What are Different Goals of Software Testing?

Software testing is the mechanism of knowing that what’s the expected result and what the actual result a software project or product has given.

You simply say that software testing is nothing but validation and verification. Main goal of software testing is to ensure that software should always be defect free and easily maintained. 

IMPORTANT GOALS OF SOFTWARE TESTING

1. Always Identifying the bugs as early as possible.

2. Preventing the bugs in a project and product.

3. Check whether the customer requirements criterion is met or not.

4. And finally main goal of testing to measure the quality of the product and project.

SOME MAIN GOALS OF SOFTWARE TESTING

1. Short-term or immediate goals of software testing: - These goals are the immediate results after performing testing. These goals even may be set in the individual phases of SDLC. Some of them are completely discussed below:

a)      Bug discovery: The immediate goal about software testing is to find errors at any stage of software development. More the bugs discovered at early stage, better will be the success rate about software testing.

b)     Bug prevention: It is the consequent action of bug discovery. From the behavior and analysis of bugs discovered, everyone in the software development team gets to learn how to code so that bugs discovered should not be repeated in later stages or future projects.

Though errors always cannot be prevented to zero, they can be minimized. In this sense prevention of a bug is a superior goal of testing.

2. Long-term goals of software testing: - These goals affect the product quality in the deep run, when one cycle of the SDLC is over. Some of them are completely discussed below:

a)      Quality: Since software is also a product, so its quality is primary from the user’s point of view. Thorough testing ensures superior quality. 

Quality depends on various factors, such as correctness, integrity, efficiency, and reliability. So to achieve quality you have to achieve all the above mentioned factors of Quality.

b)     Customer satisfaction: From the user’s perspective, the prime goal of software testing is customer satisfaction only. If we want the client and customer to be satisfied with the software product, then testing should be complete and thorough.

A complete testing process achieves reliability, reliability enhances the quality, and quality in   turn, increases the customer satisfaction.

3. Post-implementation goals of software testing: - These goals are become essential after the product is released. Some of them are completely discussed below:

a)      Reduced maintenance cost: The maintenance cost about any software product is not its physical cost, as effective software does not wear out. The only maintenance cost in a software product is its failure due to errors.

Post- release errors are always costlier to fix, as they are difficult to detect. Thus, if testing has been done rigorously and effectively, then the chances about failure are minimized and as a result of this maintenance cost is reduced.

b)     Improved software testing process: A testing process for one project may not be blooming successful and there may be area for improvement. Therefore, the bug history and post-implementation results can be analyzed to find out snags in the present testing process, which can be determine in future projects.

Thus, the long-term post-implementation goal is to improve the testing process for future   projects.

Conclusion

At end in one line we conclude that main goal of software testing is to show that application is working as per as the requirements defined by client.