Testing Evolution

Year	Definition	Author
1950’s	“what programmers did to find bugs in their programs.”
1970’s	The IEEE defines testing as “the process of analyzing a software item to detect the differences between existing and required conditions [that is, bugs] and to evaluate the features of the software item.”
1979	Testing is the process of executing a program or system with the intent of finding errors.	Glenford Myers
1983	Testing is any activity aimed at evaluating an attribute of a program or system. Testing is the measurement of software quality.	Bill Hetzel
1984	“Testing is the act of executing tests. Tests are designed and then executed to demonstrate correspondence between an element and its specification. There can be no testing without specifications of intentions.”	Boris Beizer
2002	Testing is a concurrent lifecycle process of engineering, using, and maintaining testware in order to measure and improve the quality of the software being tested.	Rick D. Craig & Stefan P. Jaskiel
2002	Testing is a process of gathering information by making observations and comparing them to expectations. A test is an experiment designed to reveal information, or answer a specific question, about the software or system.	Dale Emery and Elizabeth Hendrickson
	Software testing is a process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding the software bugs” and “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; Works as expected; Can be implemented with the same characteristic.	ISTQB