Formal Testing vs Informal Testing

Formal Testing vs Informal Testing, Software Testing Life Cycle, Software Test Design Techniques, Ad hoc Testing, and Exploratory Testing.

Formal Testing vs Informal Testing

Generally, Software Testing can be done in two ways, one is Manual Testing and another is Automated Testing.

We can use the Manual Testing method for both Formal and Informal Testing, Automated Testing is not suitable for Informal Testing.

Formal Software Testing:

Testing performed with a plan, documented set of test cases, etc. Test documentation can be developed from requirements, design, equivalence partitioning, domain coverage, etc. The level of formality and thoroughness of test cases will depend upon the needs of the project.

Formal Testing follows a systematic process called Software Test Life Cycle, in which we have various phases like Requirement Analysis, Test Planning, Test Case development, Test Environment Setup, Test Execution, and Test Cycle Closure.

Note: IT Software Companies prefer Formal Testing if they have proper documentation, time, and budget.

Informal Software Testing:

Ad hoc testing is performed without a documented set of objectives or plans. Informal testing relies on the intuition and skills of the individual performing the testing. Experienced engineers can be productive in this mode by mentally performing test cases for the scenarios being exercised.

Experienced Test Engineers conduct Informal Testing using their previous experience and Experienced based Test Techniques like Exploratory testing and Error guessing etc.

Note: If no documentation, time, and budget for any project then IT Software Companies prefer Formal Testing.

Ad hoc Testing is an informal or unstructured software testing type, it is done randomly and usually an unplanned activity that does not follow any documentation and test design techniques to create test cases.

Ad-Hoc testing is usually conducted by a tester who has a strong knowledge of the software under test, regarding what it does and how it works.