By Linda G. Hayes Linda G. Hayes I was rendered speechless when a fellow professional said, in all seriousness, she was going to discard the majority of her regression tests because they had failed to find errors. As it happens, the crazy claim turns out to be based on the earliest and most commonly quoted definition of software testing.
Testing is the process of trying to discover every conceivable fault or weakness in a work product.
Based on this found meaning, I can see where my colleague and her informant got the idea that tests that find no errors have no value. I can also see why software testers might rival dentists for having the top depression and suicide rates in all professions. Proving a Negative Simply finding errors is an unacceptable purpose for software testing. To demonstrate this, they must know how many errors there are to begin with and where the errors are. Another reason this no errors-no value definition is dangerous is it lends credence to the idea all software errors are created equal.