Hello Testing Testing...... but what is Testing?

The first definition of Testing which I mugged was

"Testing is the process of executing a program with the intent of finding defects in the program."

This was the time when I was looking for a job. Whenever any interviewer asked me "Okay Mohit, what is testing?" - I just vomit out the same. During my job I came to know Testing is not only finding defects, it is much more than that and then i started to study the writings of Testing experts. The experts has left the treasure of their knowledge on net, more you dig more you find. There are many ways to define testing properly. My favorites are -

Testing is:

"A technical investigation of the product under test conducted to provide stakeholders with quaility related Information." - CEM KANER

James Bach reworded the definition. According to him, Testing is

"Questioning a product in order to evaluate it."

There is no difference in the two definition except prior is explicit and later is shorter.

The most interesting definition which I found is also given by James Bach. He says

"Testing is the INFINITE process of comparing the INVISIBLE to AMBIGUOUS so as to avoid UNTHINKABLE happening to the ANONYMOUS."

Cem Kaner, James Bach and Bret Pettichord says in their book "Lessons Learned in Software Testing" that Testing is done to find the information. Now I know What they really mean.

Everyone can define testing in his context but it is up to you what do you think? You can adopt anyone of the above or if you want, you can make your own. Now I define testing as

"The process to know your product better."

What is your definition of Testing?