Why Strategize Before Testing Software?

Software testing is a very important part of the software development life cycle and holds a critical role in the process of customer satisfaction as it helps in delivering software with the minimal amount of bugs. The process saves a lot of money too, as the errors of the software can be detected and rectified before sending the system into mass production or before shipping the same. If you are planning to leave the process till the end of the developmental process, you might be making a mistake. Starting the testing procedure along with the development of the software is the best method as it prevents piling up of the errors and also helps with the maximum amount of test coverage. Although most companies think that developers will do the job of a tester, it is a huge misconception. Software testers are a whole different breed who has a hang of detecting errors in coding.

However, testing a software is a pretty tough job as a lot is riding on the process and hence requires extensive planning to achieve the best possible results. Following are some of the reasons why you need to strategize your software testing.

1.     It is a well known fact that a compact product is made up of various modules which compile together to form the whole product. These modules need to be tested individually to ensure that the modules are working perfectly on their own.
2.    While compiling the software together, the individual modules now have to work in collaboration with each other. Software testing has to be done to check if they work properly with one another and how they depend on each other.
3.    The performance of the software in various situations has to be checked to see if it delivers optimum results in various situations or not.
4.     The software also has to be checked for performances at various stress levels to see how the software holds on or to see how quickly it recovers from an unexpected shutdown.
5.      The software also has to be tested to check how fast the updates get installed in the software.
6.     Another important factor which needs to be tested is the user friendliness of the software to check the ease with which the end users can handle the software you have developed.
7.     You also have to check whether the software is providing you with the desired output when a suitable input is provided to it.
8.     The software also has to be checked for security issues to check how easy or difficult it is to hack the system and plunder the data of the customers.

These are just some of the processes which you have to deal with when you are testing a software. Software testing is an extensive process which lasts throughout the whole developmental process and such a vast process requires extensive strategy so that each step is chronologically set one after another in order to achieve maximum test coverage. It is best to leave it in the hands of the professional software testers who have a detailed knowledge of the whole procedure and would plan it so that all the steps are followed according to order and the testing process yields maximum results so that you can provide your customers with a high quality product.