Differences between App Testing and App Debugging

In the world of software development, app testing and app debugging are two main vital concepts. People often get confused by these terms, the result of which is that they use them interchangeably. Although the two practices are closely related, they are different from each other. If you misunderstand them, it can result in an inefficient development process. As a result, it delays development and impacts the overall quality of an app. So, you need to understand these two terms clearly to avoid such pitfalls. Thus, you can distinguish between the two. Let’s go through the article to learn about these two terms in detail so that you can get a clear idea regarding the differences between app testing and app debugging.

What is App Testing?

App testing refers to a software or application checking process that informs if all features and functional tests are performing perfectly or not. It is an essential element of software development, and this method ensures the app’s quality by testing it thoroughly.

Why is It Important to Test the Android App?

If apps aren’t tested thoroughly, these could malfunction. On the flip side, thoroughly tested apps can deliver an improved experience to the target audience so that their app time can become more enjoyable.

For quality analysts, a lot of testing approaches can be available. When you perform such tests, these ensure that you will get a top-quality Android app for your audience. Moreover, performing this test confirms that people installing the app from the Google Play Store would have the best time when they will use it.

These are the two main reasons why Android app testing is crucial:

There Are Chances Of Bugs In The App:

It does not matter how much time you have devoted to design the app & develop it — your app could have active bugs. Sometimes, it may happen that your app is deployed, and you have added new features to the app. However, your app can still have new bugs. You need to test your app continuously from time to time.

Bugs Are Inevitable:

Bugs can occur several times, and it doesn’t depend on how properly you have written the code. Testing the app to find bugs is the best way.

Benefits of Android App Testing:

Apps Function Properly:

The process’s main aim is to ensure that the app performs properly. Quality analysts make sure that the app can be downloaded on any device testing and the features will work properly. In addition, they make sure that the app can provide a superb experience to the audience.

Predicts Users’ Experience:

You are also capable of predicting the user’s behavior & experience through this testing. Quality analysts consider themselves as the audience. The app is tested in order to ensure the look & feel of the app. They need to confirm that everything like features, navigation, and user interface is highly logical and intuitive. Thus, they predict the real customer experience when they use the app.

Increases Customer Loyalty:

Suppose you have an error-free app for your audience. In such cases, they must love it. In return, they might reciprocate and you can earn their loyalty. Once they are satisfied with the app’s look and feel, they will take actions that you want them to take. It is going to build respect & trust for your brand.

Promise Higher Revenue:

Earning more revenue is a benefit of a good & tested app. Once users take your desired actions, you will see this in revenues. When your app is tested thoroughly, you will get a better ROI.

Reduces Testing Time During The Development Phase:

With the help of automation testing, it is possible to deduct the app testing time. When manual testing was used previously, it took a lot of time for developers and quality analysts. The reason is that while manual testing, they need to find bugs & errors manually and address them. In order to reduce the app-to-market time, now they can go for automation testing and use the latest testing tools. After the introduction of automated testing, the efficiency & testing speed have enhanced.

Reduces App Development Cost:

If you test the app thoroughly, it will lower the total cost of the app development process. As soon as you have addressed bugs during the development time, it might reduce the probability of the emergence of bugs after the deployment. Therefore, there is no need to pay more for anything extra, like app monitoring and maintenance.

What Are The Stages Of Testing?

The testing process is capable of validating the software’s reliability. It is divided into several distinct stages, and every stage has its specific goal. The testing stages are as follows:

Test Plan: A test plan refers to a document used to outline the scope, approach, strategy, resources, and schedule of the testing activities. It is used by the testing team to plan, coordinate & manage testing activities for any specific project.

Analysis: It means breaking down a problem into its parts to understand it better and solve it easily. This procedure wants you to gather information, detect relevant factors, & form conclusions.

Design: Hence, you need to create a plan or blueprint for a system or product. Your task is to define the architecture, components, interfaces, as well as other aspects of the system.

Development: This process wants you to turn a design into a working system. In such cases, you have to code, test, and debug the product or system.

Execution: In this process, you have to run a system or program. You have to create and run the important tasks in order to get the system running.

Bug Fixing: This process refers to fixing errors in a system or program. Hence, you are required to identify & resolve errors in the code. Also, you need to test to ensure that no more mistakes exist.

Software Implementation: It means putting a software product into operation. You have to install the software, configure it, and ensure that it runs properly.

Features Of Testing:

In testing, the execution of a system is done in order to evaluate one or more properties of interest. These are the common testing features, including:

Identification in Testing lets you spot bugs, software application defects, and anomalies.
Validation in Testing validates that the software can fulfill the business needs & functions as you expect.
Documentation in Testing informs you what previously happened during the testing method. It helps to avoid future problems.
Quality Assurance in Testing supports the standards and guidelines.
Debugging in testing pinpoints the bug source that allows for Debugging.
Risk Management in Testing finds potential risks that are related to the software.
Performance check in Testing measures the software performance. In addition, it lets you find areas of improvement.

Types of Testing:

The testing process runs a program or application with the aim of finding errors. Every testing type has different purposes. Besides, each type of testing can ensure the software quality. Let’s learn more about different types of testing.

Unit Testing: In this process, a program’s components or individual units are tested to determine if they are suitable for use. The implementation of these tests is done in order to ensure that every software unit operates according to the plan. When the development procedure is underway, the developers perform this process.

Integration Testing: This type tests different components or units within a system in order to make sure that they are integrated appropriately.

System Testing: This testing procedure makes sure that a whole system can work as you want. It is done by a quality assurance team who ensures that the design meets all the necessary functionalities.

Acceptance Testing: It is called user acceptance testing (UAT). In order to ensure that the system is working for the end user, this testing is designed. The end users or customers are capable of performing the testing part in order to assess the performance of the system.

Functional Testing: This one verifies that every system function performs as you want. Testers perform the testing during the development process. Customers or end-users can also do the testing.

Regression Testing: This type of testing ensures that changes you have made to the software do not have negative consequences.

Security Testing: It verifies that the software is secure from external threats.

Performance/Load Testing: This process lets you know how properly the software functions under heavy loads.

Usability Testing: It focuses on how simple collaborating with a product is for users.

Compatibility Testing: This testing ensures that an app works on different systems.

What Are The Steps For Software Testing?

You can break down the testing process into eight stages.

Understand The Requirement: A tester has to understand the needs before you execute the test cases.

Test Planning: Now, you can define resources, aims, and methods for testing by making a test plan and strategy.

Test Case Development: Then, you need to construct test cases which are based on the test plan and product needs.

Review Test Plan: Objectives, scope, and approach of a specific testing effort are outlined by the Test Plan brief. Hence, it will include a description of needed resources, testing environment, test deliverables, as well as the expected results.

Test Environment Setup: You can use the software, hardware, and other components in order to set up the test environment.

Test Execution: Hence, you can record the results, hold the test cases, and detect any flaws.

Defect Tracking: It can find the defects during the test execution. If you want, you can re-run the test case.

Test Closure: You need to perform a review of the test results at last. Then, you need to document the test results. Finally, the process will be completed.

How To Optimize The Testing Process?

These below-mentioned steps will guide you to understand the optimization process.

Use Automation: While automation reduces the time you need to spend on the manual testing process, it ensures that tests will run properly.

Leverage Test Automation Tools:

Several test automation tools exist to assist in test execution, like Selenium, Cucumber, Testsigma, Jasmine, etc.

Utilize Test Cases: In this process, you have to write & execute test cases in order to verify the correctness, quality & completeness of a software product.

Prioritize Tests: You can prioritize the tests based on the risk linked to every feature. This test allows you to focus on the key test cases.

Continuous Integration: This one can integrate code changes. The method assists in finding bugs and addressing & rectifying them.

Invest In Test Research: In order to find the improvement areas, it analyzes test results.

What Are The Testing Tools?

These refer to the software programs which help testers & software developers in the process of software testing. Such tools make test cases, execute tests, record results, analyze them, and create reports. Open-source & commercial solutions are basically these testing tools that include Selenium, HP LoadRunner, Microsoft Visual Studio, IBM Rational Suite, Testsigma, and Apache JMeter.

What is Debugging?

Debugging means to identify and address errors in a specific program. This procedure lets businesses and developers provide the most effective products to people.

In order to create comprehensive debugging procedures, developers come with the latest debugging tools for Android and iOS. Their strategies ensure that the end product will not have any errors or bugs. Before learning the differences between App Testing And App Debugging, let’s learn the importance, and advantages of debugging.

Why Is Debugging Important?

It is essential for the Android app development process. If you do not debug the app, it will be released with functional or technical issues and bugs. As a result, it can dishearten the audience you want to target. Even it can put your reputation at risk.

Remember that this process is about locating the emergence of a bug. In order to identify the error, developers must examine every code section. Do you have an app debugged thoroughly? Then, it is going to boost the app’s success rate. The reason is that people will definitely welcome this type of app with both hands. Moreover, you will receive more positive reviews for the app. In addition, you can see a spike in revenues.

Now, we are going to mention debugging strategies with brief information:

Learning Strategy:

Before you begin the process of debugging, ensure that you have a clear understanding of the product. It is a basic thing to understand. Are you unfamiliar with the product? Then, you will not be capable of finding errors. So, you must know the app’s features and functionalities before starting the debugging process.

Experience:

It is better to have previous experience in debugging in Android app development. In addition, you should be aware of Android testing frameworks. Besides, you have to understand how to deal with these. The experienced quality analysts are able to find bugs & resolve these effectively.

Forward Analysis:

In this debugging strategy, quality analysts follow a forward manner to track programs using print statements or breakpoints. Thus, they detect the wrong outputs and find bugs.

Backward Analysis:

During this analysis, a backward process is followed to track a program from where the error occurred. Identifying the error code’s region is the major purpose.

Benefits Of App Debugging:

These are the advantages of app debugging:-

Have An Error-Free Product:

What is special about debugging is that a product is available to you without any bugs or errors. This method lets you detect errors and fix them in order to improve the app’s quality.

Get More Positive Reviews:

Do you provide a product with a pleasing experience to the audience? If so, then they are going to write good reviews about you. Also, it leads to more app downloads.

Save Development Costs:

If you spend more on debugging, you can save a lot on post-deployment maintenance costs. You can deduct the entire app development cost to a great extent.

What Are The Stages Of Debugging?

These are the stages of debugging:

Identify The Problem: Before beginning the debugging procedure, identifying the problem is essential. Hence, you have to examine error messages and observe the unexpected behaviors. Or you need to research the potential conflicts with other hardware or software.

Reproduce The Problem: As soon as you identify the issue, you can reproduce this consistently. You may need to narrow down what is causing the issue so that you can find a consistent way with the aim of making the problem happen.

Isolate The Cause: Now you have identified the issue and reproduced it. After that, your task is to isolate the error’s source. Hence, you have to examine the code and run diagnostic tests. Otherwise, you can use a debugger to trace the program’s flow.

Evaluate Possible Solutions: You are capable of evaluating the possible solutions after isolating the cause. In such cases, you need to try different approaches, change code, or you can find other information sources to solve the issue.

Test And Implement Solution:

When you have detected a solution, you need to test it in order to confirm that it works. As soon as the solution works, you are able to execute this.

Document The Process: After solving the problem, you have to document the process for solving this. It lets you diagnose similar problems in the future more quickly. Additionally, it can act as a reference for those people who have the same issue.

Features Of App Debugging: Debugging means to find program errors & eliminate them. You can do so manually or use specialized tools. These are a few features of debugging:

Error Detection: This method allows you to detect errors in a code like logical, syntax, and runtime errors. Thus, developers can find issues & fix them quickly before these become notable bugs.

Code Study: You should examine the code in order to determine why it isn’t working & how it works. A developer understands the logic behind the code during the process. Thus, they improve the quality of performance by making necessary changes.

Testing: Debugging runs testing through various scenarios and observes the program’s behavior to enclose this as its functionality.

Performance Optimization: You can employ debugging in order to find and address inefficient code. It targets to optimize the performance of a program. This type of optimization results in enhanced efficiency or speed.

Documentation: The process needs documentation to let the developers understand how the program works.

Types Of Debugging:

There are two debugging techniques which are Reactive and Proactive. In most cases, debugging is Reactive — a defect will be reported in the app, or an error will occur. The developer will attempt to find the error’s root cause in order to fix this.

Reactive Debugging:

In this technique, the programmer monitors actively. When any error occurs, the programmer will respond to this. Once you have written the code and executed this, it will occur. In order to find the error’s cause, the programmer will explore the code and then will make changes to the code to resolve the bug.

Proactive Debugging:

In this technique, finding errors is the main focus before these occur. It happens during the development procedure. Techniques & tools will be used by the programmer in order to find the possible troubles before you write the code. After that, the programmer will change the code to prevent errors from occurring.

Main Differences Between App Testing And App Debugging:

Let’s check the difference between these two processes:

The major difference is that testing is the procedure used to discover bugs and errors. On the other hand, debugging refers to a method through which the bugs are rectified, those which are uncovered during testing.

Remember that the testing process has a limitation. Mobile app testing never tells developers of coding mistakes. The only thing it shows is that a problem exists. But the testing process never tells you what the issue is. Hence, debugging is necessary. It lets you learn about the error’s location and helps to address this. Syntax errors, runtime errors, logic errors, etc, are some types of code errors.

Purpose: For testing, the purpose is to detect errors in the software system. On the other hand, for debugging, the purpose is to fix the errors or defects.

Timing: Testing is done first, and then debugging should be done.

Approach: In testing, the software system is executed with test cases. Whereas in debugging, you need to analyze the symptoms of a problem and identify the issue’s root cause.

Tools And Techniques: In testing, automated or manual testing tools are used. On the other hand, you need to use tools & techniques like logging, tracing, and code inspection for debugging.

Other Differences Between App Testing And App Debugging:

Testing helps to find bugs and errors. Debugging helps to correct the bugs which you can find during testing.
Testing identifies the failure of implemented code. On the other hand, debugging provides absolution to code failure.
Testing refers to the process of displaying the errors. On the other hand, debugging refers to a deductive process.
The tester does the testing process. On the flip side, the developer or the programmer does debugging.
In testing, you do not need any design knowledge. But you can not do debugging without proper design knowledge.
Both insiders and outsiders can do testing. But only insiders can perform debugging. An outsider is unable to do it.
Testing is automated or manual. But you always need to perform debugging manually. It can never be automated.
Testing is based on unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and other testing levels. On the other hand, debugging is based on various bug types.
Testing is considered a stage of an SDLC or software development life cycle. However, debugging isn’t considered an aspect of the software development life cycle. You can see this happening as a consequence of testing.
Once the code is written, testing will be initiated. But debugging happens after a test case is executed.

So, it can be stated that both of these processes are vital activities in software engineering. Although these two procedures are related, they have differences. Testing verifies that a software component or system fulfills its functional and non-functional requirements. On the other hand, in debugging, you need to identify the errors or issues in the software system and fix them.

The Bottom Line:

In this article, we have discussed the differences between app testing and app debugging which are vital parts of the software testing life cycle. Both of these methods play a crucial role when it comes to detecting errors and bugs in the software. After going through the differences between these two terms, we hope that you get to learn that these terminologies depend on each other. So, you can not implement one without another.

The result of implementing the debugging method is that the problem was fixed and is now available for re-testing. Test engineers are unable to fix the defects. They verify the bugs that developers resolve. The final conclusion is that developers execute debugging. They resolve the problems that test engineers report in the debugging phase. The purpose of performing these two methods is to create a specific software product in a better and improved way.

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of testing is debugging?

It is a cyclic activity that involves code correction and execution testing. Testing is done during debugging, and it comes with a different aim compared to the final module testing.

How does debugging differ from testing?

Testing means to evaluate a software app to uncover potential defects. On the other hand, debugging means to identify, isolate and fix bugs which you have found during testing.

Can a software application be released without testing?

Although it is possible technically, if you release software without testing, it can significantly increase the risk of undiscovered defects that reach end-users. Testing is important to identify and rectify problems in the development process. It makes sure that you can provide a more powerful product to your targeted audience.