Quality is delighting customers
Software Testing Terms
What is testing?
Testing is a process of confirming that the product that has been manufactured by programmers is a quality product and to assure that the manufactured product is working according to the specification, working perfectly and satisfying the customers needs.
What is Quality Assurance?
A planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide confidenc e that the item or product conforms to established requirements.
What is Test and Evaluation?
It is the overall activity of independent evaluation ”conducted throughout the system acquisition process to assess and reduce acquisition risks and to estimate the operational effectiveness and suitability of the system being developed”.
What is Performance Evaluation?
The assessment of a system or component to determine how effectively operating objectives have been achieved.
What is Interface Testing?
Testing conducted to ensure that the program or system or components pass information or control correctly.
What is Formal Testing?
Process of conducting testing activities and reporting test results in accordance with an approved test plan.
What is Software Audit?
An independent review for the purpose of assessing compliance with requirements specifications, standards.
What is Functional Testing?
Process of testing to verify that the functions of a system are present as specified.
Why is Testing required?
Recent advances in client/server software tools enable developers to build applications quickly and with increased functionality. Quality Assurance departments must cope with software that has dramatically improved, but is increasingly complex to test. Each code change, enhancement, defect fix, or platform port necessitates retesting the entire application to ensure a quality release. Manual testing can do longer keep pace in this dynamic development environment. This dramatically improved technology in project development gave birth to
Automated testing and Testing Tools.
What is ‘Software Quality Assurance’?
Software QA involves the entire software development PROCESS-monitoring and improving the process, making sure that any agreed- upon standards and procedures are followed, and ensuring that problems are found and dealt with. It is oriented to ‘Prevention’.
What is verification? What is validation?
Verification: Evaluation performed at the end of a phase with the objective of ensuring that the requirements established during the previous phase have been met. (Generally verification refers to the overall software evaluation activity, including reviewing,
inspecting, testing, checking, and auditing) Verification typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans,
code,requirements and specifications. This can be done with checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs and inspection meetings.
Validation: The process of evaluating software at the end of the de velopment process to ensure compliance with requirements.Validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed.
What is a 'walkthrough'?
A review process in which a designer leads one or more through a segment of design or code he or she has written. A 'walkthrough' is an informal meeting for evaluation or informational purposes. Little or no preparation is usually required.
What is an 'inspection'?
An inspection is more formalized than a “walkthrough', and typically consist of 3-8 people including a moderator, reader (the author of whatever is being reviewed) and a recorder to take notes. The subject of the inspection is typically a document, such
as a requirements or a test plan. The purpose is to find problems and see what is missing, not to fix anything.
Attendees should prepare for this type of meeting by reading through the document; most problems will be found during this preparation. The result of the inspection meeting should be documented in a written report. Preparation for inspections is difficult, but is one of the most cost-effective methods of ensuring quality, since bug prevention is far more cost effective than bug detection.
What is software 'quality'?
Quality software is reasonably bug-free, delivered on time and within budget, meets requirements and/or expectations, and is maintainable. However, quality is obviously a subjective term. It will depend on who the “customer” is and their overall influence in the scheme of things. A wide-angle view of the “customers” of a software development project might include end-users, customer acceptance testers, customer contract officers, customer management, the development organization's management/accountants /testers/salespeople, future software maintenance engineers, stockholders, magazine columnists, etc.
What is good code?
Good code is code that works, is bug free, and is readable and maintainable. Some organizations have coding standards all developers are supposed to adhere to, but everyone has different ideas about what is best, or what is too many or too few rules. There are also various theories and metrics. Keep in mind that excessive use of standards and rules can stifle productivity and creativity. Peer reviews, buddy
checks code analysis tools, etc. can be used to check for problems and enforce standards.
What is 'good design'?
Design could refer to many things, but often refers to functional design or internal design. Good functional design is indicated by an application whose functionality can be traced back to customer and end-user requirements. Good internal design is indicated by software code whose overall structure is clear, understandable, easily modifiable, and maintainable; is robust with sufficient error handling and status logging capability; and works correctly when implemented.
What is the 'software life cycle'?
The life cycle begins when an application is first conceived and ends when it is no longer in use. It includes aspects such as initial concept, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, test planning, coding, document preparation, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, retesting, phaseout, and other aspects.
What makes a good test engineer?
Test engineers have a 'test to break' attitude, an ability to take the point of view of the customer, a strong desire for quality, and an attention to detail. Tact and diplomacy are useful in maintaining a cooperative relationship with developers, and an ability to communicate with both technical (developers) and non-technical (customers, Management ) people is useful.
What makes a good Software QA engineer?
The same qualities a good tester has are useful for a QA engineer. Additionally, QA Engineer is able to understand the entire software development process and how it can fit into the business approach and goals of the organization. Communication skills and the ability to understand various sides of issues are important.
What makes a good QA or Test manager?
Test or QA/Test Managers are familiar with the software development process; able to maintain enthusiasm of their team and promote a positive atmosphere; able to promote teamwork to increase productivity; able to promote cooperation between Software, Test, and QA engineers, have the diplomatic skills needed to promote improvements in QA processes, have the ability to withstand pressures and say 'no'
to other managers when quality is insufficient or QA processes are not being adhered to; able to communicate with technical and non-technical people, engineers, managers, and customers; as well as, able to run meetings and keep them
focused.
Testing is a process of confirming that the product that has been manufactured by programmers is a quality product and to assure that the manufactured product is working according to the specification, working perfectly and satisfying the customers needs.
What is Quality Assurance?
A planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide confidenc e that the item or product conforms to established requirements.
What is Test and Evaluation?
It is the overall activity of independent evaluation ”conducted throughout the system acquisition process to assess and reduce acquisition risks and to estimate the operational effectiveness and suitability of the system being developed”.
What is Performance Evaluation?
The assessment of a system or component to determine how effectively operating objectives have been achieved.
What is Interface Testing?
Testing conducted to ensure that the program or system or components pass information or control correctly.
What is Formal Testing?
Process of conducting testing activities and reporting test results in accordance with an approved test plan.
What is Software Audit?
An independent review for the purpose of assessing compliance with requirements specifications, standards.
What is Functional Testing?
Process of testing to verify that the functions of a system are present as specified.
Why is Testing required?
Recent advances in client/server software tools enable developers to build applications quickly and with increased functionality. Quality Assurance departments must cope with software that has dramatically improved, but is increasingly complex to test. Each code change, enhancement, defect fix, or platform port necessitates retesting the entire application to ensure a quality release. Manual testing can do longer keep pace in this dynamic development environment. This dramatically improved technology in project development gave birth to
Automated testing and Testing Tools.
What is ‘Software Quality Assurance’?
Software QA involves the entire software development PROCESS-monitoring and improving the process, making sure that any agreed- upon standards and procedures are followed, and ensuring that problems are found and dealt with. It is oriented to ‘Prevention’.
What is verification? What is validation?
Verification: Evaluation performed at the end of a phase with the objective of ensuring that the requirements established during the previous phase have been met. (Generally verification refers to the overall software evaluation activity, including reviewing,
inspecting, testing, checking, and auditing) Verification typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans,
code,requirements and specifications. This can be done with checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs and inspection meetings.
Validation: The process of evaluating software at the end of the de velopment process to ensure compliance with requirements.Validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed.
What is a 'walkthrough'?
A review process in which a designer leads one or more through a segment of design or code he or she has written. A 'walkthrough' is an informal meeting for evaluation or informational purposes. Little or no preparation is usually required.
What is an 'inspection'?
An inspection is more formalized than a “walkthrough', and typically consist of 3-8 people including a moderator, reader (the author of whatever is being reviewed) and a recorder to take notes. The subject of the inspection is typically a document, such
as a requirements or a test plan. The purpose is to find problems and see what is missing, not to fix anything.
Attendees should prepare for this type of meeting by reading through the document; most problems will be found during this preparation. The result of the inspection meeting should be documented in a written report. Preparation for inspections is difficult, but is one of the most cost-effective methods of ensuring quality, since bug prevention is far more cost effective than bug detection.
What is software 'quality'?
Quality software is reasonably bug-free, delivered on time and within budget, meets requirements and/or expectations, and is maintainable. However, quality is obviously a subjective term. It will depend on who the “customer” is and their overall influence in the scheme of things. A wide-angle view of the “customers” of a software development project might include end-users, customer acceptance testers, customer contract officers, customer management, the development organization's management/accountants /testers/salespeople, future software maintenance engineers, stockholders, magazine columnists, etc.
What is good code?
Good code is code that works, is bug free, and is readable and maintainable. Some organizations have coding standards all developers are supposed to adhere to, but everyone has different ideas about what is best, or what is too many or too few rules. There are also various theories and metrics. Keep in mind that excessive use of standards and rules can stifle productivity and creativity. Peer reviews, buddy
checks code analysis tools, etc. can be used to check for problems and enforce standards.
What is 'good design'?
Design could refer to many things, but often refers to functional design or internal design. Good functional design is indicated by an application whose functionality can be traced back to customer and end-user requirements. Good internal design is indicated by software code whose overall structure is clear, understandable, easily modifiable, and maintainable; is robust with sufficient error handling and status logging capability; and works correctly when implemented.
What is the 'software life cycle'?
The life cycle begins when an application is first conceived and ends when it is no longer in use. It includes aspects such as initial concept, requirements analysis, functional design, internal design, documentation planning, test planning, coding, document preparation, integration, testing, maintenance, updates, retesting, phaseout, and other aspects.
What makes a good test engineer?
Test engineers have a 'test to break' attitude, an ability to take the point of view of the customer, a strong desire for quality, and an attention to detail. Tact and diplomacy are useful in maintaining a cooperative relationship with developers, and an ability to communicate with both technical (developers) and non-technical (customers, Management ) people is useful.
What makes a good Software QA engineer?
The same qualities a good tester has are useful for a QA engineer. Additionally, QA Engineer is able to understand the entire software development process and how it can fit into the business approach and goals of the organization. Communication skills and the ability to understand various sides of issues are important.
What makes a good QA or Test manager?
Test or QA/Test Managers are familiar with the software development process; able to maintain enthusiasm of their team and promote a positive atmosphere; able to promote teamwork to increase productivity; able to promote cooperation between Software, Test, and QA engineers, have the diplomatic skills needed to promote improvements in QA processes, have the ability to withstand pressures and say 'no'
to other managers when quality is insufficient or QA processes are not being adhered to; able to communicate with technical and non-technical people, engineers, managers, and customers; as well as, able to run meetings and keep them
focused.
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