Behind the Software Testing Curtain

Behind the Software Testing Curtain

Behind the Software Testing Curtain

With computers a part of everyday life, most take for granted the software that makes it all possible. There is an extensive process that goes into software development and testing. Many companies today produce their own software with uses ranging from simple calculations all the way to simulated intelligence. Behind every product on the market today, there are people who made it possible through time spent on designing, coding and testing the software. Every piece of software first starts with an idea. Everybody at some point has wished they had a tool to do a particular job, and that is exactly what software developers try to figure out. When a developer first comes up with an idea, a rough outline of the desired end state is drawn up, as is a depiction of how that end state will be reached. This is the very first step in the design process. After the idea has been conceived, it is necessary to begin coding a program to complete the task and reach the desired result. At first, hundreds of lines of code are put into the computer and attempts are made to follow the envisioned outline. But as with any process, there are sure to be flaws. Those flaws are where the testing effort comes into play. How these flaws are communicated and reacted to largely depend on the specific processes and culture of the organization. Most companies today that develop software are corporate giants and have entire divisions devoted to testing code. Testers in these environments are given the product, along with the task it is designed to achieve, and will spend hours going over both the expected and unexpected results. Take for example a video game; video games are nothing more than software programs with millions of lines of code that all are required to function in harmony. While a developer may think the code is perfect, during the testing phase it may be found, for example, that walking into a particular wall at a particular angle causes what is called a glitch. Glitches are essentially errors that can result in anything from being able to walk through the wall in question, to completely crashing the game and necessitating a restart. Testers of software are in charge of finding all such glitches, and after finding a glitch, highlighting the section of the product the glitch was found in. Depending on the size of the program, this process can take days to years, with hundreds of different versions being produced. For example, while exact development times are undisclosed, Windows 7 is estimated to have been in development for approximately three years. Software testing clearly plays a key role in the world today and will continue to be essential in the future. All ideas must go through the process of testing and refinement, and computer programs are no different. Whether it is a simple calculator program, or an operating system for an entire network of computers, the overarching process is essentially the same.

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