Are you starting out in Quality Assurance?
We have put together a few questions and answers for those of you who are starting out in the field. Keep in mind that there is no correct answer as many of these questions can be answers different by other professionals in the quality assurance field.We are just trying to provide a starting point with some basic questions and answers some people have asked. Please provide feed back and we will update the list accordingly. This will be broken in several different parts as the list is very long. Enjoy
Questions and Answers Part 1
Q1: What testing approaches can you tell me about?
A: Each of the followings represents a different testing approach: black box testing, white box testing, unit testing, incremental testing, integration testing, functional testing, system testing, end-to-end testing, sanity testing, regression testing, acceptance testing, load testing, performance testing, usability testing, install/uninstall testing, recovery testing, security testing, compatibility testing, exploratory testing, ad-hoc testing, user acceptance testing, comparison testing, alpha testing, beta testing, and mutation testing.
Q2: What is stress testing?
A: Stress testing is testing that investigates the behavior of software (and hardware) under extraordinary operating conditions.For example, when a web server is stress tested, testing aims to find out how many users can be on-line, at the same time, without crashing the server. Stress testing tests the stability of a given system or entity.
Stress testing tests something beyond its normal operational capacity, in order to observe any negative results. For example, a web server is stress tested, using scripts, bots, and various denial of service tools.
Q3: What is load testing?
A: Load testing simulates the expected usage of a software program, by simulating multiple users that access the program’s services concurrently. Load testing is most useful and most relevant for multi-user systems, client/server models, including web servers.For example, the load placed on the system is increased above normal usage patterns, in order to test the system’s response at peak loads.
Q4: What is the difference between stress testing and load testing?
A: Load testing generally stops short of stress testing.During stress testing, the load is so great that the expected results are errors, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community.
The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing.
Q5: What is the difference between performance testing and load testing?
A: Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community. The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing. Load testing generally stops short of stress testing. During stress testing, the load is so great that errors are the expected results, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Q6: What is the difference between reliability testing and load testing?
A: Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community. The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing. Load testing generally stops short of stress testing. During stress testing, the load is so great that errors are the expected results, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Q7: What is automated testing?
A: Automated testing is a formally specified and controlled method of formal testing approach.
Q8: What is the difference between volume testing and load testing?
A: Load testing is a blanket term that is used in many different ways across the professional software testing community. The term, load testing, is often used synonymously with stress testing, performance testing, reliability testing, and volume testing. Load testing generally stops short of stress testing. During stress testing, the load is so great that errors are the expected results, though there is gray area in between stress testing and load testing.
Q9: What is incremental testing?
A: Incremental testing is partial testing of an incomplete product. The goal of incremental testing is to provide an early feedback to software developers.
Q10: What is software testing?
A: Software testing is a process that identifies the correctness, completeness, and quality of software. Actually, testing cannot establish the correctness of software. It can find defects, but cannot prove there are no defects.
Q11: What is alpha testing?
A: Alpha testing is final testing before the software is released to the general public. First, (and this is called the first phase of alpha testing), the software is tested by in-house developers. They use either debugger software, or hardware-assisted debuggers. The goal is to catch bugs quickly.Then, (and this is called second stage of alpha testing), the software is handed over to software QA staff for additional testing in an environment that is similar to the intended use.
Q12: What is beta testing?
A: Following alpha testing, “beta versions” of the software are released to a group of people, and limited public tests are performed, so that further testing can ensure the product has few bugs.Other times, beta versions are made available to the general public, in order to receive as much feedback as possible. The goal is to benefit the maximum number of future users.
