Different Types of Testing

Functionality Testing : The functionality of the application ( i.e GUI components ). against the specifications ( eg, if we click " submit" button, the application should display ..... " confirmation dialog box")

Acceptance testing: Formal testing conducted to determine whether a system satisfies its acceptance criteria and thus whether the customer should accept the system.

Regression Testing: Testing the application for checking whether the previous features are working properly or not, after adding new features to the application.

Stress Testing: The idea of stress testing is to find the breaking point in order to find bugs that will make that break potentially harmful.

Load Testing: This is merely testing at the highest transaction arrival rate in performance testing to see the resource contention, database locks etc...

Black-box Testing: Focuses on the program's functionality against the specification.

White-box Testing: Focuses on the paths of logic.

Unit Testing: The most 'micro' scale of testing; to test particular functions or code modules. Typically done by the programmer and not by testers, as it requires detailed knowledge of the internal program design and code. Not always easily done unless the application has a well-designed architecture with tight code; may require developing test driver modules or test harnesses.

Integration Testing - testing of combined parts of an application to determine if they function together correctly. The 'parts' can be code modules, individual applications, client and server applications on a network, etc. This type of testing is especially relevant to client/server and distributed systems.

Incremental Integration Testing: Continuous testing of an application as new functionality is added; requires that various aspects of an application's functionality be independent enough to work separately before all parts of the program are completed, or that test drivers be developed as needed; done by programmers or by testers.

Functional Testing: Black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application; this type of testing should be done by testers.

System Testing: Black-box type testing that is based on overall requirements specifications; covers all combined parts of a system.

Sanity Testing: Typically an initial testing effort to determine if a new software version is performing well enough to accept it for a major testing effort. For example, if the new software is crashing systems every 5 minutes, bogging down systems to a crawl, or destroying databases, the software may not be in a 'sane' enough condition to warrant further testing in its current state.

Performance Testing: This term is often used interchangeably with 'stress' and 'load' testing. Ideally 'performance' testing (and any other 'type' of testing) is defined in requirements documentation or QA or Test Plans.

Usability Testing: Testing for 'user-friendliness'. Clearly this is subjective, and will depend on the targeted end-user or customer. User interviews, surveys, video recording of user sessions, and other techniques can be used. Programmers and testers are usually not appropriate as usability testers.

Installation/Uninstallation Testing: Testing of full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall processes.

Security Testing: Testing how well the system protects against unauthorized internal or external access, willful damage, etc; may require sophisticated testing techniques.

Compatability Testing: Testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/operating system/network/etc. environment.

Ad-hoc Testing: Testing the application in a random manner.

Alpha Testing: Testing of an application when development is nearing completion; minor design changes may still be made as a result of such testing. Typically done by end-users or others, not by programmers or testers.

Beta Testing: Testing when development and testing are essentially completed and final bugs and problems need to be found before final release. Typically done by end-users or others, not by programmers or testers.