Software Testing - System Testing
Software testing has various phases namely the unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and the acceptance testing. The system testing is performed right after unit testing of individual modules of the software, and integration testing of all these modules have been completed. Thus it is the penultimate phase of testing which is performed just before the acceptance tests are executed.
What is Software System Testing?
The software system testing is done to check every feature and performance of the software after all its components have been integrated. It tests if the software is working properly as per the requirements and it is able to solve the customers needs.
The software system testing is performed to detect any issues occurring after integration of multiple units of the software. It finds defects in the integrated software as well as in the complete software as a whole.
The software system testing is conducted on the complete software with the perspective of the system requirements, functional requirements, or both. It verifies the design and characteristics of the software, and how well it satisfies the end user requirements.
Sometimes the system testing validates the software beyond the requirements mentioned in System Requirement Specification(SRS). It is conducted by a testing team who is not a part of the development process, and hence have an unbiased testing mindset. It is a part of both functional and non-functional testing and is performed with the help of the black box testing techniques.
Process of Software System Testing
The process of the the software system testing are listed below −
Step 1 − Configure the test environment where the software system testing is to be performed.
Step 2 − Develop the software system test cases.
Step 3 − Generate the test data for running the software system test cases.
Step 4 − Execute the software system test cases and analyze the results.
Step 5 − In case of failure of the software system test cases, the defects are reported.
Step 6 − The entire regression test cases are executed to check if the existing functionalities of the software are working as expected.
Step 7 − Report all the regression related defects.
Step 8 − Retest all the fixed defects.
Types of Software System Testing
The types of the the software system testing are listed below −
Performance Testing
Performance Testing is performed to verify the performance, stability, reliability etc of the software.
Load Testing
Load Testing is performed to verify the amount of load or traffic that the software can accommodate before it crashes. It finds the threshold limit of the maximum count of users that the software can bear at a time after its software undergoes a breakdown.
Stress Testing
Stress Testing is performed to verify if there exists any security problems leading to the potential scope of hacking, and other vulnerabilities. It ensures that the safety of data is maintained while it is being exchanged between multiple units of the software. The stress testing is done along with the Penetration Testing and user access control testing techniques.
Scalability Testing
Scalability Testing is performed to verify the performance of the software with respect to its capacity to scale up or down the count of the user request loads.
Different Tools Used for Software System Testing
The different tools used for the software system testing are listed below −
- JMeter
- Selenium
- Appium
- Microsoft Test Manager
- Gatling
- SoapUI
- HP ALM
- LoadRunner
Advantages of Software System Testing
The advantages of the software system testing are listed below −
- The software system testing can be performed without requiring any programming skills.
- The software system testing verifies the complete software and detects the errors which remain unidentified during the unit testing and the integration testing phases.
- The software system testing is performed in an environment which is similar to the production environment.
- The software system testing covers both the business and technical requirements from the customers.
- Once the software system testing has been completed, the development team can confidently move the software for the acceptance testing phase.
- The software system testing takes care of all the overall features of the software.
- The software system testing detects the system level issues occurring at the early stages of the software development life cycle(SDLC).
- The software system testing validates the complete software and checks if the software is working properly as per the user requirements.
- The software system testing enhances the stability, maintainability, scalability, performance, and quality of the software.
- The software system testing creates an environment of collaboration, and cooperation between the development and the testing team.
- The software system testing identifies the potential risks in the software and tries to mitigate them.
- The software system testing helps to detect and fix errors in the early phases of the SDLC.
- The software system testing identifies dependencies which exist between the components both at the system level and at module level communications.
Disadvantages of Software System Testing
The disadvantages of the software system testing are listed below −
- The software system testing is a time consuming process, as it concentrates on the complete software.
- Conducting software system testing is a costly affair.
- It requires good debugging skills to complete the software system testing process.
- The software system testing requires the use of sufficient resources, and infrastructure.
- The software system testing can be complicated for large systems.
- The software system testing is difficult to complete in the absence of clear requirements, and design documents.
- The software system testers do not have any knowledge of the internal working of the software.
- The software system testing is dependent on the hardware and software configurations.
- The software system testing has to be driven by a proper plan, coordination, collaboration, experience, and execution.
- The software system testing is affected by the changes adopted during the development process.
- The software system testing needs to be conducted by experienced and skillful testers.
- The software system testing is performed at multiple cycles to get the desired outcomes.
Conclusion
This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software System Testing. Weve started with describing what is software system testing, what is the process of the software system testing, what are the types of the software system testing, what are the different tools used for the software system testing, what are the advantages of software system testing, and what are the disadvantages of software system testing. This equips you with in-depth knowledge of Software System Testing. It is wise to keep practicing what youve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.