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Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Importance of Software Testing

Software testing is an important part of the software development life cycle. It has its own phase in the process and has its own specialized IT professionals. What is the importance of software testing? 

What would happen if we didn't do software testing? 
When software is not properly tested prior to its launch, it may contain bugs that result in myriad problems for the end user. The program may freeze up, it may crash completely, or it may fail to operate efficiently and smoothly, resulting in frustrated customers who lose their trust in your software developing skills.
As a result, you can lose money because you lose customers, and it can also result in a lot of lost time. The reputation of your development company will be at stake, and if your program is going to be used for something serious, such as in a hospital or even in flight traffic control, it can result in injuries or even death of humans. This last scenario is a bit dramatic, but it is certainly plausible, giving developers all the more reason to fully test their software prior to launching it.

What Is The Importance Of Software Testing?

There is an entire phase in the SDLC dedicated to software testing. Traditionally, it’s done after the developers have finished building the software – it’s handed over to the testing team to perform tests on it. This is, in my opinion, the most important part of the SDLC process.

Some real incidents of no testing done:
Software bugs can potentially cause monetary and human loss, history is full of such examples
  • This is ChinaAirlines Airbus A300 crashing due to a software bug on April 26, 1994 killing 264 innocent lives
  • In 1985,Canada's Therac-25 radiation therapy machine malfunctioned due to software bug and delivered lethal radiation doses to patients ,leaving 3 people dead and critically injuring 3 others
  • In April of 1999 ,a software bug caused the failure of a $1.2 billion military satellite launch, the costliest accident in history
  • In may of 1996, a software bug caused the bank accounts of 823 customers of a major U.S. bank to be credited with 920 million US dollar   

As you see, testing is important because software bugs could be expensive or even dangerous

As Paul Elrich puts it - "To err is human, but to really foul things up you need a computer."

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