Why program testing
Testing is performed each time as soon as any changes in the source code of the program have been made. Any small change should be thoroughly tested for errors committed by the developers. The sooner the errors are found in the code, the more it will save the financial cost and time of the product, and also let your customers know that you are doing a quality job. None of your customers will be interested in stumbling upon functionality that isn’t working or isn’t working properly.

Functional testing
Functional testing is conducted to find out whether everything is feasible in the program and whether it works as it was intended. If your declared functionality is missing, the program will not be able to fulfill users’ tasks and they will not get the expected result.

Typically, functionality testing involves:

• Determining the functionality running in the program
• Step-by-step check of data input and output
• Performance of prescribed actions for checking the correctness of functionality (test cases)
• An analysis of the result of the functional program operation
• Convenience and simplicity testing

Usability and simplicity testing is performed to find out whether the client is comfortable using the program. Usability testing is also called – usability, based on the English Usability Testing. It also includes elements of functional testing, described above.

Testing the usability and simplicity of the program includes:

• testing usability not only by testers, but also by other users
• Elaboration of behaviors that coordinate functional testing
• evaluation of the test results
• Improving the usability and simplicity of the program based on the results

Interface testing
UI testing is performed to identify bugs in the appearance of the program and to fix them later.

Compatibility testing
Compatibility testing helps to find out whether the program can work together with other programs and devices.

Performance testing
Performance testing is performed to find out how well the program works under high loads on it by internal program subsystems, external services, number of user connections, etc. Usually for performance testing, high load is conducted on the program which should lead to malfunctions in its functionality. Developers then eliminate bugs in places that are most susceptible to load.

Security testing
The security testing of a program is done to find out the vulnerabilities that can become a tidbit for intruders. Timely detection of security bugs will help protect the program from unauthorized access and actions of other malicious programs.

Security testing includes:

• verification of safe and secure data transmission
• verification of access to internal program parts
• verifying access to user data
• Terminating a session once user activity has ended or the program has been shut down
• Prohibition of arbitrary downloads and file saving
• Checking user error handling.

At last, we have considered the most basic steps of testing programs. Each type of testing is aimed at making the program as good as possible for the user.

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Let’s consider together with you what is quality assurance and quality control of software.

Quality assurance – includes the list of the characteristics and properties of the program which should be observed during the development of the program and executed during its work. Quality assurance is carried out at all stages of software development: from the beginning of development, to the release of the program for use.

Quality control – means the verification of compliance with the requirements for the software and overall evaluation of the development. The main task of quality control is to find errors in the program and their further correction.

Ensuring the control and quality of software is defined in accordance with different requirements, depending on the characteristics of the project. The main requirements often defined for any program are:

• Functionality – includes a set of actions that solve the user’s tasks. The set of these actions is described in the functional requirements for the software.
• Reliability – defines the requirement that the program must perform its tasks under certain conditions and a given amount of time. The program must not only operate correctly, but also to complete its work correctly, without affecting the safety of user data.
• Mobility – defines the possibility to use the program on other hardware or together with other programs.
• Efficiency – defines the degree of performance of the program with the resources of the operating system allocated to it.
• Usability – means simple and easy to use the program and its components for the user.
• Maintenance – the requirements for the process of improving the program, fixing bugs, adding new functionality.

Software quality assurance is achieved by creating certain processes.

Standards for software development
Define a common template of standards for software development. Take as a basis ready-made standards, or work out your own and invite developers to strictly adhere to them.

Absence of any common standards can complicate the process of developing and maintaining the program in the future. Adoption of the standard will make the process of developing and testing the program more qualitative. Adhering to a common pattern with a list of accepted requirements for the development, programmers make fewer mistakes. However, at the same time, the standard should not impose restrictions on the development, if it does not contradict the quality of the program.

Instructions with Sequential Actions
If you are already using your list of development processes, it is worth making sure that all of them really fit and allow you to achieve program quality. Otherwise, you need to work out the processes that would allow the development team to interact most effectively with the testers, to ensure that the right tools and standards are used.

Experience from previous projects
Experience and mistakes from previous projects can play an important role in ensuring the quality of the program. Based on this, decisions can be made about which actions improve quality in the current project and which do not. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the result of the work that has been done so that lessons can be learned and conclusions can be drawn.

Previous mistakes
Absolutely every developer makes mistakes in every program. It is important not only to fix an error and forget about it, but also to keep statistics about the errors they make so that you can analyze them and then take some measures to prevent them from happening again. This will help the developers to improve the problem parts of the program. It is a common practice during development to use bug trackers where all the errors found are recorded.

Improve approaches in development and testing
Constantly improve the processes and methods of software development. Study all the sides of the processes you use, and choose the best option for future projects.

To conclude
Remember that software quality assurance does not include improving testing, but rather improving all of your development and release processes.

If the program meets the needs of the users and the expectations of the developers, then you can say that the program has successfully passed the quality assessment and is ready for release.

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A metric allows manual or automatic collection and control of information on errors found, followed by an evaluation to select an appropriate testing approach. With the help of a metric you can visually assess the progress of testing and bug fixing.

Software testing metrics define:

• Number of open/closed bugs
• Number of newly opened and retested bugs
• Number of unconfirmed bugs
• Number of bugs by severity
• Number of bugs by priority of execution

The metrics help you understand at what stage of testing the product is. The number of open bugs allows you to determine the quality level of a program’s development. The number of closed bugs shows the quality of bug fixing. The number of unconfirmed bugs shows the degree of incorrect bug description by the tester or quick and not very good bug fixing. Besides, metrics can show the results of test cases determining the number of successfully passed tests and the number of unsuccessful ones.

As a result, metrics allow you to monitor the state of your software and all your testing processes to simplify bug detection and fixing. Do you resort to using metrics in your project?

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