Manual Testing Tutorial

Manual testing is a part of the software testing. If you are new to the world of software testing, this manual testing tutorial will prove to be of use to you. It will help you to know about the basics of software testing.

Software development goes through a chain of process. It starts with requirement analysis phase and ends with the maintenance phase. The two important phases of software development are the coding and the testing phase. The testing phase is an important phase, as it verifies and validates, that the software has been developed according to the requirements of the user.

Software testing can be using two methods. The types of software testing

are automation testing and manual testing. The names of the types of software testing are indeed self explanatory. This manual testing tutorial will help you to understand the basics of software testing in general and manual testing in particular. Let’s take a look at manual testing tutorial for beginners, but it will also prove to be of help for advanced learners, as it will prove to be of help in clearing certain concepts, which an advanced learner may not be comfortable with.

What is Manual Testing

?

Manual testing is the method used to check a software for defects manually. In this type of testing, the tester wears the grabs of the end user. All the features of a software are tested to know, if the behavior of the software is exactly according to the expectations of the customer. Normally, the tester has a test plan, which he uses for testing. Other than the test plan, there are test cases written, which are used for implementing the test plan.

Manual Testing Tutorial After the introduction to software testing

, we will now turn towards the software testing tutorial. The tutorial deals with almost all the basics used in manual testing.

Stages of Manual Testing The entire process of manual testing goes through four phases. The first phase is called as unit testing. It is the job of the developer to test the units of the code written by the developer himself. In some cases, the code may also be tested by a peer. Integration testing is the second phase of software testing. It is carried out, when bigger chunks of codes are integrated to form a bigger block of code. Either black box or white box testing is carried out in this phase. The next phase is the system testing phase. The software is tested for all possibilities to rule out any kind of abnormality in the system. Normally black box testing technique is used in the system testing phase. User acceptance testing is per say the last stage of manual testing. In this phase, the software is tested keeping the end user in mind. There are two types of acceptance testing, which are used, namely alpha testing and beta testing

.

Software Testing Life Cycle Like the software development life cycle, the software also goes through the software testing life cycle. It is often seen that the software testing interview questions and answers

revolve a lot around the software testing life cycle. The different phases in the software testing life cycle are:

• Requirement Phase

• Test Planning Phase

• Test Analysis Phase

• Test Design Phase

• Test Verification and Construction Phase

• Test Execution Phase

• Result Analysis Phase

• Bug Tracking and Reporting Phase

• Rework Phase

• Final Test and Implementation Phase Software Testing Strategy There are three software testing types, under which all the software testing activities are carried out. They are:

• White Box Testing Strategy

• Black Box Testing Strategy

• Gray Box Testing Strategy

There are other types of software testing, which are used to test the product to ensure that the software meets the requirements of the end user. They include:

• Functional Testing
• Smoke Testing
• Usability Testing
• Validation Testing
• Compatibility Testing
• Sanity Testing
• Exploratory Testing
• Security Testing
• Regression Testing
• Recovery Testing
• Performance Testing (This includes 2 sub-types – Load Testing and Stress Testing) Software Testing Techniques The software testing methodologies are divided into static testing techniques and dynamic testing techniques. Software review and static analysis by using tools are the methods, which come under static testing techniques. Specification based testing techniques, structure based testing techniques and experience based testing techniques are all included under dynamic testing technique.

Equivalence partitioning is one of the important strategy used in specification based testing technique. Take a look at the article titled “ software testing technique

• for detailed information.

Bug Life Cycle The aim of the entire software testing activity is to find defects in the software, before it is released to the end user for use. The bug life cycles

starts after the tester logs a bug. The phases in the bug life cycle are:

• New
• Open
• Assign
• Test
• Deferred
• Rejected
• Duplicate
• Verified
• Reopened
• Closed For further information on bug life cycle

, you may want to read on:

• Bug and Statuses Used During a Bug Life Cycle
• Contents of a Bug

Software Testing Models

There are different software testing models, which the software testing team can choose from. Each of these models have different methods, as they are based on different principles. A number of factors are taken into consideration, before a particular model is chosen. The different models that are used are:

• Waterfall Model in Testing
• Validation and Verification Model
• Spiral Model
• Rational Unified Process (RUP) Model
• Agile Model
• Rapid Application Development (RAD) Model After going through this manual testing tutorial, you will be able to answer the manual testing interview questions

. If you have an interview to attend, then make sure you are well versed with this manual testing guide, so that you are able to crack the interview. Along with the knowledge about manual testing, you should also be acquainted with automation testing, as there are certain companies, which require the knowledge of automation testing along with the knowledge of manual testing.