Software Testing - Overview

Overview of Software Testing .

Software testing involves more than just running a program to see whether it works. A single test run reveals nothing about the program other than the obvious fact that it can yield results for a particular set of inputs. Software testing should be treated as an investigative exercise; one which systematically uncovers different classes of errors within the code while demonstrating that the software behaves as expected.

The developers' concept of the definition and objectives of software testing plays a major role in determining the efficacy of the activity. It influences the developers' decision on what should be tested, and judgement on what is considered a `successful' test.

Testing phase:

The testing phase is made up of the different stages of testing, which reflects a bottom-up correspondence with the levels in which software is designed and built.

 

Unit Testing: Testing a code module in isolation, ensuring that it works correctly as specified by the detailed design. Good unit tests assist in future refactoring of code, since they give assurance that the modified code still works as expected and can therefore be included into the project.

 

Integration Testing: Testing of communication and interaction between different code modules that are to be integrated. Integration tests are defined based on the architectural design of the system, and provide confidence that all modules can work together to achieve the functionalities specified in the design.

Code Coverage Analysis: Determining the level of coverage for previous tests. If the level does not meet a predefined threshold, the test cases should be extended until a satisfactory coverage level is attained. Since the coverage of test cases depends on the actual code implementation, coverage has to be re-evaluated whenever code changes to ensure that coverage level is maintained.

System Testing: Testing of system level requirements as stipulated by the software requirements specification. This might include tests for performance, interoperability, portability, usability, installability, etc.

Acceptance Testing: Testing of the final product against user requirements specification. `User' may refer to actual end-users using the program, or in the case of prototypes or novel applications, the developers that define what they are attempting to achieve.

There is a flow leading down from each test level back to the implementation phase. This represents the fact that failed tests are followed by an implementation of a fix, and a re-execution of all tests. This form of regression testing attempts to detect any new bugs that might have been introduced when the code was modified.

Enquiry form | Terms-of-use | Privacy Policy | Site Map