Software testing, explained in plain English
49 QA and testing terms with clear definitions, real examples and best practices.
A
- Accessibility testingAccessibility testing checks that people with disabilities can use a product, usually against the WCAG standard.
- AI agent testingAI agent testing evaluates whether an AI agent reasons, uses tools and acts correctly and safely across realistic scenarios.
- API testingAPI testing sends requests directly to an application’s API and checks the responses, without going through the user interface.
B
C
- Canary releaseA canary release rolls a change out to a small share of users first, watching for problems before releasing to everyone.
- CI/CD testingCI/CD testing runs automated tests inside continuous integration and delivery pipelines on every change.
- Contract testingContract testing checks that an API provider and its consumers still agree on the shape of requests and responses.
- Cross-browser testingCross-browser testing checks that a website works correctly in different browsers, engines and screen sizes.
D
E
- End-to-end testingEnd-to-end (E2E) testing checks a complete user journey through the real application, from the interface to the backend and back.
- ETL testingETL testing verifies that data extracted, transformed and loaded between systems arrives complete and correct.
- Exploratory testingExploratory testing is unscripted testing where a tester learns the product and designs tests at the same time.
F
- Feature flag testingFeature flag testing checks that features behave correctly in every flag state they can be released in.
- Flaky testsA flaky test passes and fails on the same code without any change, making results unreliable.
- Forward-deployed engineer (FDE)A forward-deployed engineer is an engineer from a vendor who works embedded with a customer’s team to deliver an outcome.
- Functional testingFunctional testing checks that software features behave according to their requirements.
I
L
M
- Manual testingManual testing is when a person uses the software to check it works, without automated scripts.
- Mobile app testingMobile app testing checks native or hybrid apps on iOS and Android devices for function, compatibility and performance.
- Mutation testingMutation testing measures test quality by introducing small bugs into code and checking whether tests catch them.
N
O
P
- Page object modelThe page object model is a test design pattern that wraps each page or component in a class exposing user actions.
- Performance testingPerformance testing measures how fast and stable a system is under expected and peak workloads.
- PlaywrightPlaywright is an open-source framework from Microsoft for automating and testing web apps across Chromium, Firefox and WebKit.
- Prompt injectionPrompt injection is an attack where crafted input tricks an AI model into ignoring its instructions or revealing data.
Q
R
S
- Sanity testingSanity testing is a narrow check that a specific change or bug fix works as intended before wider testing.
- Security testingSecurity testing looks for vulnerabilities that would let attackers access data, take over accounts or disrupt a system.
- Self-healing testsSelf-healing tests automatically repair broken element locators when the user interface changes, instead of failing.
- Shift-left testingShift-left testing means testing earlier in the development process, so defects are found when they are cheapest to fix.
- Smoke testingSmoke testing is a fast, shallow check that the most important parts of a build work at all, before deeper testing begins.
- Synthetic monitoringSynthetic monitoring runs scripted user journeys against a live system on a schedule to detect problems before users report them.
T
- Test automationTest automation uses software to run tests and compare results with expectations, instead of a person doing it by hand.
- Test caseA test case is a defined set of conditions, steps and expected results used to verify one behaviour of a system.
- Test coverageTest coverage describes how much of an application, its code or its requirements is exercised by tests.
- Test data managementTest data management is how teams create, control and reset the data tests depend on.
- Test planA test plan describes the scope, approach, resources and schedule for testing a product or release.
- Test pyramidThe test pyramid is a model for balancing many fast unit tests, fewer integration tests and a small number of end-to-end tests.
U
V
W
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