The main job of a developer is not just to build a digital product, meeting certain quality standards is the key objective. Quality always matters, whether you are developing traditional software, a cloud solution, a website, or a mobile app. Users reject products full of bugs, errors, or technical glitches.
Hence, the QA department plays a crucial role in the growth of a software development company. QA engineers and analysts leverage their technical expertise and the latest tools to identify potential bugs that could negatively impact user experience. They perform different types of tests to ensure the product performs well under various environments and meets users’ expectations.
Over the years, software QA testing has become highly diverse. A variety of tests have been introduced to examine product behavior and performance. The ultimate goal is to satisfy end-users.
In this blog, we will discuss five popular types of QA testing that help developers ensure the product runs smoothly and delivers the expected results.
So, let’s get started!
1. Unit Testing
Unit testing is a very basic but critical practice. It is considered a foundational component of software QA testing. Testing focuses on individual units of software application like modules, functions, methods, classes, etc.
The primary goal of unit testing is to examine each component of code in isolation to validate its performance. Similarly, it helps developers deeply understand the underlying functionality of code and make necessary changes before integrating it into the system.
JUnit and NUnit are common testing frameworks to automate unit testing. The former is a Java testing framework while the latter is designed for the .NET platform.
2. Integration Testing
In integration testing, the components that passed unit testing are combined and tested together. The testing is performed to find out if these components work well when integrated.
For instance, if an app uses different modules, unit tests are carried out to examine their interaction with the database. The purpose is to ensure microservices work together and deliver the expected results. Moreover, you can also identify issues related to communication, data flow, interface mismatch, etc.
Integration testing is performed with two different approaches. The first one is the big bang approach. It integrates and tests all software components at once. On the other hand, the incremental approach integrates and tests components in groups.
3. End-to-end Testing
End-to-end testing is the most reliable approach to validate a user’s behavior with a software or application. This technique tests a product’s overall functionality and performance within a complete application environment. The process involves simulating real-world scenarios and using live data to ensure all components of a software are working properly.
Since end-to-end testing is performed from the user’s perspective, it gives testers valuable insights into how the application functions after release. From validating the UI, database, backend, to network communication, the test covers everything.
As a result, the QA team can better understand the product quality in terms of security, functionality, and reliability. Findings can be used to make required changes so that end users don’t face any difficulty while using the software. Hence, developers and SQA engineers can build high-performing solutions.
4. Performance Testing
Performance testing is a type of non-functional testing. It evaluates the system’s performance and responsiveness under a predefined workload. QA professionals use this test to check the speed, stability, responsiveness, stability, resource usage, and scalability of a software.
Besides, the test can analyze how a product behaves while handling a significant amount of data or executing a high number of requests. This way, testers can identify performance bottlenecks that often result in a rapid increase in users like a slow response rate. Removing these bottlenecks before the final release is critical to prevent higher downtimes and lower retention rates.
5. Regression Testing
Regression testing validates the software’s functionality every time new changes or updates have been made to its code. For instance, if you have introduced some updates to the app’s UI, they might conflict with the existing features. Unless regression tests are performed, your product will catch new bugs that can negatively affect user behavior.
To prevent this situation, a series of functional and non-functional tests are set up to catch new bugs by reexamining the software after updates. These tests help the QA team ensure new additions are working properly.
Likewise, regression testing streamlines software enhancements and configuration changes. Tests with specific code changes can also be re-executed when needed to save time and improve efficiency. Eventually, developers can make new changes or updates without affecting system performance.
Final Words
Software quality assurance is a multifaceted approach to building high-performing quality products that exceed users’ expectations. Development companies use different types of QA testing to ensure their applications meet quality standards.
We have discussed the five most common types of QA testing that are essential to validate an app’s functionality and overall performance. These include unit testing, integration testing, end-to-end testing, performance testing, and regression testing. Each type of test is performed at a specific stage of the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
The sole purpose of software testing is to ensure the final product is free from bugs and errors. Besides, QA testers identify potential bottlenecks that must be removed to optimize product stability, speed, responsiveness, and overall performance.
