Software Testing - Myths

In spite of testing being one of the most critical steps in the Software Development Life Cycle, there exists a lot of myths or stories around this topic. These misconceptions around the software testing have led to few situations where quality of software testing is compromised leading to error-prone software delivered to customers.

The myths or stories refer to the untrue facts around a topic. Some of these myths around the software testing are listed below −

Testing Budget Not Required

This is one of top most myths around testing. Some people believe that setting aside a budget for the software testing is meaningless and does not help the project. The budget for testing is allotted for other purposes. However, the fact is that a testing budget is mandatory to secure quality software to be delivered to the customers. It reduces the chances of costly production defects. Thus a project does not run successfully without testing budgets allocated.

Testing Eats up Time

This is another myth in the software testing world. Some people think that testing takes a lot of time and energy which can be utilized for other activities. The fact is the testing process starts right from the initial phase of the software development life cycle.

Though the manual testing is a slow process, if everything is planned in advance, the test cycles become short. Also, the process of determining defects, analyzing, and fixing them indeed takes time, however, all these cannot be avoided for the sake of quality software.

Absolute Testing is Reality

The testing team does a thorough check on the software covering all the requirements. However, this does not guarantee that there is no bug in the product. There may be a scenario where a defect gets noticed at the production even after the testing team has completed rigorous testing.

Only Completely Developed Product is Tested

Some people believe that the testing comes into picture only after the complete product has been developed. However, the fact is the testing activities start right from the start of the software development life cycle. As the product is being developed, the testing team creates the test plan, strategy, test scenarios, and the test cases.

Also, development is mostly segregated into multiple modules. Once a module is ready, the testing team begins testing that part, then moves to the next module, and so on. Once individual modules are tested, integration of all modules are also tested to check if all modules are working together. Thus testing is done at an incremental level. Also, detecting more bugs in the early stage of the software development life cycle is less costly than detecting it later.

Complete Testing Gives Error Free Product

It is a common belief of the customers that once a thorough testing has been done, there is no chance of defect leakage and the product is totally error free. This is just a myth as a product can never be hundred percent defect free.

Automation Testing Reduces Testing Time

It is true that automation testing helps to reduce testing timelines. However, it is not possible to begin automation testing right away from the beginning of the project. Once a product has been tested manually by testers, and found to be stable, automated testing can be introduced. Also, it is difficult to maintain automation, if the requirement changes are frequent and certain scenarios can only be verified manually.

Testers are Only Responsible for Quality Product

This is another myth in testing where the testers are only made responsible for ensuring quality of the product. Sometimes, if there is defect leakage in production, testers are made directly responsible, and the entire team(developers, testers, product owners, managers, and so on) is not held accountable for the miss.

Testing Can Be Done By Anyone

People have a myth that testing is a very easy task, and testers do not need much skills. Any inexperienced person in the team can be assigned this responsibility. However, the fact is testing a product requires skill, experience, and product knowledge. Without these at least three components, there are high chances of defect leakage in production.

Responsibility of a Tester is to Only Catch Bugs

Some people think that the only responsibility of a tester is to detect bugs. However, the fact is that the testers gather knowledge on the overall working of the product, and how multiple modules work together. Mostly the developers working on individual modules do not have knowledge of the entire product functionality. Also, the testers work together to reduce the project costs by detecting bugs early, and securing user satisfaction.

There are instances where a developer fixes an issue in the code without the knowledge of the test team, assuming the change he has made in the code is a minor one and will not have much impact on the product as a whole. Besides, due to strict deadlines, the test team always has a crunch schedule which is insufficient to test the complete product.

It is seen that in an agile environment, the requirement changes are too frequent, due to which the testers do not have enough time for requirement understanding, and they are forced to finish their testing activities in a superficial manner.

This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software Testing - Myths. We’ve started with describing different myths around software testing. This equips you with in-depth knowledge of the Software Testing - Myths. It is wise to keep practicing what you’ve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.