Frequently Asked Testing Questions…What is?

Acceptance testing - Final testing based on specifications of the end-user or customer, or based on use by end-users/customers over some limited period of time. Often done together with the end-user for their approval before release of the product, ensuring it meets their original requirements.

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

Black box testing - This testing is not based on any knowledge of internal design or code. Tests are based on requirements and functionality and are usually conducted by testers.
End-to-end testing - (Full Life-Cycle Testing) Similar to system testing; the 'macro' end of the test scale. Testing involves testing of a complete application environment in a situation that mimics real-world use, such as interacting with a database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems (if appropriate) and is usually conducted by testers.

Functional testing - Black-box type testing geared to functional requirements of an application; this type of testing should be done by testers. Testing includes use of Traceability Matrices covering both business and functional requirements.

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.

Integration testing - This testing is conducted to determine whether or not all components of the system are working together properly. The 'parts' can be code modules or individual applications. This type of testing is especially relevant to websites, client/server applications and distributed systems and usually conducted by testers.

Load testing - Testing an application under heavy loads, such as testing of a web site under various conditions to determine at what point the system's response time degrades or fails. This is sometimes referred to as Performance testing.

Performance testing - Term often used interchangeably with 'stress' and 'load' testing. This testing is usually done using automated testing tools and focuses on whether performance varies by load and usage and whether performance is adequate for application’s usage.
Recovery testing - Testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems. This is sometimes called Failover testing.

Regression testing - Re-testing and validation of previously released functionality when new capabilities are added to software or its environment. This testing reduces the risk of new errors being delivered into pre-existing functionality and also allows rapid feedback of the quality of a new “build”. Automated testing tools can be especially useful for this type of testing. Regression testing is a good choice to turn over to outsourcing partners as it frees developers and internal testing teams for other work efforts.

Security testing - Testing how well the system protects against unauthorized internal or external access, willful damage, etc; may require sophisticated testing techniques.
Smoke or Sanity testing - Typically an initial testing effort to determine if a new software version is performing well enough to be accepted for a major testing effort. For example, if the new software is crashing systems every 5 minutes, bogging down systems to a crawl, or corrupting databases, the software may not be in a 'sane' enough condition to warrant further testing in its current state.

Stress testing - Term often used interchangeably with 'load' and 'performance' testing. Also used to describe such tests as system functional testing while under unusually heavy loads, heavy repetition of certain actions or inputs, input of large numerical values, large complex queries to a database system, etc.

System testing - This is the process of testing an integrated hardware and software system to verify that the system meets its specified requirements. It verifies proper execution of the entire set of application components including interfaces to other applications. Test engineers are responsible for ensuring that this level of testing is performed, sometimes working with the developers or end-users.

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.

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.

Internationalization / Localization testing – Specialized field of testing for software usually written in English but intended to be run on foreign language operations systems or to be translated to another language. This software will be used or sold overseas.
White Box testing - Based on knowledge of the internal logic of an application's code. Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths, conditions. This testing is usually done by programmers.