Lecture 3 - Testing Fundamentals - Psychology
Lecture 3 - Testing Fundamentals - Psychology
Pavithra Subashini
Head/Senior lecturer
Faculty of Computing
Psychology of testing
Why test?
• build confidence
• prove that the software is correct
• demonstrate conformance to requirements
• find faults
• reduce costs
• show system meets user needs
• assess the software quality
Confidence
Confidence
Fault
Faultsfound
found
Time
Result:
Result: faults
faults left
left in
in
A better testing approach
Result:
Result: fewer
fewer faults
faults left
left in
in
The testing paradox
The
Thebest
bestway
waytotobuild
buildconfidence
confidence
is
isto
totry
tryto
todestroy
destroyitit
Who wants to be a tester?
• A critical process
• Bring bad news (“your baby is ugly”)
• Under worst time pressure (at the end)
• Need to take a different view, a different
mindset (“What if it isn’t?”, “What could go
wrong?”)
• How should fault information be
communicated (to authors and managers?)
Tester’s have the right to: