WHITE BOX

TESTING
Designed By:
White box testing strategy deals with the internal logic and structure of
the code. White box testing is also called as glass, structural, open box or
clear box testing. The tests written based on the white box testing
strategy incorporate coverage of the code written, branches, paths,
statements and internal logic of the code etc.

In order to implement white box testing, the tester has to deal with the
code and hence is needed to possess knowledge of coding and logic i.e.
internal working of the code. White box test also needs the tester to look
into the code and find out which unit/statement/chunk of the code is
malfunctioning.
Advantages of White box testing are:

i) As the knowledge of internal coding structure is prerequisite, it

becomes very easy to find out which type of input/data can help in testing
the application effectively.
ii) The other advantage of white box testing is that it helps in optimizing
the code
iii) It helps in removing the extra lines of code, which can bring in hidden
defects.
Disadvantages of white box testing are:

i) As knowledge of code and internal structure is a prerequisite, a skilled

tester is needed to carry out this type of testing, which increases the cost.

ii) And it is nearly impossible to look into every bit of code to find out
hidden errors, which may create problems, resulting in failure of the
application.
White box testing generates the test cases that:
•Guarantees that all the independent paths with in a
module have been exercised at least once
•Exercise all logic decisions on their true and false
sides
•Execute all loops at their boundaries and with in
their operational bounds
•Exercise internal data structures to ensure their
validity
White box testing techniques:

•Statement Coverage
•Decision coverage
•Condition coverage
•Basis path testing
•Loop testing
•Data flow testing
Statement coverage:
This technique attempts to write enough
test cases to execute every statement at least
once

Decision coverage :
This technique is used to write test
cases to exercise the true and false
outcomes of every decision
Condition coverage:
This technique is used to write test
cases such that each condition in a
decision takes on all possible outcomes
at least once. It may not always satisfy
decision coverage.
Basis path testing:
It is a white box testing technique first
proposed by Tom McCabe which is based on
the fact that every statement in the program
must be executed at least once during testing
It uses certain notations and concepts for
representing the control flow which are:
•Flow graph notation
•Cyclomatic complexity
•Graph Matrices
 1 Nodes

22

Edges

3 4
Region

5 6
Cyclomatic Complexity:
This is a quantitative measure of the
logical complexity of a program.the
calculated value of cyclomatic
complexity defines the number of
independent paths.
The cyclomatic complexity V(G) of
the flow graph can be computed
using any of the formulas:
V(G) = Edges – Nodes + 2
Or V(G) = Regions in flow graph
Or V(G) = Predicate Nodes +1
Graph Matrices
A Graph Matrix is a square matrix that assists in
basis path testing whose size is equal to the
number of nodes in the flow graph
Example
Int compute_gcd (intx,inty){
1. While (x! =y){
2. If (x>y) then
3. X=x-y;
4. Else y=y-x;
5. }
6. Return x;
}
Loop testing:
It is a white box testing technique that checks
the validity of the loop constructs.
Loop can be classified into four types:
•Simple loops
•Nested loops
•Concatenated loops
•Unstructured loops
Data Flow Testing;
This is the type of control structure
testing that selects the test plans of a
program according to the variable
definition and its use in the program
Different Types of Testing
 Automated v/s manual

z Automated Testing: Software testing assisted with software

tools that require no operator input, analysis, or evaluation.

z Manual Testing: That part of software testing that requires

human input, analysis, or evaluation.
Acceptance Testing:
Smoke Testing:
Regression Testing:
Exploratory Testing
Debugging Vs Be bugging
zSmoke Testing: Smoke testing is non-
exhaustive software testing, ascertaining that
the most crucial functions of a program work,
but not bothering with finer details.

zAcceptance testing: Acceptance testing is

the final test action before deploying the
software. The goal of acceptance testing is to
verify that the software is ready and can be
used by your end users to perform those
functions and tasks for which the software was
built.
 Regression testing
The selective retesting of a software system that has been modified to
ensure that any bugs have been fixed and that no other previously
working functions have failed as a result of the modifications and that
newly added features have not created problems with previous
versions of the software.

Regression testing is initiated after a programmer has attempted to fix

a recognized problem or has added source code to a program that
may have inadvertently introduced errors. It is a quality control
measure to ensure that the newly modified code still complies with its
specified requirements and that unmodified code has not been
affected by the maintenance activity.
 Exploratory and monkey testing

z Monkey testing- This is another name for "Ad Hoc

Testing"; it comes from the joke that if you put 100
monkeys in a room with 100 typewriters, randomly
punching keys, sooner or later they will type out a
Shakespearean sonnet. So every time one of your ad
hoc testers finds a new bug, you can toss him a banana.
The use of monkey testing is to simulate how your
customers will use your software in real time.
z Exploratory testing involves simultaneously learning,
planning, running tests, and reporting /
troubleshooting results.
 Debugging v/s bebugging

z Debugging: The process of finding and removing the

causes of failures in software. The role is performed by
a programmer.

z Bebugging: The process of intentionally adding known

faults to those already in a computer program for the
purpose of monitoring the rate of detection and
removal, and estimating the number of faults
remaining in the program