The Futility of Testing
“What?!” you ask, “Testing is futile?” Yes, testing is ultimately futile. You cannot possibly test every possible scenario that every feature in an application may face. You can't know every storm to which an application may be subjected in advance. Just when you think everything's been tested and is ready to go, a user finds a way to stress your app in ways you never dreamed.
As a programmer, you typically implement a single solution from a number of possible solutions. As a tester, you have to prove that this solution works when faced with all possible combinations of valid inputs, and fails gracefully for all combinations of invalid inputs. Your job is a futile one indeed. You are attempting to prove a negative—that ...
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