Chapter1 - Overview

Overview of Software Testing
1 Overview of Software Testing 11/04/21

References
[1], [3], [4] – Chapter 1

Content
What is Software Testing?
Activities of Test Engineering
Software Testing Taxonomy
Test Case Design Methods
Principles of Software Testing
Software Testing Myths
Software Testing Limits

What is Software Testing
Most Common Software problems
Incorrect calculation, Incorrect data edits
Incorrect matching and merging of data
Data searches that yields incorrect results
Incorrect processing of data relationship
Incorrect coding/implementation of business rules
Inadequate software performance
Unreliable results or performance
Inadequate support of business needs
Incorrect or inadequate interfaces with other systems
Inadequate performance and security controls

Several definitions:
Testing is the process of demonstrating that errors are not
present
The purpose of testing is to show that a program performs its
intended functions correctly
Testing is the process of establishing confidence that a
program or system does what it is supposed to.
Testing is the process of executing a program or system with
the intent of finding errors.
Program testing is more properly viewed as the destructive
process of trying to find the errors (whose presence is
assumed) in a program

The Major Objectives of Software Testing:
Uncover as many as errors (or bugs) as possible in a
given timeline.
Demonstrate a given software product matching its
requirement specifications.
Validate the quality of a software testing using the
minimum cost and efforts.
Generate high quality test cases, perform effective tests,
and issue correct and helpful problem reports.

 Software testing is one element of a broader topic that is
often referred to as Verification and Validation (V&V)
Verification:
 The process of determining whether the products of a given
phase of the software development process fulfill the
requirements established during the previous phase (“Are
we building the product right?”)
 Verification is usually a more technical activity that uses
knowledge about the individual software artifacts,
requirements, and specifications.
 Verification activities include testing and reviews

Validation:
The process of evaluating software at the end of software
development to ensure compliance with intended usage
(“Are we building the right product?”)
Validation activities are used to evaluate whether the
features that have been built into the software satisfy the
customer requirements and are traceable to customer
requirements
Validation usually depends on domain knowledge


Content
Activities of Test Engineer

Activities of Test Engineer
Test Engineer
An information technology (IT) professional who is in
charge of one or more technical test activities
 Define test cases, write test specifications,
 Run tests
Analyzing results, and reporting results to developers and
managers.
…
Test Manager
Set test policies and processes, interact with other
managers on the project, and otherwise help the
engineers do their work


 Automation of Test Activities
Software testing is expensive and labor intensive. Software
testing requires up to 50% of software development costs, and
even more for safety-critical applications.
=> One of the goals of software testing is to automate as much
as possible, thereby significantly reducing its cost, minimizing
human error, and making regression testing easier.
Test automation is the use of software to control the execution
of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted
outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test
control and test reporting functions
Example: Stress Test, Selenium, TestComplete, IBM Rational
Functional Tester

Content

Software Testing Taxonomy
Testing Levels Based on Software Activity
Beizer’s Testing Levels Based on Test Process
Maturity
[1] – Chapter 1

Testing Levels Based on Software
Activity

Activity
Acceptance Testing – assess software with respect to
requirements.
System Testing – assess software with respect to
architectural design.
Performance Testing
Stress Testing
Security Testing
…
Integration Testing – assess software with respect to
subsystem design.

Activity
Module Testing – assess software with respect to
detailed design.
Unit Testing – assess software with respect to
implementation.
Regression Testing
Is done after changes are made to the software, and its
purpose is to help ensure that the updated software still
possesses the functionality it had before the updates.

Content

Test Case
 Test Case Values (Input): The input values necessary to complete
some execution of the software under test.
 Expected Results: The result that will be produced when executing
the test if and only if the program satisfies its intended behavior
 Prefix Values: Any inputs necessary to put the software into the
appropriate state to receive the test case values.
 Postfix Values: Any inputs that need to be sent to the software after
the test case values are sent.
 Test Case: composed of the test case values, expected results, prefix
values, and postfix values necessary for a complete execution and
evaluation of the software under test.
 Test Suite: a collection of test cases that are intended to be used to
test a software program to show that it has some specified set of
behaviours

Test Case Design Methods
Any engineered product (and most other things) can be
tested in one of two ways
Black box testing
 No knowledge of internal design or code required.
 Tests are based on requirements and functionality
White box testing
 Knowledge of the internal program design and code required.
 Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths,
conditions.


Testing type Techniques Used
Unit Testing White Box
Integration Testing White Box
Black Box
System Testing Black Box
Acceptance Testing Black Box

Content

Software Testing Principles
A necessary part of a test case is a definition of the
expected output or result
If the expected result of a test case has not been
predefined, chances are that a plausible, but erroneous,
result will be interpreted as a correct result because of
the phenomenon of “the eye seeing what it wants to see.”
=> a test case must consist of two components:
 A description of the input data to the program.
 A precise description of the correct output of the program for that
set of input data.

Testing requires independence.
A programmer should avoid attempting to test his or her
own program.
 Psychological issues
 The program may contain errors due to the programmer’s
misunderstanding of the problem statement or specification
A programming organization should not test its own
programs.
Thoroughly inspect the results of each test

Test cases must be written for input conditions that are
invalid and unexpected, as well as for those that are
valid and expected.
Examining a program to see if it does not do what it is
supposed to do is only half the battle; the other half is
seeing whether the program does what it is not
supposed to do.
Avoid throwaway test cases unless the program is truly
a throwaway program.

Do not plan a testing effort under the tacit assumption
that no errors will be found.
The probability of the existence of more errors in a
section of a program is proportional to the number of
errors already found in that section

Testing is an extremely creative and intellectually
challenging task.
Testing should begin “in the small” and progress
toward testing “in the large.”
Exhaustive testing is not possible
Tests should be planned long before testing begins.

Content
Activities of Test Engineering

Software Testing Myths
 We can test a program completely. In other words, we test
a program exhaustively.
 We can find all program errors as long as test engineers do
a good job.
 We can test a program by trying all possible inputs and
states of a program.
 A good test suite must include a great number of test cases.
 Good test cases always are complicated ones.
 Software test automation can replace test engineers to
perform good software testing.
 Software testing is simple and easy. Anyone can do it. No
training is needed.

Software Testing Limits
We can never be sure the specifications are 100% correct.
We can never be certain that a testing system (or tool) is
correct.
No testing tools can cope with every software program.
Tester engineers never be sure that they completely
understand a software product.
We never have enough resources to perform software
testing.
We can never be certain that we achieve 100% adequate
software testing

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Overview of Software Testing

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