Software testing is crucial when building quality software, testing helps to make sure that the program works as expected and helps to prevent unwanted scenarios before they happen. The two main pillars of software testing are

• Verification:

  Ensure the software meets the specified requirements and standards, and confirm its technical accuracy. For example, in a banking app, verification would be to make sure that users can transfer funds, and this is usually done through code reviews and automated tests. Verification answers the questions:

  • Does the software align with the project’s requirements?
  • Are we building the product right?
  • Does the software work as intended?

• Validation:

  • Making sure that the software satisfies the needs and expectations of the end users. In the same example as above, validation would be whether the product provides a seamless and intuitive user experience. This can be accomplished by having user testing sessions where users give feedback on the experience of the software, this feedback can help validate and answer :
  • Does the software meet the expectations of the customers?
  • Are we building the right product?
  • Does the product actually solve the problem?

To make sure that the software adheres to the expected standards and requirements we use test cases. These test cases has 4 main components which are,

1. Inputs
2. Execution conditions
3. Expected outcomes
4. Actual outcomes

Though test cases won’t make the product perfect it greatly helps in reducing imperfections as much as possible, these test cases can be made for

• Happy path case: the ideal flow through the system where no errors are encountered
• Edge cases: not the regular case, but not an error case, for example, what happens when an item is sold out.
• Error cases: what happens when the program encounters an error like not having access to the database.

Types of Software Testing

There are a few methods when it comes to testing software to ensure optimal software quality.

Unit Testing - testing individual components to verify each component works by itself.

Integration Testing - Testing the interactions between different modules/components.

System Testing - Testing the software as a whole, making sure it meets the specified requirements, system testing encompasses various methods of testing to be able to verify that the product is ready to push to production.