Testing is like checking your work before showing it to others. It involves systematically examining your code to find if it behaves as expected and meets the requirements you set. Testing helps catch errors early and ensures that the software works correctly for users, and Debugging is like fixing mistakes in your work. It happens after testing and involves identifying and correcting errors (bugs) that cause unexpected behaviour or crashes. Debugging helps ensure the software is free of issues before others use it.
Testing and debugging are the essential steps in any software development phase.
Then we will discuss the difference between testing and debugging on different parameters in detail.
Testing Vs Debugging: The Differences You Need to Know!
Testing and debugging are important steps in software development.
What is Testing?
Testing is a process in which we check or validate whether the software is fulfilling all the design requirements. In simple words, testing is a crucial step in the software development phase, where we try to discover defects in the software. So, Testing ensures that your software does what it's supposed to and doesn't misbehave, like ensuring your story reads well without mistakes. Software testers use standard techniques to check the software on many parameters. Testing is done to find all the faults in the software and find ways to make the software more accurate, efficient, and usable.
Manual Testing: As the name suggests, Testing is done manually without any automation tool or script. The tester takes the role of the end-users to verify or test the software in different environments. The tester also designs various test cases or scenarios to check the accuracy or to find errors in the software.
Automation Testing: In automation testing, the tester uses predefined scripts or writes the script and then uses any other software to test the product or software. This automation testing is used to do repeated testing on the same script quickly.
What is Debugging?
Debugging is a process where we find and resolve errors or bugs in any software application.
The debugging process is very time-consuming and complex. Debugging is important because bugs can cause the software to malfunction and lead to inaccurate results. It ensures your code works smoothly and doesn't cause problems, just like ensuring your puzzle is complete and error-free.
Types of Debugging
There are two types of debugging:
Reactive Debugging: It is a method that programmers use to find and fix the errors that occur during the execution of the code. Once the error or bug is identified, the programmer can modify the code to fix the error. This step is mainly done after the code has been written and executed.
Proactive Debugging: This technique is used by programmers to prevent errors or any bugs from occurring in the code during the development phase. Instead of waiting for errors to occur, they use different techniques to identify and fix errors or bugs before they happen.
Note: Mostly, reactive debugging is used by developers and testers.
What is the main difference between testing and debugging?
Testing ensures software is correct and behaves as intended whereas Debugging fixes errors found during testing to ensure stability.
Is debugging part of the testing process?
Yes, debugging is like the second step after testing. First, you test your work to find any problems. If you find any mistakes or issues during testing, then you do debugging to fix those mistakes. So, debugging is a part of the whole process to make sure your software works smoothly.
What is the difference between white box testing and black box testing?
During White box testing, we verify the internal working of the software, while in Black box testing, we test the external behavior of our software application.
Why do we use debugging in testing?
We use debugging in testing to make things work perfectly. When we test our work, we might find some things that don't work as expected – like errors or glitches. Debugging helps us find and fix these problems so that our software works smoothly without any issues. It's like tidying up your work before showing it to others.
Conclusion
Terms Testing and Debugging look very similar, but they are very different on different parameters. Testing is a vital phase of SDLP, followed by debugging.
Congratulations on finishing this article. You just learned about the difference between testing and debugging and their use cases in detail.
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