The Exit Criterion for Testing and the Readiness of a Software Product

There are many ways to determine the appropriate time to stop testing, some of them are simple, others, on the contrary, – are very complex. Here are some of the conditions that are used to decide whether to stop testing.

• The time allotted for testing has expired. If a certain deadline is to be met, the day inevitably comes when you just stop further testing and ask yourself the question: “How bad is the software product?” Any other stop method that stops testing a program gives a much greater confidence about the quality of the software product.
• All scheduled test cycles are completed. If the test plan includes three cycles of testing, then at the end of the third cycle, you are likely to ask the same question: “How bad is the software product?” If the test plan is completed, then the code coverage is more likely to be better than in the case when there simply was not enough time to complete the required testing.

 Best software testing companies have a lot of customers because their services are used worldwide. You may become a client of highly experienced QA specialists and, as a result, your products will eventually satisfy the needs of the target audience.

•  The defect profile corresponds to the exit criterion for testing. If, after execution of the SWEEP algorithm (Software Error Estimation Program), it becomes clear that the limit, i.e. the number of unresolved errors per thousand lines of program code is reached, there are all grounds to stop testing. In a similar situation, you will have to ask yourself again: “How bad is the software product?”

Factors of Software Product Readiness

If you decide whether to stop testing, be sure to consider several factors that play an important role in assessing the readiness of a software product for delivery. A common set of factors that determine the readiness of a software product are: 

• The number of catastrophic defects found during testing that remain uncorrected;
• Total number of defects that have not been corrected;
• Ratio of the number of tests that are completed successfully to the number of all scheduled tests;
• The number of tests that cannot be run because they are blocked by defects.

 In order to assess the readiness of a software product to be released, special meetings are held. In some organizations, the readiness is assessed by the testing group. In other organizations the meeting is conducted by the project manager or the development manager. In any case, the testing team’s task is to provide the test results and develop recommendations on the product’s readiness for delivery.