What should beginner programmers know about software testing?

Who is a Programmer?

A programmer is the one who develops computer software.
A programmer is responsible for all the well going in every process of software development.
To create an application or software thorough programming knowledge is required.

Software Development -

The process of software development includes all the steps like specifying the requirements, programming the code, documentation of the program, testing and lastly, fixing bugs.

To attain the desired success of the software programmed, a developer needs to have a thorough knowledge of every aspect of software development.

A beginner is quite busy learning to code, and once understood coding; he feels that he has now become a proficient programmer.

However, that is not true. Along with coding, the person needs to check -

• If the code he has written is functioning well?
• Does it have any bugs?
• Do any unexpected behavior show up and many other things to test before considering the software as completed.

This is where the critical process of software testing takes place in the complete software development.

Today, in this article, we will try to complete all about software testing which a programming beginner should know to achieve the best results while programming for the software.

What is Software Testing?

The definition of Software Testing states that it is the analysis led to finding out the functioning of the software, bugs residing in the code, errors and other defects to inform stakeholders about the project functioning report.

Software testing is quite an essential part of the software development life-cycle.

Without appropriate testing of the software, there are chances the software might fail, and these are very high chances.

There are many different types of testing techniques which help in finding out the deeply hidden flaws and make the software functioning in the best way desired.

Programming beginners and Software Testing:

We accept you are a beginner but don’t you want your development skills to be the best among the crowd to be taken in the industry?

The competition does not understand whether you are a beginner or an experienced developer; it only recognizes the best and the worst.

You are quite knowledgeable about the coding and can develop a very elegant software.

However, unless and until you test your product, you don’t know if it has any flaws and where do they occur.

As a programmer, the quality of the software must matter to you the most more than to anyone else.

Thus, it would help if you take proper Software Testing tutorials and understand thoroughly about Software Testing methodologies.

Why must you consider Software Testing?

Well, Software Testing sometimes seems quite tedious to the developers to perform on their program and so they abort the plan of testing and submit the software.
Well, that’s quite incorrect. It will help if you consider testing your software.
You should follow testing from the beginning of your software development itself.
Software Testing is quite imperative to consider because of the following aspects.

1. Beneficial utilization of time

This point may sound contradicting to you, but the truth is - testing the software while development is quite a valuable use of your development time.
First, I will talk about what can happen if you don’t test your software before submission.

There are chances that the client or the user may find the software unfit to use or they find out the flaws which make the software a complete disaster; it will ultimately result in degrading your reputation in front of the clients.
From which we come to point no. 2.

2. It is a compulsory part of the SDLC

Testing your software is compulsory before submitting it.
To avoid unwanted circumstances like rejection or to make your software work the best, you need to double check if every function is accurately working as desired.

3. Every part should function well

When you develop software, you develop every feature to utilize in the best way.
To confirm if it is working the same way as you wanted it to be, you must test every part and function of the software.

It is the developer’s responsibility to check every part if there exist any flaws and fix all the bugs while the code is still fresh in their minds.

4. Testing is as necessary as development is

You are the one who wrote the complete program code; however, it is entirely vital to take the assistance of a professional software tester who can check it from the user’s perspective as well as with design and developing point.

Testing the software code is equally important as it is to write it. So, give the testers the same importance as you give to developers.

5. Even the very first line of the code needs to be tested

We agree that we must test before submitting the software. However, it is quite required to check every line of the code at the very time of development.

When you develop the software, you write almost thousands of lines of codes.
It will bring much pain to the testers and even developers to go through every line of code at the end to find the flaws.

Thus, it proves quite an aid if you consider testing from the first day of your development.

Involve the expert software tester in your project since day one and let him access the source code to find out all the hidden flaws and bugs.

What does a Software Tester need to know?

Well, we discussed a lot about why we shall consider testing and software testers.
Here, in this part, we will look at what all a software tester needs to know.
It is utterly false if anyone says that software testing does not require any skills; there are a lot of technical skills required for software testing.
For the novice developers, if they know some of the software testing basics they can still avoid many mistakes.

There are many software testing techniques and software testing skills in demand which are available in the form of software testing courses for beginners to learn.

It is quite crucial to understanding the fundamental idea of testing the software.
Testing is mainly about reducing the risk factors that may occur in the software due to faults.

It also helps to prevent from putting a negative impact on the users of the software.

Further, there are several different types of testing techniques available that help the software execute and perform flawlessly.

1. Black Box Testing

This testing method is a specification-based testing method.
It analyses every element of the software without scrutinizing the internal functions.
It is applied virtually to every aspect of the software and performed.

2. White Box Testing

White Box testing is the method of thorough examination.
This method tests all the internal elements of the software functionality like every unit, integration, and all the system levels.
The software tester needs to go through the complete code segment to test the features.

3. Automated testing

Automated testing is performed with the help of a Test Automation tool.
This tool helps to regulate the implementation of the tests. Also, it improves in comparing the actual and predicted test outcomes.

4. Functional testing

Functional testing is a QA process which follows the technique same as that of black-box testing.

It checks the external functioning of the software without even focusing a bit on the internal structure.

It tests by entering the value and getting the output if the software functions nicely as per the user point of view.

5. Non-functional Testing

This testing method focuses on the other non-functional areas of the software.
It focuses on aspects such as documentation, endurance, scalability, usability, reliability and many others.

6. Regression testing

Regression testing refers to re-performing all the functional and non-functional tests on the software to check whether it is working correctly after performing the modifications made.

7. Other forms of testing

Well, while we think of testing, the list is quite long to discuss at one go.
Thus, we would name some at the moment over here.

• Acceptance Testing
• Exploratory Testing
• Load Testing
• Performance Testing
• Recovery Testing

Wrapping it up

While you prepare something, it is quite essential if you test it yourself first if everything is fine and then forward it for further testing.

You are the developer, so you need to know what all the mistakes you made and improve them for the next time.

Software testing is an imperative part, so it is better if you keep learning about the types of testing techniques to help yourselves improve the code and the software quality.

Author Bio:

Manan Ghadawala is the founder of 21Twelve Interactive which is one of the best mobile app development company in India and the USA. He is an idealistic leader with a lively management style and thrives raising the company’s growth with his talents. He is an astounding business professional with astonishing knowledge and applies artful tactics to reach those imaginary skies for his clients. Follow me on Twitter