Computer software testing is a process to ensure proper function and hardware support. It goes through stages and iterations, including internal and external testing, to find and document bugs. The alpha and beta phases involve testing with incomplete and complete software, respectively. Testers aim to find errors and ensure compatibility with other software and hardware.
Computer software testing is a process by which a particular software program, or parts thereof, is tested to ensure proper function and hardware support. This process usually goes through a series of stages and iterations during software development and can include internal and external testing. Much of this testing is intended to find bugs within the software, usually by discovering and replicating them, then documenting those bugs and providing the software programmers with that documentation. Computer software testing can also be done to check the compatibility between a program and various hardware or other software components.
While the actual computer software testing process can vary between software companies, the general approach to testing usually consists of multiple stages. Companies may use different nomenclature to refer to these phases, although they often refer to them as alpha and beta phases. Alpha testing usually involves internal testing by employees, usually using very rough or unfinished software programs. The alpha phase of computer software testing may be performed on incomplete software, usually to determine whether some aspect of the software is working properly.
Testing of computer software then moves into the beta phase, which usually involves much more complete software, although some program changes may need to be made. Testing at this stage is often referred to as “closed,” meaning it’s available only to those who are invited to test the software. Beta tests can also be “open,” which typically means that the test is available to a larger number of testers in the general public.
Software changes may continue to occur during such testing, but usually the overall program code has been written. Much of the work done during this stage of computer software testing is aimed at finding bugs and errors in the code. Such errors are documented by testers, who may need to spend hours or even days performing the same function to reliably recreate the errors, and sent to programmers who determine how to fix the bug or error.
Computer software testing can be used to determine how well a program works with other software or hardware. Testers might use computers and other machines with numerous hardware layouts to ensure that the software can work with different hardware components. Computer software testing can ensure that a program works well with a particular operating system (OS). Tests can also be used to find problems a program might have when running on a machine that’s also running other types of software, such as popular antivirus programs or various hardware drivers.
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