The Importance of Software Testing

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 A Necessary Evil

 All project managers know that they must

do some testing
 The basic questions are;
 How much?
 What sort?
 By whom?
 When and by when?

 All difficult questions.

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 Why do we test?

 Provide confidence in the system

 Identify areas of weakness
 Establish the degree of quality
 Establish the extent that the requirements have
been met, i.e. what the users asked for is what
they got not what someone else though they
wanted
 To provide an understanding of the overall system
 To prove it is both usable and operable
 To provide sufficient information to allow an
objective decision on applicability to deploy

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 Another view – cynical?

 To use up spare budget

 To provide a good excuse why the project is
late
 To provide jobs for people who can’t code
 To make the developers look good
 To provide the project manager with some
contingency in the plan and can be cut if if
push come to shove!

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 First up – How much?

 How good does the product need to be?

 How do we measure it?
 How do we make a decision?
 Are there any legal or compliance issues?
 What industry are you in?
 What will it cost?
 Time and resource [human and machine]
 Are we capable?
 We know what we need to do but can we do it?

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 How do we decide?

 What matters to our users?

 What does the system do?
 Risk
 Requirements
 Money

 Test Techniques - Coverage

 Static
 Dynamic

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 Secondly – What sort?

 Unit
 Interface
 Functionality
 Performance
 Usability ………plus about another
 Security
20 ‘abilities’ 
 Availability
 Operability

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 Do we need tools to help?

 Automated test tools are often seen as a silver

bullet

 Some tests cannot be successfully executed or

analysed without them

 80% of test tools end up as shelfware through:

 Abandonment
 Neglect
 Banishment

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 Thirdly – By whom?

 Users: those who will ultimately use the

system
 Customers: those who define the system –
are they the same as the users?

 Testers
 Analysts
 Developers

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 Are we capable of testing?

 Is an experienced tester better than an

experienced user at finding faults?

 How can testers help themselves and users?

 Working with the users to understand their
systems
 Providing testing skills transfer
 Attending testing industry conferences
 Attaining industry recognised software testing
qualifications

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 Lastly – When?

 Once the code is complete?

 As soon as the architecture is defined?
 Once the system delivery is complete?
 During development?
 Once the business requirements have been
defined?
 As soon as the project is given the go-
ahead?

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Test then Code

Then test some more……………………

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 By when?

 Project deadline driven by:

 Legislation
 Arbitrary date
 Financial year
 Calendar date
 Seasonal
 Marketing window
 Safety Criticality
 Money

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 Summary

 Testing is an integral part of the system development

function, not an afterthought:
 Testing starts with the requirements not the code
 Testing is a static and dynamic activity
 Prevention is better than cure
 The sooner you find the fault the cheaper it is to fix
 Create re-usable ‘testware’
 Process first then tools
 Not everyone can test well, use professional testers
 Planned testing in a controlled environment provides
objective metrics

 To gain a Return on Investment you must first Invest

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