With the constant advancement and evolution of software apps, the competency of testing and its trends are also transforming. Testers have started adopting new techniques and methodologies, and are required to be more process and technology oriented. Their tasks are no longer just limited to identifying system defects and bugs, but to perform software testing throughout its life cycle, i.e., from commencement to culmination. 

Testing isn’t executed in isolation anymore unlike earlier and consists of several tasks that depend highly on the software development activities. Moreover, testing these days utilize different modes of the life cycle, which permit in-depth testing of various components, hence making the entire procedure of testing quite easy. Without wasting any more of our time, let’s dive into the list of app testing approaches that are required throughout the software development life cycle. 

Performance Assessment 

Testing Load, Stress, Endurance, and Spike are the four kinds of approaches that are involved in performance testing of an application/software. This testing intends to determine the performance of the system in terms of stability and responsiveness under a specific load, the failure of which, can cause a massive setback to an organization’s functioning and hence creating a significant trust issue amongst customers. 

Let’s take one of the classic performance testing failure examples here. Massachusetts redesigned its website to match the federal Affordable Care Act’s demands. The revamped site was supposed to educate individuals whether they match the qualification required for a subsidized plan, assist them to calculate the coverage cost, and enable them to enroll after comparing the plans. The lack of performance testing on the website resulted in the site not working right from the initial launch. This failure caused individuals to file paper applications. Moreover, this led to several people being stripped of the coverage benefits for several months. The state was then forced to enroll these individuals in temporary insurance plans via the Medicaid program offered by the state itself. 

This shows that performance testing of software/application demonstrates whether it meets the specific pre-defined performance criteria before going into the hands of end-user or not. 

System Behavior and Possible Outcome Assessment

Known as Functional and Non-Functional Testing, these approaches play an important role as they revolve around the functional and non-functional aspects of the concerned systems or subsystems. 

 While functional testing is carried out before the non-functional testing based on the use cases given by the design team or specifications offered by the client, the non-functional testing tends to be those reflecting the stress, quality, and productivity of the system from the user’s perspective. 

 For example, the functional testing approach usually reveals the test for data input and its possible behavior. However, the non-functional approach reveals a time taken for a particular document to get stored. Hence, the non-functional aspect demonstrates the action of the system compared to what the system is possibly expecting. 

Vulnerability Assessment 

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Two types of testing are used to identify the loopholes in a system/application that may leave a backdoor to dangerous vulnerabilities. These are Security Testing and Penetration Testing respectively. Security Testing generally refers to the complete spectrum of various testing initiatives aimed at ensuring flawless and proper functioning of an app in a production environment. Security elements like continuity, vulnerability, authenticity, confidentiality, and integrity are evaluated in this. By focusing on the several layers of a data system across network, infrastructure, database, and access channels such as mobile, security testing makes the apps safe, sound, and free from vulnerabilities. 

 On the other hand, Penetration Testing attempts to identify lax security settings, insecure business processes, or similar weaknesses that are easily exploitable threat factors. Transmission of unencrypted passwords,   databases that hold valid user credentials, and password reuse are some of the critical elements that are discovered by penetration test. This test does not require to be conducted as frequently as vulnerability scans; however, it’s good to keep them repeated regularly.  

WannaCry remains as the mastermind of ransomware that rose as a result of one of the biggest security failures known to humankind. The malicious ransomware hit more than 230,000 systems across 150+ countries, drastically crippling major organizations like FedEx, Telefonica, and UK’s National Health Service.  

Interface Defects and Complete App Assessment

Integration Testing is designed to identify interface defects between various modules and functions, while the system testing is considered as the first level where the entire app is tested as a whole. For example, in integration testing, different software modules are gathered and tested together as a group for making sure that the integrated system is all prepped up for system testing. Integrated Testing checks the flow of data from one module to another, and System Testing allows checking the compliance of an app’s system as per the requirements, usually involving reliability, load, reliability, security, and performance testing. Most often system testing is the final test for verification that suggests that the system meets the necessary specification guidelines. Both functional and non-functional aspects are tested as part of System Testing.

So that’s pretty much it.

Testing software applications help to identify the product’s condition and its work standards. A well-tested app offers better data and utility value to the stakeholders and adds more to the status of the organization by earning the stakeholder and customer trust. A thoroughly tested software app holds exemplary business aspects because everyone likes to work with a trusted and reliable app in the market. Zymr aims to bring business value to your solutions through our accelerated software testing services.

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