Software Testing Techniques in Software Development Life Cycle D.Meenakshi , J. Swami Naik , M.Raghavendra Reddy Computer Science Department, G.Pulla Reddy Engineering College Kurnool,AndhraPradesh, India Abstract: Software testing provides a means to minimize errors, cut maintenance and decrease overall software costs. Different software development and testing methodologies, tools, and techniques have emerged to enhance software quality. At each and every phase of software development life cycle testing is performed with different tools and techniques. One of the major problems within software testing area is how to get a suitable set of cases to test a software system. The software should assure maximum effectiveness with the least possible number of test cases. At present there are many testing techniques available for generating test cases. Keywords: Software Testing, Level of Testing, Testing Technique, Testing Process I. INTRODUCTION Software testing is as getting on as the hills in the the past digital computers. Testing the software is the only means for assessing the quqlity of software . in view of the fact that testing typically consumes 40 - 50% of effort in devolopment, and requires more effort for systems that require more reliability, it is an important t part of the software engineering. Contemporary software systems must be more reliable and correct. Automatic methods are used for ensuring software correctness which range from static techniques, such as (software) model checking or static analysis, to dynamic techniques , such as testing. All these testing techniques have strengths and weaknesses: model checking (with abstraction) is automatic, exhaustive, but may suffer from scalability issues. Static analysis, on the other hand, scales to very large programs but may give too many fake warnings, while testing alone may miss significant errors, since it is intrinsically incomplete. Software Testing: Software testing is not only error detection; Testing software means operating the programs under controlled conditions, to (1) checks whether it behaves “as specified”; (2) to detect errors, and (3) to validate that what has been specified is what the user actually wants. 1. Verification is defined as checking or testing of items, including software, for conformance and reliability by evaluating the results against requirements specified by the user. [Verification: Are we building the product right?] 2. Error Detection: Testing makes an attempt to go things wrong and to determine if things happen when they shouldn‟t or things don‟t happen when they should. 3. Validation looks at the system correctness – i.e. is defined as checking that what has been specified is hat the user actually wanted. [Validation: Are we building the right prduct?] The purpose of testing is verification, validation and error detection in order to detect problems – and the purpose of finding those problems is to get them set. Most generic Software problems are : Inadequate software performance, Data searches that yields incorrect results. Incorrect data entry & unsuccessful data edits, wrong coding / implementation of business rules, Incorrect calculation, ineffective data edits, Incorrect processing of data relationship, Incorrect or inadequate interfaces with other programs, Inadequate performance and security controls, Incorrect file handling, insufficient support of business needs, Unreliable results or performance, Confusing or misleading data, Software usability by end users & Obsolete Software, Inconsistent processing. Terminology:  Mistake – A manual action done which produce an incorrect result.  Fault [or Defect] – An incorrect step, process, or data definition in a program.  Failure – The lack of ability of a system or component to execute its Required function within the precise Performance requirement.  Error – The variation between a computed, observed, or Metric or condition and the true,specified, or theoretically correct value or condition.  Specification – A document that specifies in a complete, accurate, confirmable manner, the requirements, design, performance, or other feature of a system or component, and often the Procedures for determining whether these provisions have been Satisfied. We observe errors, which can often be connected with failures. But the decisive cause of the fault is often very hard to find. Activities in software testing Verifica tion Error Detection Validation D.Meenakshi et al, / (IJCSIT) International Journal of Computer Science and Information Technologies, Vol. 5 (3) , 2014, 3729-3731 www.ijcsit.com 3729