Functional Testing

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 Definition

FUNCTIONAL TESTING

Evaluation of programs based on

functional requirements to ensure the
program works as it was specified to do.

Slide2
Definition

Slide3
 Definition
A functional test case validates the solution
as defined by the requirements
specification or detailed technical
specification of the component.

A functional test case design is based on

the analysis of the functional specification
of the specific functional component
without reference to its internal workings.

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 Definition
Functional Testing primarily focuses on ensuring that the
solution components work as designed, and that the design
sufficiently meets the business requirements. Functional
Testing will often involve some manual steps and stubbing
of components as not all processes will be tightly linked
together.

Functional Testing is often the most complex area of

Testing as it involves staggering the test cycle inline with
development as it occurs. Typically, it is also where there
highest degree of changes occur during the testing
process.

Slide5
 Types of Functional Testing Criteria
Types of testing criteria for functional Requirements

Demonstration:
Demonstrate the operation of the function to the system owner to show
that the requirement has been met.
Inspection:
Sometimes used in combination with demonstration, it requires visual
examination of the code documentation, table dumps, scans, etc.
Analysis/Special Qualification:
The processing of accumulated data obtained from other methods, or any
special tools, techniques, procedures, facilities, and acceptable limits. This
type of testing usually affects critical parts of the system and/or interfaces.

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 Types of Functional Testing Criteria

Demonstration:
Demonstrate the operation of the function to the system
owner to show that the requirement has been met.

Examples:

Test that a screen navigates to the correct next screen

Test that a field is displayed
Test that an inquiry can be made on a database

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 Types of Functional Testing Criteria

Inspection:
Sometimes used in combination with demonstration, it
requires visual examination of the code documentation,
table dumps, scans, etc.

Examples:
Test that an update is made to a database
Test that a report is in the right format
Test that a database table is created

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 Types of Functional Testing Criteria

Analysis/Special Qualification:
The processing of accumulated data obtained from other
methods, or any special tools, techniques, procedures,
facilities, and acceptable limits. This type of testing
usually affects critical parts of the system and/or
interfaces.

This is the typical type of testing we think of when we do

functional testing. The types of these tests are
enumerated in the next slide.

Slide9
 Functional Testing Items
Functional Testing will often contain the highest
overall number of test cases, as it is focused on
testing the solution against the following:
Business Rules
Data Mapping
Key Mapping Validation
Data Validation
Filtering
Data Re-Engineering
Derived calculations

Slide10
Functional TestingDerived Calculations

Functional Requirements

The system shall calculate interest on a daily

basis For a loan given to a producer, the
system will calculate interest daily based on
the prime rate of +1.2

Derived calculations

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Functional TestingBusiness Rule
Functional Requirements

The system shall calculate invoice discount

based on customer status. Customers in good
status get a 5% discount, Customers NOT in
good or poor status get a 1% discount.
Customers in poor status get no discount.

Business Rule

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Functional TestingData Mapping
Functional Requirements

The system shall create new customer status categories. The

previous categories were good and poor and a null status. The
new categories will be excellent, fair, good and poor. When
converting the data, excellent customers are those customers
who been customers classified as high volume customers and
who have a good status. Good customers who were not
changed to excellent shall remain in the good status. Poor
status is not changed and fair is the previous null status.

Data Mapping

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Functional TestingTechniques
Black-box testing includes the following testing
approaches:

Equivalence Partitioning

Boundary Value Analysis

Error Guessing

State Transition Testing

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 Functional TestingTechniques
Equivalence Partitioning

Equivalence Partitioning is based on evaluation

of business functions by evaluating the input
and/or output data that falls into categories
where the system responds in a similar manner.

Take a look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalence_partitioning

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 Functional TestingTechniques
Equivalence Partitioning Process

Look at functions that require input

Select input and output data that is representative of
all other data that would likely invoke the same
process for that particular condition.

These should include

All valid input/output data for a given condition
All invalid input/output data

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 Functional TestingTechniques
Equivalence Partitioning Example

If a business rule stated that discounts were

given to senior citizens (over 62) of 5%.
We would have test cases such as
One person over 62
(all others over in this equivalence class)
One person under 62
(all others over in this equivalence class)

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 Functional TestingTechniques
Boundary Value Analysis

The purpose of boundary value testing is to

evaluated a functions based on the boundaries of
conditions.

Take a look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boundary_value_analysis

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Functional TestingTechniques
Boundary Value Process

Look at functions that require

selection based on specific values.
Select input data that is
representative of the boundary
values.

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Functional TestingTechniques

Boundary Value Example

If a business rule stated that

discounts were given to senior
citizens (over 62) of 5%.
We would have a test cases for
One person who is 62

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Functional TestingTechniques
Error Guessing

The purpose of error guessing is to focus the

testing activity on areas that have not been
handled by the other more formal techniques,
such as equivalence partitioning and
boundary value analysis. Error guessing is
the process of making an educated guess as
to other types of areas to be tested.

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Functional TestingTechniques
Error Guessing

Examples of areas where error guessing

might be used:

initialization of data,
wrong kind of data, (e.g., negative numbers, non-
numeric versus numeric),
restart/recovery
proper handling of concurrent processes

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 Functional TestingTechniques
State Transition Testing

State transition testing focuses on the testing of

transitions from one state (e.g., open, closed) of
an object (e.g., an account) to another state. A
good technique to test screen navigation.

Take a look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_transition_table

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 Good Reference
Center for Software Testing Education & Research
At FIT
http://www.testingeducation.org/BBST/index.html

John McGreggor known software testing

researcher
http://www.cs.clemson.edu/~johnmc/columns.html

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