The primary objectives of software testing are to remove bugs and improve various features of the software, such as performance, user experience, safety, and so on. A significant amount of testing can dramatically boost the overall quality of the software, resulting in high customer satisfaction. We created a list with different QA testing types and what they mean.
Let’s check them together!
QA testing types
There are two main categories of software testing: functional testing and non-functional testing.
Besides those two, there is another type of general testing named maintenance testing.
1. Functional Testing
Functional testing is the process of testing a software application’s functional properties.
When conducting functional tests, you must test every feature. You must determine whether or not you are getting the result you wanted.
Various types of functional testing:
- Integration testing
- End-to-end testing
- Smoke testing
- Unit testing
- Sanity testing
- Black box testing
- White box testing
- Interface testing
- Acceptance testing
You can use manual and automation tools to conduct functional tests. Manual testing is simple for this type of testing, but you should use tools too when needed.
2. Non-functional Testing
Non-functional testing is the testing of an application’s non-functional elements such as reliability, usability, security, performance, and others.
You can carry these tests out following the functional tests.
It can greatly enhance the quality of your software. Functional tests also improve quality, but non-functional tests allow you to strengthen your software even further.
It enables you to fine-tune the software. This type of testing is not concerned with whether or not the software works. Instead, it concerns how well the software run and a variety of other factors.
This type of testing is rarely run manually. To perform such tests manually is difficult. As a result, these tests are typically carried out using tools.
Various types of non-functional testing:
- Security testing
- Load testing
- Failover testing
- Performance testing
- Usability testing
- Scalability testing
- Compatibility testing
- Stress testing
- Maintainability testing
- Volume testing
- Reliability testing
- Disaster testing
- Localization testing
- Internationalization testing
- Endurance testing
- Compliance testing
- Efficiency testing
Various QA Testing Types
We will talk about the most common types of software testing.
Unit testing
Unit testing is the process of testing every component or module of your software project. You need programming knowledge to carry out this type of testing. Thus, only programmers, not testers, perform these types of tests.
Integration testing
After integrating the modules, you must determine whether the combined modules function properly. This is referred to as integration testing. This type of testing requires fewer resources than unit testing,
End-to-end testing
End-to-end testing refers to the functional testing of the entire software system. It refers to the process of testing the entire software system.
End-to-end tests require fewer resources than integration tests.
Use Interface testing
You can test the user interface of an application during user interface testing. The purpose of UI tests is to ensure that the user interfaces have been developed by the specifications document.
Accessibility testing
Accessibility testing determines whether or not your software is usable by people with disabilities.
For these tests, you must determine whether disabled people, such as those who are deaf, colorblind, or blind, could use your application.
Alpha testing
Alpha testing is a type of testing that looks for all problems and errors in the software as a whole.
You can carry this type of test at the end of the app development process, before launching the product or delivering it to the customer.
You perform it to make sure that the user/customer receives an error-free software application.
Alpha testing comes before beta testing, so after conducting alpha testing, you must conduct beta testing.
This kind of testing is not carried out in the real world. Instead, you perform this type of testing by simulating a real-world environment in a virtual one.
Beta testing
You perform beta testing after the alpha testing. Before you release the product, you have to subject it to beta testing.
A small number of actual users or clients conduct it in a real-world user environment to ensure that the software is error-free and runs fine. You can make some modifications to improve the software after gathering constructive criticism and feedback from those users.
Ad-hoc testing
Ad-hoc testing, as the name implies, is testing that you do on the fly, without the use of systems, plans, documentation, or test cases.
This kind of testing, unlike all others, is not performed systematically.
Anyone working on the project can perform this type of informal testing.
Compatibility testing
Compatibility testing entails determining the software’s compatibility with the various operating systems. Such as network environments, web browsers, operating systems, hardware, and so forth.
It determines if the developed software application works properly in various configurations.
Backward compatibility testing
Backward compatibility testing is used to determine whether a brand-new or updated variant of an application is compatible with the prior versions of the environments on which it runs.
Some applications are occasionally updated to complement the guidelines and style of a newer, more modern context. In that case, backward compatibility must be supported.
Browser compatibility testing
Browser compatibility testing, as the name implies, examines a web application for browser compatibility. It is specifically tested to see if the web app can be accessed easily from all types of major web browsers.
Performance testing
Performance tests are performed to determine whether or not the software performs well. There are performance testing tools that can analyze your app’s performance and show you where it is failing. You can improve the performance of your software application by addressing these problems.
Load testing
Load testing is a type of performance testing that determines how much load a system can withstand before its software performance degrades. We can determine a system’s load-bearing capacity by operating load tests.
Recovery testing
Recovery testing entails determining whether or not the application can restore from crashes and how efficiently it recovers. In this type of test, testers look at how efficiently the software can return to its normal course of execution. Crashes can occur at any time. Crashes can occur even if your software is of excellent quality. You never know when they will occur and irritate the users.
Regression testing
If you need to modify any component, module, or function, you must ensure that the entire system works properly after the changes. Regression testing is the process of testing the entire system after such adjustments.
Agile testing
Agile testing is a type of testing that is conducted by the QA team and follows the rules of agile methodology. This type of testing is conducted from the perspective of actual customers.
API testing
API testing, like unit testing, is a type of code-level testing. The primary distinction between those two is that unit testing is managed by the development team, whilst API testing is managed by the quality assurance team.
Black box testing
Black box testing is a testing technique used by a company’s QA team that includes checking the application’s capabilities without having any technical understanding of the application, such as understanding of the code’s logic, how the code works, and knowledge of the internal structure, and so on.
White box testing
White box testing, which is carried out by the development team, is a method of testing that necessitates a deep understanding of the application’s code. It necessitates a thorough understanding of the app’s internal logic.
Security testing
Security tests are carried out to guarantee the safety of your application and to prevent security breaches. Experts perform these tests to determine how secure your software is from threats and to identify security flaws so that the app’s security can be boosted.
Usability testing
Usability testing is the process of determining how user-friendly an app is. It entails determining how functional or user-friendly the app is. It is determined whether or not any user can use your software without getting tangled.
Scalability testing
Scalability testing determines whether or not the software is scalable. In other sayings, it determines whether your app behaves well when the number of users, data volume, or transactions rises significantly.
A non-scalable software application can result in significant business losses.
Reliability testing
Reliability testing is a type of software testing that determines whether or not the software is reliable. In other sayings, it determines whether the software is error-free and reliable.
For example, if a user’s critical data stored in the software’s database is unexpectedly deleted within a few months due to a bug in the code, we can conclude that the software is untrustworthy.
Acceptance testing
Acceptance testing (also known as User Acceptance Testing) will be performed by the client who will buy your software to determine if the software can be accepted or not by determining whether your system satisfies all of the client’s preferences and requirements.
Conclusion
When it comes to QA testing types, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. The best approach is to select the most appropriate techniques for the particular product, project, and business context. With that said, I hope this overview of QA testing has given you a better understanding of the different types of testing and when they should be used.