Some Misconceptions about Testing in Software
There are hundred of words that can be written about competition on the market of Software, overfed users and true value and importance of software testing. But, though the true value of testing is known yet there are many misconceptions that are spread and harming quality of software released to the world even today.
Some of the most harmful of such misconceptions are listed below:
- Once the development is finished, then Testing comes into existence. Surely in the previous processes, software life-cycle was something around get clear with goals – design up to them – write appropriate code – test the written code. But those were the older time. Nowadays with all the available tools and methodologies 70% of testing is to be done before the code is actually completed
- Testing isn't everyone's Cup of Tea. Testing is not mindless button-clicking to find out whether things may go wrong. But testing involves large skills in coding and communication at the very minimum and that too without even mentioning a very specific mindset every good tester is to poses
- Testing reduces costs. Yes it does but only when it is wisely used for throughout the entire development cycle for both long and short termed projects. Well, it will indeed increase costs if used as an ‘after the coding is done’ extra activity, but this particular misconception is already highlighted in the first point
- Testing is not 'eliminating all the bugs' thing, it is reducing their amount and is dealing with the important ones first. Maintenance of defects is done through code. That is just you can say a statement or proposition. Fixes are not different, as they are also code and may cause bugs as well. It is a scenario where one may spend decades on one project just to make it perfect and this approach may even work in theory and still it will require too many resources and time and it is inconsiderable to make constant updates to such a project. Testing is not to eliminate defects. It is to highlight the really important ones and this is a fact everybody is simply to live with
Surely there are many more misconceptions that occurs about software testing but most of their roots exists in the above given points, thus be aware and don’t make the mistakes others have already committed.