9 Exciting Software Testing Projects & Topics For Beginners [2021]

Software testing might constitute 50% of a software development budget but it is viewed as a lethargic and unnecessary step by most students. Even educational programs are more focused on the development and less on ensuring the quality of software. Nearly 25% of employees believe that prioritizing development is a concerning challenge facing the tech industry. 

As digitization has led to an increase in security risks and vulnerabilities, more and more companies are investing in software testing to develop secure codes. However, 68% of respondents on GitHub believe less than 50% of developers are incapable of spotting vulnerabilities that are later identified by software testing teams. 

In this article, we will find out why software testing should be an ongoing process in the software development lifecycle and discuss software testing project topics and ideas that you can pursue during the course of your term.

Why is Software Testing Important?

Software testing is an integral process in the software development life cycle wherein bugs, errors, and vulnerabilities are identified early on to ensure the security, reliability, and performance of a software application. In addition to quality, software testing also contributes to the time-efficiency, and cost-effectiveness, and higher rates of customer satisfaction. Here’s discussing 5 ways in which software testing helps companies write secure code, and enhance growth and productivity. 

1. Decreased software development costs: Timely software testing eliminates the need of future investments in fixing issues that could have been avoided at an early stage. Even if errors or bugs do arise, it costs much less to resolve them. Therefore, software testing contributes to a cost-effective software development process. 

2. Increased security: As organisations are battling security risks, ingenious software testing methods are increasingly becoming the norm to provide trusted and reliable products. Software testing takes care of loopholes and entry-ways hackers can exploit to pursue malicious gains, thereby, averting potential security threats. It also ensures that personal information, banking details, and credentials are safe and secure. 

3. Top-notch quality: Software testing goes a long way in ensuring higher quality in an end-product. It ensures that there are no frequent crashes or bugs, and users have an uninterrupted experience. It is also carried out to determine the applications are providing top-notch functionality without causing glitches. 

4. Higher rates of customer satisfaction: Software testing is a guaranteed means to ensure customer satisfaction. With testing, you can discover the shortcomings of software, identify the problems that may impact customer experience, and improve them to contribute to customer satisfaction and retention. 

5. High productivity and performance: Companies that view software testing as an ongoing process and work with QA teams spend 22% less time on fixing overlooked issues. This time is channelled towards completing value-adding work and developing innovative features that contribute to customer retention. 

Top Software Testing Project Ideas and Thesis Topics

1. Combining Automation & Manual Testing

This project highlights the importance of automation testing and manual testing to cover the security, performance, and usability aspects of software development. To ensure automation testing doesn’t overlook user experience, and effectiveness of UI/UX design, it is important to incorporate manual testing in the software development process. In this manner, automation testers can handle the efficiency and speed aspects of QA while manual testers can test an application for its usability and user experience.

2. Testing Application Vulnerabilities Using Faulty Injection

This project employs a fault injector called “Pulad” to determine vulnerabilities in an application if any, prior to deployment. Pulad shifts from older approaches relying on static verification techniques that require executing the source code to reveal vulnerabilities. Fault injection, on the other hand, involves introducing bugs and errors to a system to determine its performance and endurance. The process is carried out before the execution of the code, to ascertain how potent a system is to withstand potential faults, and recover from them. 

3. Cross-Platform Tool to Build, Test and Package Software 

CMake is an open-source family of tools hosted on GitHub and created by Kitware to provide a secure method to build, test, as well as package software. It allows developers to control compilation by generating native workspaces and makefiles. It is used with CDash which is a testing server designed to analyze, and view testing reports from anywhere around the world. 

4. Software Testing to Combat Cybersecurity and Risk Compliance

With the digitization of business operations on the rise, 68% of business leaders report being wary of increasing cybersecurity risks. It is estimated that the worldwide information security market will reach $170.4 billion in 2022. This project highlights the necessity of software testing in protecting the privacy of end-users.

Software products and networks must benefit from secure coding practices to counter cyber attacks and risk compliances. To do so, software professionals must invest in upskilling themselves to identify security threats and vulnerabilities and combat them. 

If you are eyeing a career in software testing, you can join upGrad’s 7.5-month Executive PG Programme in Software Development – Specialisation in DevOps that comprises 250+ hours of content, case studies and live sessions to help you acquire the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in the field.

Another option is to opt for the longer 13-month Executive PG Programme in Software Development – Specialisation in Big Data that is designed to teach you Application Security, Data Secrecy, Cryptography, and Network Security, among other skills. The programs are for IT and technology professionals, project leads and managers tech, and tech support engineers and admins. 

5. Software Testing in IoT (Internet of Things)

This project is to address the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) technology-based devices that experience an estimated 5,200 attacks every month. As the global market of IoT is only going to progress from here (it is expected to reach US$1,102.6 billion by 2026), it is important for software testers to be aware of risks and security concerns IoT-based tools are likely to face in the future.

Software testers need to identify the usability and compatibility related risks to devise solutions to immediately mitigate risks. The thesis also addresses how until now a very small section of companies had been investing in Internet of Things testing strategies but the upcoming decades are projected to witness a rise in this sector. 

6. Importance of Agile and DevOps Principles in Software Testing

Agile methodologies & DevOps are foundational principles of effective software testing around the world. The project focuses on using CI/CD principles to ensure rapid testing and deployment.

Testing is carried out at different stages as developers verify the efficiency and performance of an application before releasing it into the real-world. Such practices in automated testing are proving to enhance the Quality Assurance process and resulting in better outcomes based on early bug detection, executing repeatable tasks, and benefits from constant feedback.

7. Automated Network Security Testing Tool 

The project is based on Infection Monkey, an automated, open-source, security testing tool designed for reviewing a network’s baseline security. It infects a system and allows users to monitor the progress of the infection and control it accordingly. It comprises multiple attacks, detection, and propagation capabilities. 

8. Testing Angular Software

This project comprises software development tools, frameworks, and libraries to manage Angular projects. It is called Angular CLI and allows you to analyse and test Angular code, as well as create and manage it. Developers can use simple commands to generate necessary components and services, making running end-to-end unit tests easy and efficient.

9. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Automated Software Testing

It is no secret that AI usage will have a tremendous impact in almost every industry and aspect of creative technology. It Is estimated that the global market of Artificial Intelligence will be worth USD 733.7 billion by 2027. The aim of this project is to explore the role artificial intelligence and machine learning will play in software testing, especially in analysis and reports.

Some of the aspects of AI that are likely to impact automated testing are Test Suite Optimization, Log Analytics, and Predictive Analytics, among others. These are expected to help automated testers to determine the scope of additional testing required for an application and improve testing strategies through analytics and reports. 

Final Thoughts

Educational programs today have made commendable progress. Case studies, live projects, thesis, and dissertation are an integral part of the software development curriculum, and students are allowed to choose an open-source, real-world, project to test for quality during the course of their term.

Take upGrad’s Executive PG Programme in Software Development – Specialisation in Full Stack Development for instance, which comprises 9+ case studies and projects to provide students with real-world experience, and enhance their abilities to write secure code.  

With instructors and faculty serving as guides and counsellors, students are encouraged to deliver a test plan by exposing them to relevant tools and technologies, to build software development expertise. 

If software testing is adopted as an ongoing process across development, businesses across the world will flourish by driving higher quality products and customer satisfaction. As for software developers, the goal should be to upskill themselves to write secure code and increase their chances of success in a fast-paced, competitive atmosphere.

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