The longer you program, the greater the quantity and variety of bugs you have seen. With more experience as a programmer, you realize that in systems as complex as software applications, bugs are inevitable. For the inexperienced developer/programmer code is prima facie flawless. But experienced programmers know there are flaws, and only worry how many.

The situation may seem dire, but we are not without hope. We have ways to mitigate, minimize, and even prevent bugs. Among these techniques are documentation, proper software design, and software testing. While all of these options are important, I think the most neglected among new programmers is software testing. To effectively test software in my experience and opinion, test cases will have to provisioned at 3 levels namely:

1. Software requirements level (i.e use cases or user stories) - Test cases at this level is focused on acceptance tests which test mainly functional requirements but depending on the application domain it is also possible have test cases for contextual requirements or ilities such as performance, availability and security to name but a few.

2. Software architecture level - Test cases at this level is focused on integration tests which test the interaction between a software's internal components.

3. Software component-level design - Test cases at this level is focused on unit tests which test a single component of your software this could either be a class or function depending on your adopted programming paradigm.

All of these types of test cases are important, but component-level design test cases are of particular interest to programmers and developers are like as they are inherently developer-centric, focusing on unit tests which test a single components functionality independent of external dependencies.

So why should you write unit tests as a developer? - You should write unit tests, because they will give you the confidence to build new features, fix bugs, and release new versions of your software. Write and execute thorough tests, and you can ship with confidence.

Nice write up.
What of the case where you are dealing with firmware. How do you go about this.

One skill Nigerian computer science schools don't teach is how to use a debugger.

Many pros rate debugging as the number one skill required of programmers - far above writing tests.

One debugger indispensable Javascript programmers is the chrome inspector and the equivalent for Firefox and safari.

vezycash:
One skill Nigerian computer science schools don't teach is how to use a debugger.

Many pros rate debugging as the number one skill required of programmers - far above writing tests.

One debugger indispensable Javascript programmers is the chrome inspector and the equivalent for Firefox and safari.

Dude you seem to miss the different objectives/goals of testing and debugging. They both have complimentary but different purpose.

Testing is the process of finding bugs or errors in a software product. Debugging on the other hand, is the process of fixing bugs found during testing

harryobas:


Dude you seem to miss the different objectives/goals of testing and debugging. They both have complimentary but different purpose.

Testing is the process of finding bugs or errors in a software product. Debugging on the other hand, is the process of fixing bugs found during testing

This is the definition of software testing from Google:

Software testing is a process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding the software bugs. It can also be stated as the process of validating and verifying that a software program or application or product: Meets the business and technical requirements that guided it's design and development.

http://tryqa.com/what-is-software-testing/


In other words,

Software testing involves:
1. Debugging
2. Unit tests
3. Requirements tests
4. Unit tests
5. UI tests
6. Stress tests

Debugging is the subset of software testing involved in finding and fixing bugs.

Schools teach the broader requirements, unit & sometimes integration test parts because it's easy to explain.

However, the debugging part of software testing is glossed over because it's practical in nature.

Hope we cool. No disrespect intended. We life long learners.

vezycash:


This is the definition of software testing from Google:

Software testing is a process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding the software bugs. It can also be stated as the process of validating and verifying that a software program or application or product: Meets the business and technical requirements that guided it's design and development.

http://tryqa.com/what-is-software-testing/


In other words,

Software testing involves:
1. Debugging
2. Unit tests
3. Requirements tests
4. Unit tests
5. UI tests
6. Stress tests

Debugging is the subset of software testing involved in finding and fixing bugs.

Schools teach the broader requirements, unit & sometimes integration test parts because it's easy to explain.

However, the debugging part of software testing is glossed over because it's practical in nature.

Hope we cool. No disrespect intended. We life long learners.

From the Google definition of testing you have presented, you can see clearly that testing and debugging are completely different activities and debugging is not a subset of testing as you claim. Testing is focused on finding bugs and does not attempt to fix them. Debugging is focused on fixing bugs. But bugs have to be discovered before they can be fixed which is the goal testing(i.e to find bugs)

harryobas:


From the Google definition of testing you have presented, you can see clearly that testing and debugging are completely different activities and debugging is not a subset of testing as you claim. Testing is focused on finding bugs and does not attempt to fix them. Debugging is focused on fixing bugs. But bugs have to be discovered before they can be fixed which is the goal testing(i.e to find bugs)

You are right.

This article breaks them down fully

http://www.professionalqa.com/testing-vs-debugging

@vezycash
One reason schools dont teach debugging mayb because there isnt any theoretical backing behind it.
It's hands on and dirty.
Just like mathematicians only display their polished works (proofs) without hints to the long ardous road it took to get there.

@vezycash
One reason schools dont teach debugging mayb because there isnt any theoretical backing behind it.
It's hands on and dirty.
Just like mathematicians only display their polished works (proofs) without hints to the long ardous road it took to get there.

Then most lecturers arent professional software engineers.