Glossary
Software QA Tester Terms & Vocabulary
15 essential software QA tester terms with plain-English definitions: the vocabulary you’ll hear in training and on day one.
Key software QA tester vocabulary
These 15 terms come up constantly in software QA tester training, on the job and in interviews. Knowing them helps you follow instructions, document accurately and sound prepared.
- Acceptance criteria
- Conditions a feature must meet.
- API testing
- Testing how systems communicate.
- Automation
- Using scripts to run tests.
- Bug
- A defect in software.
- Defect lifecycle
- The stages a bug goes through.
- Edge case
- An unusual input or condition.
- Exploratory testing
- Unscripted testing to find problems.
- Flaky test
- A test that passes or fails inconsistently.
- Priority
- How urgently a bug must be fixed.
- Regression testing
- Retesting to make sure changes didn’t break things.
- Severity
- How serious a bug is.
- Smoke test
- A quick test of basic functions.
- Test case
- Steps and expected results for a test.
- Test environment
- A setup used for testing.
- Test plan
- The approach and scope of testing.
Practice these terms
Test yourself with the free Software QA Tester practice test: it includes vocabulary questions built from this list. For a complete course, see Software QA Tester training.
Browse terms from every career in our career glossary.