Software Testing- Constructive or Destructive

Often I heard a question about software testing. Is it a destructive process or a constructive one.

People generally messed up the answer and the person asking the question actually expect the answer as destructive and most of the person goes with that only.

The reason is simple software testing needs a mind-set of trying to break the application/software and thus needs to be a destructive process. But that is not completely true because when a new building is built then ground is cleared by destroying the old structure and that remains the part of construction. Similarly, software testing is done to prevent business facing losses from on-field exposure of defects. So, it can be said that software testing is a destructive process to achieve a purpose which is constructive.

On the other side, if we look at the process of conducting software testing then we will find it very well structured and defined but a destructive process can not be very well  defined. One can understand this by simply looking anything which was destructed. When something is destructed then it is very much expected that something of it remain rigid and intact. It is like destructing a building by a powerful explosion just to find of some of the wall standing even after the explosion.

But software testing is conducted in a way to exercise each and every part of software/application, it is very much similar to destructing a building systematically while ensuring that every brick of the building is moved.

Thus, software testing is a destructive process which is conducted in a very constructive way.