One
of the primary challenges faced by IT industry programmers is ensuring the
software they have designed works as planned. And this problem is one of those
critical ones that may make or break an organization. For instance, imagine a
financial services firm migrating their vital customer relationship management
software to a new platform, and further imagine the software suffering a glitch
a couple of days after full-scale migration. In such a scenario, worrying about
whether the customers are receiving regular relevant updates on their
investments will be the least of the problems for the firm. The repercussions
would be too many to handle and the business may not even survive the fiasco.
Now imagine this situation in more critical industries like emergency services
or healthcare. ‘Scary’ would be the most underrated word to describe the
circumstances.
And
yet, all of these can be solved with some simple software testing.
Software
testing, as the name suggests, represents analyzing and checking the programs
and applications to make sure they work as planned. These may include testing
parts of the software or the whole code whether on a stand-alone basis or in
combination with other programs and hardware where the software is supposed to
function.
There
are different types of software testing and these can be categorized based on
how the checks are done, where the tests are done, phase of development where
the checks are done and so on. Though this post will not be the right place to
talk about them in detail, some important types of testing are:
• Alpha
testing: The initial testing done in a simulated or actual operating
environment
• Beta
testing: The next phase after alpha testing, where the tests are done using
an external test customer base
• Static
testing: Here the flaws are identified without running the code
• Dynamic
testing: The software run to identify problem areas
• White
box testing: Here the internal components and codes are checked
• Black
box testing: In this scenario, the overall functioning of the code is checked
without any internal checks
Software
testing as a process is quite rigorous and requires experts who can, in a
normal scenario, identify potential flaws and future technical problems just by
looking at the software code. Finding such people is not easy and though a web
search may bring up a list of names, whether they can do the job is another
question.
The
thumb rule is to go with the experts. For instance, if you look at companies
from countries like India, you are unlikely to go wrong. However, you must
ensure the firms you shortlist know what they are talking about. Ask them for
case studies, for practical demonstrations, look at their skill levels and if
needed, talk to their team members. If you know what you are looking for, then
you are likely to get the right firm without much of a problem. If not, then
your selection process needs to be a bit more rigorous. Looking
for firms who have expertise in your industry or a related field can be a good
starting point.
