Based on studies, nearly half of unplanned downtimes are caused by hidden bugs or application failures. Only a small percentage is caused by disaster, environmental factors or hardware failure. These downtimes can be alleviated by pre-deployment testing and thorough training. Because software may become the core activity of the organization or company, then it is important to make sure that it works flawlessly. Testing experts can ensure quality results by following certain test procedure. Through testing, companies should be able to save money and time. Making major fixes or improvements after the software has been deployed and integrated within business operation will be time consuming and exhausting.
Software testing is clearly important. It is a vital and essential phase in any project of software development. Developers and software testers should ensure that all the developed products have met performance and practical requirements. It means that all products must consistently operate under all circumstances. Product launch is risky and we don’t know whether a software will work fully well in actual business operations. It is also important to be sure that software can adapt to changes in user demands and expectations. New trends will emerge and older ones could become obsolete. So, if the application is designed rigidly, it could become irrelevant too quickly and easily.
Software testing represents a continuous approach to ensure good quality and it should become an integrated part in the software life cycle. So, when a software has been updated or modified recently, it needs to be tested again. A new update may be buggy or cause issues with existing components. Testers have the responsibility in ensuring that the team doesn’t deploy poor quality software.  Here are benefits of software testing:
- Some money and time, because defects can be identified early
- Reduce or avoid development downtime
- Better customer service, due to better quality application
- User requirements are met
- Enhancements and modification will deliver results
- Reusable components and modules become more versatile for current and future application
- Identify parts of the application that need further improvement in the future
Professional testers need to follow a specific testing process. Here are things that the tester team should do:
- Find defects in software and document them in enough detail, including how to reproduce them.
- Advise the development team about the perceived quality level of the software
- Validate assumptions in the design and make sure that they have met requirement specifications through actual tests
- Validate that the program works well based on the design
- Validate that all requirements are appropriately implemented
A good test scenario is to find out how a new software could break. Testers should actively look for situations that may cause the software to fail. These situations could happen in real life, so you need to be sure all potential mistakes can be discovered. There should be impartial evaluation and everything need to be revealed to ensure that the program will work well.
Although the testing team could still be a part of the software development company, they need to be as independent as possible. By being autonomous, the testing team can be free when looking for errors. Results will be impartial and this should ensure good improvement in the future.