Types of Software Testing

• In this article, we will learn about Types of Software Testing. How Functional and Non-Functional testing are classified during the development and testing phases of SDLC (The Software Development Life Cycle).
• The Software Development Life Cycle phases include planning, system analysis, system design, development, implementation, integration and testing, and operations and maintenance.

Software testing is the process of executing a program or application or product with the intent of finding the software bugs.

Software testing can be further divided into Functional and Non- Functional Testing as below.

What does functional testing include: Testing of Software/Application against business requirements. Functional testing is done using the functional specifications or SRS document provided by the Customer or by using the design specifications like use cases provided by the Design team.

Some of the important and commonly used functional testing types are mentioned as follows

• Unit Testing
• Acceptance Testing
• Smoke testing
• Integration Testing
• GUI Testing
• Usability Testing
• System Testing
• Regression Testing
• Alpha Testing
• Beta Testing
• User Acceptance Testing

Non-Functional Testing: Testing of Software involves testing the Software from the requirements which are non-functional in nature. This type of testing will check the readiness of a system. The testing of software attributes that are not related to any specific function or user action like Performance, Scalability, Security, Load, Stress, or Behaviour of application under certain constraints.

Some of the important and commonly used non-functional testing types are mentioned as follows:

• Compatibility Testing
• Compliance Testing
• Documentation Testing
• Endurance Testing
• Interoperability Testing
• Installation Testing
• Load Testing
• Performance Testing
• Recovery Testing
• Reliability Testing
• Resilience Testing
• Security Testing
• Scalability Testing
• Stress Testing
• Usability Testing
• Volume Testing

Difference between Unit and Integration Testing.

S.No.	Unit Testing	Integration Testing
1.	In unit testing, each module of the software is tested separately.	In integration testing, all modules of the software are tested combined.
2.	In unit testing tester knows the internal design of the software.	In integration testing doesn’t know the internal design of the software.
3.	Unit testing is performed first of all testing processes.	Integration testing is performed after unit testing and before system testing.
4.	Unit testing is white box testing.	Integration testing is a black-box testing.
5.	Unit testing is basically performed by the developer.	Integration testing is performed by the tester.
6.	Detection of defects in unit testing is easy.	Detection of defects in integration testing is difficult.
7.	It tests parts of the project without waiting for others to be completed.	It tests only after the completion of all parts.
8.	Unit testing is less costly.	Integration testing is more costly.

Difference between System Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

System Integration Testing (SIT):
For a better understanding of what is SIT first, we must understand what is System integration? so basically as the name itself suggest system integration refers to a set of phases where various components are incorporated into a single unit, and these units go for integration testing, the group of interaction between component is referred to as integration and testing these interaction and modules interaction is known as integration testing.

From some other point of view, the SIT (system integration testing) is considered as the combination of integration testing and system testing. At this point, we know what integration testing is. Now, we need to understand what system testing is? The testing performed on the absolute integrated products to check system compliance with specified requirements on functional and non-functional elements is referred to as system testing.

SIT is also considered as a combination of integration testing and system testing.

User Acceptance Testing (UAT):
UAT (User Acceptance Testing) is conducted at the end of the whole testing process when the product is ready to deliver. The main aim of software development is to develop software that is capable of satisfying the user’s needs, rather than just fulfilling the system specifications.

UAT is conducted when the product is ready to deliver it is also called at the end of the whole testing process. UAT is used to validate that the system is acceptable or not.

UAT validates that:

• The developed system fulfills the system requirement specifications
• The system has achieved the performance as documented in the system requirement statement.
• It could vary as defined in the contract.

Difference between Acceptance Criteria and Acceptance Tests.

S.No.	Acceptance Criteria	Acceptance Tests
1.	In this, for any user story, there should be some pre-defined requirements of the customer.	It aims to cover those areas which are derived from acceptance criteria.
2.	It is developed in the planning stage.	It is developed in the development stage.
3.	Documentation is not in the priority list, i.e., it does not need much documentation work.	In this, documentation is in the priority list i.e.documentation work is highly required to process further.
4.	It describes what areas to cover or to be done to process further.	It describes how to cover different aspects of the project.
5.	The product proprietor used to write these criteria.	This test is done from the client’s side.
6.	Generally, it is very challenging to understand these criteria from a stakeholder’s point of view.	This testing is easier to understand from stakeholder’s point of view.
7.	There is a role of stakeholders in developing the application.	There is no role of stakeholders in developing the application.

Difference between Stress Testing and Volume Testing.

S.No.	Stress Testing	Volume Testing
1.	Stress testing is software testing to check the stability and reliability of the system under heavy load.	Volume testing is software testing to check the system’s performance under huge data volume.
2.	Stress testing checks the robustness of the system.	Volume testing checks the response time of the system.
3.	During stress testing, load is increased continuously up to extreme point.	During volume testing, data volume in database is increased.
4.	Stress testing focuses on the software’s stability.	Volume testing focuses on the database.
5.	Stress testing checks security issues.	Volume testing checks data loss issues.
6.	Stress testing makes a system capable of working in both normal and abnormal conditions.	Volume testing makes a system capable of real world usage.
7.	Stress testing doesn’t focus on the maintenance of the system.	Volume testing reduces the maintenance cost.

Difference between Volume Testing and Load Testing.

S.No.	Volume Testing	Load Testing
1.	Volume testing is a software testing performed to test the system under huge data load.	Load testing is a software testing performed to test the performance of the system under real life load.
2.	Data loss is tested during volume testing.	Data loss is not tested during load testing.
3.	In volume testing, the load is a huge volume of data.	In load testing, the load is customers’ expectations based.
4.	Volume testing is used to measure the throughput of the system.	Load testing is used to measure the performance of the system.
5.	Volume testing makes the system capable of real-world use.	Load testing makes the system capacity according to end-users.
6.	Volume testing saves maintenance cost.	Load testing doesn’t save maintenance cost.
7.	Volume testing checks the system’s response time.	Load testing checks the system’s performance.

Difference between Regression Testing and Integration Testing.

Regression Testing helps in promoting the overall product outlook. Its main purpose is to make sure that code modifications and bug fixes after they are implemented, don’t leave an adverse effect on the rest of the product build. This testing method can be automated to save time and effort.

 Integration Testing ensure that all the units function properly when put together which is the whole point of any software build. There are replacement options for unavailable units while testing, using stubs or drivers instead. For this reason, the test only needs the primary units, and not every other part, to be available and good to go. Along with the requirements set by the client, some presumptions, made by the team during the development phase, about the functionalities of the integrated parts will need to be confirmed as up to standard. This happens with the integration test.

Keep learning. Have a great day 🙂