Testing is the process of evaluating a system or its component(s) with the intent to find whether it satisfies the specified requirements or not. In simple words, testing is executing a system in order to identify any gaps, errors, or missing requirements in contrary to the actual requirements.

It depends on the process and the associated stakeholders of the project(s). In the IT industry, large companies have a team with responsibilities to evaluate the developed software in context of the given requirements. Moreover, developers also conduct testing which is called Unit Testing.

In most cases, the following professionals are involved in testing a system within their respective capacities: - Software Tester - Software Developer - Project Lead/Manager - End User Different companies have different designations for people who test the software on the basis of their experience and knowledge such as Software Tester, Software Quality Assurance Engineer, QA Analyst, etc.

Testing can be started from the Requirements Gathering phase and continued till the deployment of the software. Testing is done in different forms at every phase of SDLC:

- During the requirement gathering phase, the analysis and verification of requirements are also considered as testing.
- Reviewing the design in the design phase with the intent to improve the design is also considered as testing.
- Testing performed by a developer on completion of the code is also categorized as testing.

It is difficult to determine when to stop testing, as testing is a never-ending process and no one can claim that a software is 100% tested.

The following aspects are to be considered for stopping the testing process:

- Testing Deadlines
- Completion of test case execution
- Completion of functional and code coverage to a certain point
- Bug rate falls below a certain level and no high-priority bugs are identified
- Management decision