Effective testing of software is something that should always be taken seriously. There are measures that need to be taken in order to ensure that a particular piece of software is free of bugs before it is fully released to the public.
Quality is More Important Then Speed When it comes to Software Testing
The ideal measures that need to be taken to test software for bugs make quality more important than speed. What this means is that it is crucial to take the time to properly and thoroughly test software for bugs even if that means a delay in the release of the software. While programmers want the software they designed to be completely bug free the fact is that practically every program designed will have some kind of bug in in that may go undetected if the testing process is completed too quickly. So ideally the process needs to be slow and methodical rather than quick and hurried. If a software program is released with even the smallest bug in it this can lead to bigger problems down the line, such as corruption, loss of data or even a major security breach.
Defects Have To Be Measured Accurately
Any possible defect in a software program has to be measured accurately in order to avoid bugs. It is important to know that some bugs are more harmful to the software and its users than other bugs are. Ideally, each bug must be measured on its own to determine the full impact it would have on the software and the computer of the person using it. Weighing a program’s bugs in terms of which ones are the most critical to the success of the software is an important part of the testing process. The more defects a particular bug boasts the more critical the fixing of that bug is to the future success of the software. The numbers of bugs that are discovered during software testing impact the quality of the software and any bugs that are overlooked or ignored with compromise its quality. Treating each bug as if it was equal to the others is a crucial part of determining the usability level of the software.
The DRE Metric Must be Used
Defect Removal Efficiency (DRE) plays a big part in software testing and is one measure that must be taken to ensure that the testing is completed correctly. The DRE measures exactly how effective a software testing turned out. This metric reveals the total number of bugs that were found during the testing process. In order to properly calculate the DRE it is necessary to determine how many bugs were found while the software was being developed and how many defects the end user found when they tested it. Calculating the DRE involves adding the number of bugs the end user found to the number of bugs that were found during the testing process. That number is then divided by the total number of bugs found when the software was being developed. There are several factors that the success of the DRE is dependent upon. Those factors are the distribution of the bugs throughout the software program as well as confirmation that all the bugs present in the software program have been found.
Thorough Analysis of the Alpha Phase
The Alpha Phase of software testing takes place when a piece of software is finally considered to be stable. This is the last phase in the software testing process and it is crucial to make sure this phase is not completed until the all of the lingering problems in the software have finally been fixed. This is the phase where the software becomes as finely tuned as it is ever going to be. At this point in the process the codes used to design the software are stable and every possible bug should have been detected and corrected. Performance testing must then be done before a software program is able to be released in its beta stage. Often, beta testers will find bugs in a program that whoever designed it overlooked. For this reason, beta testing is a crucial part of the software testing process. Beta testers are generally tech savvy people who will be more likely than others to detect a previously undetected bug in the software.
These are all important measures that must be taken during the process of testing software for bugs. The last thing any company wants to do is release a piece of software that is plagued with bugs that no one caught during the design and testing process. This is often when the Bug Finders come into play to test software that has had bugs detected in it by the end users.