Software Testing Strategy

The software testing strategy is an important part of the project development life cycle. Putting together integrated, effective and cost-justified software testing strategy forms part of the functional requirements for developing an integrated software development plan. This process is multidimensional. A software testing strategy must address the project functionality, the interface, system integration, platform dependence, and end user acceptance. Each of these core aspects form part of the total test plan and require separate procedures and documentation.

The software testing strategy objectives are outlined in the project plan. The first step for testing computer software is to define which things will be tested and which things will not be tested. This includes defining test case studies and including separate documentation to qualify and quantify the objectives for: the Unit test plan, the Integration test plan, the System test plan and the Acceptance test plan. Strategies defining effective test cases provide a roadmap for developers to follow and setup a framework for the recording and feedback process. This allows for functional product improvement and iterative refinement of the project objectives.

Software Testing Tools are critical to software development testing. These tools depend on the programming platform, language and extent of developer integration. If the development environment accommodates collaboration, software such as Microsoft Visual studio can support the multiple use of application software testing by providing a framework to systematically record and process changes in the source code tree. Sometimes third party tools are used as part of the software testing strategy, particularly for database testing and usability testing. This can include regression based testing which provides a method to systematically record and manage source code changes.

Usability software testing strategy focuses on how well end users can understand, operate, and navigate the product. This involves real life interaction with the product to ascertain how well it fits the requirements of the end user. Feedback provided from this process allows the developers to make improvements to more closely align the product with end user requirements.

Regression software testing strategy includes the implementation of a process to determine whether project additions or modifications produce errors to the application. These tools often have rollback capability to restore the code to its former state prior to change.

Other forms of software testing strategy include black and white box testing. Black box testing does not require any knowledge of internal logic or code and focuses on testing for the requirements and functionality of the software application. White box testing deals with the internal logic of the code: the structure and functions. The white box software tester is required to understand the code in order to look at and determine where the source of the error lies.

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