Editing Software testing (section)

{{Short description|Checking software against a standard}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2021}}
{{Software development process|Core activities}}

[[File:TestingCup-Polish-Championship-in-Software-Testing-Katowice-2016.jpg|thumb|TestingCup {{endash}} Polish Championship in Software Testing, [[Katowice]], May 2016]]

'''Software testing''' is the act of checking whether [[software]] satisfies expectations.

Software testing can provide objective, independent information about the [[Quality (business)|quality]] of software and the [[risk]] of its failure to a [[User (computing)|user]] or sponsor.<ref name="Kaner 1">{{Cite conference |last=Kaner |first=Cem |author-link=Cem Kaner |date=November 17, 2006 |title=Exploratory Testing |url=https://kaner.com/pdfs/ETatQAI.pdf |conference=Quality Assurance Institute Worldwide Annual Software Testing Conference |location=Orlando, FL |access-date=November 22, 2014}}</ref>

Software testing can determine the [[Correctness (computer science)|correctness]] of software for specific [[Scenario (computing)|scenarios]] but cannot determine correctness for all scenarios.<ref name="pan">{{Cite web |last=Pan |first=Jiantao |date=Spring 1999 |title=Software Testing |url=https://www.ece.cmu.edu/~koopman/des_s99/sw_testing/ |access-date=November 21, 2017 |publisher=Carnegie Mellon University |type=coursework}}</ref><ref name="Kaner2">{{Cite book |last1=Kaner |first1=Cem |title=Testing Computer Software |last2=Falk |first2=Jack |last3=Nguyen |first3=Hung Quoc |publisher=John Wiley and Sons |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-471-35846-6 |edition=2nd |location=New York |author-link=Cem Kaner}}</ref> It cannot find all [[software bug|bugs]].

Based on the criteria for measuring correctness from an [[test oracle|oracle]], software testing employs principles and mechanisms that might recognize a problem. Examples of oracles include [[specification]]s, [[Design by Contract|contracts]],<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Leitner |first1=Andreas |last2=Ciupa |first2=Ilinca |last3=Oriol |first3=Manuel |last4=Meyer |first4=Bertrand |author-link4=Bertrand Meyer |last5=Fiva |first5=Arno |date=September 2007 |title=Contract Driven Development = Test Driven Development – Writing Test Cases |url=https://se.inf.ethz.ch/people/leitner/publications/cdd_leitner_esec_fse_2007.pdf |conference=ESEC/FSE'07: European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering 2007 |location=Dubrovnik, Croatia |access-date=December 8, 2017}}</ref> comparable products, past versions of the same product, inferences about intended or expected purpose, user or customer expectations, relevant standards, and applicable laws.

Software testing is often dynamic in nature; running the software to verify actual output matches expected. It can also be static in nature; reviewing [[source code|code]] and its associated [[documentation]].

Software testing is often used to answer the question: Does the software do what it is supposed to do and what it needs to do?

Information learned from software testing may be used to improve the process by which software is developed.<ref name="kolawa">{{Cite book |last1=Kolawa |first1=Adam |url=http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470042125.html |title=Automated Defect Prevention: Best Practices in Software Management |last2=Huizinga |first2=Dorota |publisher=Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-470-04212-0}}</ref>{{rp|41–43}}

Software testing should follow a "pyramid" approach wherein most of your tests should be [[unit tests]], followed by [[Integration testing|integration tests]] and finally [[End-to-end testing|end-to-end (e2e) tests]] should have the lowest proportion.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cohn |first=Mike |title=Succeeding with Agile: Software Development Using Scrum |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |year=2009 |isbn=978-0321579362}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Molina |first=Alessandro |title=Crafting Test-Driven Software with Python: Write test suites that scale with your applications' needs and complexity using Python and PyTest |publisher=Packt Publishing |year=2021 |isbn=978-1838642655}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Fernandes da Costa |first=Lucas |title=Testing JavaScript Applications |publisher=Manning |year=2021 |isbn=978-1617297915}}</ref>