Wikipedia: Software testing

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Software testing is the process of attempting to verify that software works as expected. Generally, the software is checked for internal consistency, common errors, conformance to a formal specification, acceptance by users.

In general, software engineers distinguish software faults and software failures. In case of a failure, the software does not do what the user expects. A fault is a programming error that does not actually manifest itself. A fault can turn into a failure when the software is ported to a different hardware platform or a different compiler, or when the software gets extended.

Software testing is a subfield to [software quality assurance]?. In the latter, software engineers take a broader view on software and its development. They examine and change the software engineering process itself to reduce the amount of faults that end up in the code.