Software testing is the process of attempting to verify that software works as expected by actually running the software This is the most common way to confirm software functionality and reliability. [Formal verification]
?, by contrast, uses mathematical and logical tools to prove that a particular piece of software (or, more usually, some small part of it) has some desirable property. Generally, the software is checked for some or all of the following:
- internal consistency (Is what the software does correct? For example, does it highlight correctly spelled words as incorrect.)
- conformance to a formal specification (Is the software doing what it should? For example, is it supposed to highlight incorrectly spelled words?)
- common errors
- 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 of [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.
See also:
- ''How about (external) links to Ward Cunningham's wiki? His wiki has a lot of software development stuff: patterns, methodology, etc.
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