing team does not pick these flaws up at this stage then the developers will create a product as per the design but the design defects will be evident.

Testing During the Development Stage

The last thing a developer wants to hear after slaving away over a piece of code is that it works, but not quite to spec or to the aims of the requirements or designs. A rogue developer may be tempted to stray away from well conceived designs if they believe doing something different will make their lives easier.

Not only must the testing team ensure the developers stay on task but also that everything works.

Testing At the End of Development

This is the most obvious stage of testing – before the software goes to market. This only one step away from the customer and so the product must be as close to perfection as required. If testing has occurred at the other three stages then final testing should be relatively simple but if not then the testing team has a lengthy task on their hands and could find defects that send the software back to square one.