What is software testing? Why do we need to test software? Can we live without testing? How do we handle software bugs reported by the customers? Who should work hard to avoid frustrations of software failures?

Such questions are endless. But we need to find answers to such burning questions. Software organizations are regularly getting failure reports of their products and this number is increasing day by day. All of us would appreciate that it is extremely disappointing for the developers to receive such failure reports. The developers normally ask: how did these bugs escape unnoticed? It is a fact that software developers are experiencing failures in testing their coded programs and such situations are becoming threats to modern automated civilization. We cannot imagine a day without using cell phones, logging on to the internet, sending e-mails, watching television and so on. All these activities are dependent on software, and software is not reliable. The world has seen many software failures and some were even fatal to human life.

SOME SOFTWARE FAILURES

A major problem of the software industry is its inability to develop error-free software. Had software developers ever been asked to certify that the software developed is error-free, no software would have ever been released. Hence ‘software crises’ has become a fixture of everyday life with many well-publicized failures that have had not only major economic impact but also have become the cause of loss of life. Some of the failures are discussed in subsequent sections.