Software Project Testing is one of the decisive phases of Software Development Life Cycle, and it is a process of exercising a program with a specific intent of finding errors prior to delivery to the enduser who exists independently. Testing is not the only activity that takes place after code implementation, but is part of each stage of the life cycle. It is a never ending process and continues for the entire lifetime of the system and it always tries to achieve a striking balance between the benefits of finding errors and the (people and hardware) costs of testing. This article provides a general overview to software testing and also features a typical test plan and its procedure highlighting the types of testing and best practices to improve software testing.

Software testing is considered to be the most important part of the software life cycle from design to implementation and maintenance of a software project. Testing is a process of exercising a program with a specific intent of finding errors prior to delivery to the enduser. Testing occurs at every phase of system construction. The larger a portion of code is when defects are perceived, the harder is to find and correct the defects. The different levels of testing reveal that testing is not a single phase of the software life cycle. It is a set of activities performed throughout the entire software life cycle.

Software testing may be perceived as a subfield of Software Quality Assurance (SQA), but it typically exists independently. In SQA, software process specialists and auditors take a broader view on software and its development. They examine and change the software engineering process itself to reduce the amount of faults that end up in the code or deliver faster. A common practice of software testing is that it is accomplished by an independent group of testers after finishing the software product and before it is shipped to the customer it is used as a project buffer to compensate for the project delays. Normally people assume that all the activities as illustrated in Figure 1 is only testing; but the activities after implementation are only considered as testing.

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