{"id":4922,"date":"2016-04-28T11:25:09","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T09:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usersnap.com\/?p=4922"},"modified":"2025-07-01T12:07:40","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T10:07:40","slug":"software-testing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usersnap.com\/blog\/software-testing\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Software Testing? Definition, Meaning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Your software application is acting weird: it’s crashing during quality analysis and the front-end application isn’t working as expected! You need a software testing team<\/strong> to figure out the problem areas of your application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The testing team<\/strong> finds and reports bugs to the developers. The testers just saved the project team from a nightmare! That’s what a software tester primarily does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’re the experts in finding and reporting software bugs and flaws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Bugs are everywhere.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

No matter how much expertise the development team has in creating a web application testing<\/a>, bugs are bound to creep in. They interfere with either the backend or the frontend of the application.<\/p>\n\n\n

Try Usersnap for Software Testing<\/h2>Try Usersnap Now<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is the job to be done for the software testing team?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n

\u201cA software tester\u2019s main job is to locate and report bugs.\u201c<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Software testers need a specific set of skills in order to perform their daily tasks of locating and reporting bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes their day-to-day tasks challenging is the fact that many bugs are not getting fixed right away. The software testing or QA team<\/a>‘s job is to go back and forth with the development team, coordinating about the same bug a number of times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, it could go much easier: a tester finds a bug. He prepares a bug report and sends it to the dev team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The developer sometimes misinterprets the description of the bug provided by the tester and goes on to fix either the wrong bug or wrongly fixes the right bug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the tester finds that the bug she reported still remains unfixed, she usually finds out why and then again documents the bug report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"a<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This process goes on until either the right bug is fixed or the developer decides to drop the bug. So, you see how a tester needs to be on their toes, agile<\/a> and active, always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog post, I’m going to show you what a day in the life of a software tester looks like. And what software testing is actually about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is software testing?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before we get started with a software tester\u2019s responsibilities, I\u2019d like to show you what software testing is all about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Software testing is basically quality control about a product or service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or as the following definition<\/a> puts it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cTesting is the process of evaluating a system or its component(s) with the intent to find whether it satisfies the specified requirements or not.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Basically, software testers conduct various tests with the intent to find software bugs.<\/p>\n\n\n

Try Usersnap for Software Testing<\/h2>Try Usersnap Now<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Software testing types<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Software testing is a broad area and includes various different types of software tests. Depending on your product or service, and the job you\u2019re supposed to do, software testers conduct the following software testing types.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\r\n\r\n
Software Testing Types<\/th>\nMain Focus<\/th>\nWo is the software tester<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Installation Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nCorrect installation of a system<\/td>\nDevelopers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Compatibility Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nCompatibility of system (with other applications or OS)<\/td>\nDevelopers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Smoke Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nBasic check of software functionality<\/td>\nDevelopers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Regression Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nFinding errors after code change<\/td>\nDevelopers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Acceptance Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nVerifying if solution works for the user<\/td>\nQA \/ customers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Alpha Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nInternal form of acceptance test<\/td>\nQA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Beta Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nExternal form of acceptance test<\/td>\nExternal QA team \/ customers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Continuous Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nProcess of automated tests<\/td>\n(mainly) developers<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Destructive Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nMain goal to cause a software failure<\/td>\nQA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Usability Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nCheck if user interface is easy to use<\/td>\nQA \/ potential users<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Accessibility Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nTesting if application complies with accessibility standard (W3C)<\/td>\nInternal QA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
Security Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nEvaluate the degree to which data can be read used or modified by unauthorised persons<\/td>\nInternal & external security specialists<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\r\n
A\/B Testing<\/strong><\/td>\nComparison of two outputs regarding their performance<\/td>\nMarketing \/ QA<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody><\/table><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What are the software tester\u2019s responsibilities?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you can see in the collection above, there is a broad variety of software testing types out there. So, when it comes to software testers responsibilities there are a lot of tasks and processes which we need to consider.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following list gives an overview of a software tester\u2019s responsibilities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n