There are many different testing technologies, some are old, some are new, some are

revisiting earlier methodologies and giving them new names. There are different types of
testing for different stages in development. Some are integral to the development process,
others done throughout the development process are various stages and some tests after
development and beyond. With that said a few methodologies off the top of my head and
paraphrased in my own interpretations meaning others are free to clarify or correctme if I
am perceived to be in error in any aspect or detail:
Bench Testing: This is when a developer tests the code on their own machine
Unit Testing: testing the smallest possible unit
White box testing: testing code logic
Black box testing: Replacing the user behind the keyboard with automated testing
Regression testing: Testing to make sure new code does not break existing functionality,
often done with automated testing but can be done manually as well.
Test Driven development (TDD): An Agile methodology that brings testing in at the very
beginning of the development cycle with a testing harness ensuring the program is tested
often. Issues and defects should be found early in theory meaning better results at release.
Functional testing: As the name implies, does the program do the intended function.
Boundary testing: Testing to check boundary conditions such as what happens if I try to
put more characters in a field than the field supports? What happens if i use special
characters in a field that does not support special characters? etc.
Smoke test: A preliminary test usually done by development prior to sending to QA, similar
to bench testing but usually on another machine other than the developers. This is a good
candidate for automation and goes with regression testing.
Load testing: This is to test scalability and is usually done with an automated tool. Most
load testing tools test web only though some also test client server.
Alpha Testing: A common testing phase in software development here the software is
feature complete but not necessarily functionally complete, usually proceeds Beta testing.
Alpha testing is often only an internal testing by the Development team and QA team.
Beta Testing: Late stage prelease testing where software is usually testing by a wider
audience including customers prior to the official release of the product version. A Golden
Master or Release Candidate is often the last version of the Beta prior to release.
This is just a small sampling of some common testing methodologies and terms. There are
various institutions, organizations and commercial companies that purport to have and
support their own methods such as CMMI, Six Sigma, Lean Software Development,
Rational Unified Process, etc. depending on the needs of the company different methods
and methodologies may apply. One thing all methodologies should have when implemented
is the ability to handle change as change is the only thing you can be certain will happen no
matter what you are testing.