What is the importance of software testing?

Testing is an important part in any industry today, not just software industry.

Take an example of auto industry. A car need to be tested to ensure it is built up to (at least) the minimum industry standards. Will the airbag inflate in case of a collision? Is the car as fuel efficient as advertised? Are the safety features up to the standards? Etc.

These are just a few questions from just one industry that need an answer before the product can be expected to be a hit with customers.

Further to this, I’m going to stick to software industry to discuss about the importance of testing in line with this blog.

There is an old saying: “To err is human & to blame it on somebody else is more human.”

First part of it says it all, “To err is human”. Developers are human beings. They can make mistakes too.

These mistakes, defects in IT world, can range from severe to minor. The most common example that I find on Internet is for the aviation industry. Imagine a situation, where 20 aircrafts are circling in air over Heathrow & waiting for their turn to land. Due to a minor software glitch all 20 of them got a signal to land on a single runway. My reaction would be: “I don’t want to die; I want them to test what they are using before they actually use it.”

What they are using is software, untested software.

This is one brutal example.

Here’s a less brutal one. Imagine a glitch in payment system of a retail giant. The payment gateway is active & comes up nice & clean when customer clicks on check out button. However, in the backend it is not actually charging the customer & simply releasing the product for delivery. The loss could be in millions.

To avoid, making such issues a reality, software testing is important.

Subscribe to Quality Assurance Knowledge Base! by Email