What testing roles are standard on most testing projects?

Depending on the organization, the following roles are more or less standard on most testing projects: Testers, Test Engineers, Test/QA Team Lead, Test/QA Manager, System Administrator, Database Administrator, Technical Analyst, Test Build Manager and Test Configuration Manager. Depending on the project, one person may wear more than one hat. For instance, Test Engineers may also wear the hat of Technical Analyst, Test Build Manager and Test Configuration Manager.

What is comparison testing?

Comparison testing is testing that compares software weaknesses and strengths to those of competitors' products.

What is recovery/error testing?

Recovery/error testing is testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.

What is security/penetration testing?

Security/penetration testing is testing how well the system is protected against unauthorized internal or external access, or willful damage. This type of testing usually requires sophisticated testing techniques.

What is installation testing?

Installation testing is the testing of a full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall process. The installation test is conducted with the objective of demonstrating production readiness. This test includes the inventory of configuration items, performed by the application's System Administration, the evaluation of data readiness, and dynamic tests focused on basic system functionality. Following installation testing, a sanity test is performed when necessary.

Why do you recommended that we test during the design phase?

Because testing during the design phase can prevent defects later on. I recommend we verify three things...

Verify the design is good, efficient, compact, testable and maintainable.

Verify the design meets the requirements and is complete (specifies all relationships between modules, how to pass data, what happens in exceptional circumstances, starting state of each module and how to guarantee the state of each module).

Verify the design incorporates enough memory, I/O devices and quick enough runtime for the final product.