Software development process is like writing a thick novel where many things have to be taken care of. The developed software must be functionally correct, must comply with certain standards and should be bug-free. Software testing ensures that the developed software is bug-free and complies with the specified standards. Many of the software products fail only because of the lack of rigorous testing mechanism.

Here are five types of software testing everyone should know.

1. Unit testing

A unit can be understood of as the smallest component of a software that can be tested. In such testing, we write another program which gives inputs to each of the units and checks whether they can give the correct output.

2. Integration testing

Such type of testing is usually done after unit testing. The idea is to test whether all the units can function properly when combined to form a complete system. Compatibility issues are caught during this testing process.

3. Penetration testing

It is done to test the security of the software system. The idea is to perform a simulated attack on the system and test whether the system can resist the attack and still preserve its functionality.

4. Regression testing

The developers make several changes in the newer versions of the software. Regression testing ensures none of the old functionalities have been affected by the addition of new features.

5. System testing

System testing is done to make sure that the software runs well under different conditions such as different types and versions of operating systems, hardware, servers etc. It is done by running the software in different environments.