CHAPTER 1 Testing - Page 1 Every profession has its own vocabulary.To learn a profession, the first and crucial step is to master its vocabulary.The entire knowledge of a profession is compressed and kept it in its vocabulary. Take our own software testing profession, while communicating with our collegues, we frequently use terms like 'regression testing', 'System testing', now imagine communicating the same to a person who is not in our profession or who doesn't understand our testing vocabulary, we need to explain in detail each and every term .Communication becomes so difficult and painful.To speak the language of testing, you need to learn its vocabulary. Find below a huge collection of testing vocabulary
Affinity Diagram : A group process that takes large amounts of language data, such as developing by brainstorming, and divides it into categories Audit: This is an inspection/assessment activity that verifies compliance with plans, policies and procedures and ensures that resources are conserved. Baseline:A quantitative measure of the current level of performance. Benchmarking: Comparing your company's products, services or processes against best practices or competitive practices, to help define superior performance of a product,service product,service or support processes. Black-box Testing: A test technique that focuses on testing the functionality of the program component or application against its specifications without knowlegde of how the system constructed. Boundary value analysis: A data selection technique in which test data is chosen from the "boundaries" of the input or output domain classes, data structures and procedure parameters. Choices often include the actual minimum and maximum boundary values, the maximum value plus or minus one and the minimum value plus or minus one. Branch Testing: A test method that requires that each possible branch on each decision be executed on at least once. Brainstorming: A group process for generating creative and diverse ideas. Bug: A catchall term for all software defects or errors.
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Certification testing: Acceptance of software by an authorized agent after the software has been validated by the agent or after its validity has been demonstrated to the agent. Checkpoint(or verification point): Expected behaviour of the application which must be validated with the actual behaviour after certain action has been performed on the application. Client: The customer that pays for the product received and receives the benefit from the use of the product. Condition Coverage: A white-box testing technique that measures the number of or percentage of decision outcomes covered by the test cases designed.100% condition coverage would indicate that every possible outcome of each decision had been executed at least once during testing. Configuration Management Tools Tools that are used to keep track of changes made to systems and all related artifacts. These are also known as version control tools. Configuration testing: Testing of an application on all supported hardware and software platforms.This platforms.This may include various combinations of hardware types, configuration settings and software versions. Completeness: A product is said to be complete if it has met all requirements. Consistency: Adherence to a given set of rules. Correctness: The extent to which software is free from design and coding defects. It is also the extent to which software meets the specified requirements and user objectives. Cost of Quality: Money spent above and beyond expected production costs to ensure that the product the customer receives is a quality product. The cost of quality includes prevention, appraisal, and correction or repair costs. Conversion Testing: Validates the effectiveness of data conversion processes, including field-field mapping and data translation. Customer: The individual or organization, internal or external to the producing organization that receives the product. Cyclomatic complexity: The number of decision statements plus one.
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Certification testing: Acceptance of software by an authorized agent after the software has been validated by the agent or after its validity has been demonstrated to the agent. Checkpoint(or verification point): Expected behaviour of the application which must be validated with the actual behaviour after certain action has been performed on the application. Client: The customer that pays for the product received and receives the benefit from the use of the product. Condition Coverage: A white-box testing technique that measures the number of or percentage of decision outcomes covered by the test cases designed.100% condition coverage would indicate that every possible outcome of each decision had been executed at least once during testing. Configuration Management Tools Tools that are used to keep track of changes made to systems and all related artifacts. These are also known as version control tools. Configuration testing: Testing of an application on all supported hardware and software platforms.This platforms.This may include various combinations of hardware types, configuration settings and software versions. Completeness: A product is said to be complete if it has met all requirements. Consistency: Adherence to a given set of rules. Correctness: The extent to which software is free from design and coding defects. It is also the extent to which software meets the specified requirements and user objectives. Cost of Quality: Money spent above and beyond expected production costs to ensure that the product the customer receives is a quality product. The cost of quality includes prevention, appraisal, and correction or repair costs. Conversion Testing: Validates the effectiveness of data conversion processes, including field-field mapping and data translation. Customer: The individual or organization, internal or external to the producing organization that receives the product. Cyclomatic complexity: The number of decision statements plus one.
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Debugging: The process of analysing and correcting syntactic, logic and other errors identified during testing. Decision Coverage: A white-box testing technique that measures the number of - or percentage - of decision directions executed by the test case designed. 100% Decision coverage would indicate that all decision directions had been executed at least once during testing. Alternatively each logical path through the program can be tested. Decision Table A tool for documenting the unique combinations of conditions and associated results in order to derive unique test cases for validation testing. Defect Tracking Tools Tools for documenting defects as they are found during testing and for tracking their status through to resolution. Desk Check: A verification technique conducted by the author of the artifcat to verify the completeness of their own work. This technique does not involve anyone else. Dynamic Analysis: Analysis performed by executing the program code.Dynamic analysis executes or simulates a development phase product and it detects errors by analyzing the response of the product to sets of input data. Entrance Criteria: Required conditions conditions and standards for work product quality that must be present or met for entry into the next stage of the software development process. Equivalence Partitioning: A test technique that utilizes a subset of data that is representative of a larger class. This is done in place of undertaking exhaustive testing of each value of the larger class of data. Error or defect: 1.A discrepancy between a computed, observed or measured value or condition and the true, specified or theortically correct value o r conditon 2.Human action that results in software containing a fault (e.g., omission or misinterpretation of user requirements requirements in a software specification, specification, incorrect translation or omission of a requirement in the design specification) Error Guessing: Test data selection techniques for picking values that seem likely to cause defects. This technique is based upon the theory that test cases and test data can be developed based on intuition and experience of the tester. Exhaustive Testing: Executing the program through all possible combination of values for program variables. Exit criteria: Standards for work product quality which block the promotion of incomplete or defective work products to subsequent stages of the software development process.
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Flowchart Pictorial representations of data flow and computer logic. It is frequently easier to understand and assess the structure and logic of an application system by developing a flow chart than to attempt to understand narrative descriptions or verbal explanations. The flowcharts for systems are normally developed manually, while flowcharts of programs can be produced. Force Field Analysis A group technique used to identify both driving and restraining forces that influence a current situation. Formal Analysis Technique that uses rigorous mathematical techniques to analyze the algorithms of a solution for numerical properties, efficiency, and correctness. Functional Testing Testing that ensures all functional requirements are met without regard to the final program structure.
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Histogram A graphical description of individually measured values in a data set that is organized according to the frequency or relative frequency of occurrence. A histogram illustrates the shape of the distribution of individual values in a data set along with information regarding the average and variation. Inspection A formal assessment of a work product conducted by one or more qualified independent reviewers to detect defects, violations of development standards, and other problems. Inspections involve authors only when specific questions concerning deliverables exist. An inspection identifies defects, but does not attempt to correct them. Authors take corrective actions and arrange follow-up reviews as needed. Integration Testing This test begins after two or more programs or application components have been successfully unit tested. It is conducted by the development team to validate the interaction or communication/flow of information between the individual components which will be integrated. Life Cycle Testing The process of verifying the consistency, completeness, and correctness of software at each stage of the development life cycle. Pass/Fail Criteria Decision rules used to determine whether a software item or feature passes or fails a test. Path Testing A test method satisfying the coverage criteria that each logical path through the program be tested. Often, paths through the program are grouped into a finite set of classes and one path from each class is tested. Performance Test Validates that both the online response time and batch run times meet the defined performance requirements. Policy Managerial desires and intents concerning either process (intended objectives) or products (desired attributes). Population Analysis Analyzes production data to identify, independent from the specifications, the types and frequency of data that the system will have to process/produce. This verifies that the specs can handle types and frequency of actual data and can be used to create validation tests.
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Procedure The step-by-step method followed to ensure that standards are met. Process 1. The work effort that produces a product. This includes efforts of people and equipment guided by policies, standards, and procedures. 2. A statement of purpose and an essential set of practices (activities) that address that purpose. Proof of Correctness The use of mathematical logic techniques to show that a relationship between program variables assumed true at program entry implies that another relationship between program variables holds at program exit. Quality A product is a quality product if it is defect free. To the producer, a product is a quality product if it meets or conforms to the statement of requirements that defines the product. This statement is usually shortened to: quality means meets requirements. From a customer’s perspective, quality means “fit for use.” Quality Assurance (QA) Deals with 'prevention' of defects in the product being developed.It is associated with a process.The set of support activities (including facilitation, training, measurement, and analysis) needed to provide adequate confidence that processes are established and continuously improved to produce products that meet specifications and are fit for use. Quality Control (QC) Its focus is defect detection and removal. Testing is a quality control activity Quality Improvement To change a production process so that the rate at which defective products (defects) are produced is reduced. Some process changes may require the product to be changed.
Testing - Page 4 Recovery Test Evaluates the contingency features built into the application for handling interruptions and for returning to specific points in the application processing cycle, 6
including checkpoints, backups, restores, and restarts. This test also assures that disaster recovery is possible. Regression Testing Testing of a previously verified program or application following program modification for extension or correction to ensure no new defects have been introduced. Risk Matrix Shows the controls within application systems used to reduce the identified risk, and in what segment of the application those risks exist. One dimension of the matrix is the risk, the second dimension is the segment of the application system, and within the matrix at the intersections are the controls. For example, if a risk is “incorrect input” and the systems segment is “data entry,” then the intersection within the matrix would show the controls designed to reduce the risk of incorrect input during the data entry segment of the application system. Scatter Plot Diagram A graph designed to show whether there is a relationship between two changing variables. Standards The measure used to evaluate products and identify nonconformance. The basis upon which adherence to policies is measured. Statement of Requirements The exhaustive list of requirements that define a product. Statement Testing A test method that executes each statement in a program at least once during program testing. Static Analysis Analysis of a program that is performed without executing the program. It may be applied to the requirements, design, or code. Stress Testing This test subjects a system, or components of a system, to varying environmental conditions that defy normal expectations. For example, high transaction volume, large database size or restart/recovery circumstances. The intention of stress testing is to identify constraints and to ensure that there are no performance problems. Structural Testing A testing method in which the test data is derived solely from the program structure.
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Stub Special code segments that when invoked by a code segment under testing, simulate the behavior of designed and specified modules not yet constructed. System Test During this event, the entire system is tested to verify that all functional, information, structural and quality requirements have been met. Test Case Test cases document the input, expected results, and execution conditions of a given test item. Test Plan A document describing the intended scope, approach, resources, and schedule of testing activities. It identifies test items, the features to be tested, the testing tasks, the personnel performing each task, and any risks requiring contingency planning. Test Scripts A tool that specifies an order of actions that should be performed during a test session. The script also contains expected results. Test scripts may be manually prepared using paper forms, or may be automated using capture/playback tools or other kinds of automated scripting tools. Test Suite Manager A tool that allows testers to organize test scripts by function or other grouping. Unit Test Testing individual programs, modules, or components to demonstrate that the work package executes per specification, and validate the design and technical quality of the application. The focus is on ensuring that the detailed logic within the component is accurate and reliable according to pre-determined specifications. Testing stubs or drivers may be used to simulate behavior of interfacing modules. Usability Test The purpose of this event is to review the application user interface and other human factors of the application with the people who will be using the application. This is to ensure that the design (layout and sequence, etc.) enables the business functions to be executed as easily and intuitively as possible. This review includes assuring that the user interface adheres to documented User Interface standards, and should be conducted early in the design stage of development. Ideally, an application prototype is used to walk the client group through various business scenarios, although paper copies of screens, windows, menus, and reports can be used. User Acceptance Test User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is conducted to ensure that the system meets the needs of the organization and the end user/customer. It validates that the system will work as
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intended by the user in the real world, and is based on real world business scenarios, not system requirements. Essentially, this test validates that the right system was built. Validation Determination of the correctness of the final program or software produced from a development project with respect to the user needs and requirements. Verification 1. The process of determining whether the products of a given phase of the software development cycle fulfill the requirements established during the previous phase. 2. The act of reviewing, inspecting, testing, checking, auditing, or otherwise establishing and documenting whether items, processes, services, or documents conform to specified requirements. Walkthroughs During a walkthrough, the producer of a product “walks through” or paraphrases the products content, while a team of other individuals follow along. The team’s job is to ask questions and raise issues about the product that may lead to defect identification. White-box Testing A testing technique that assumes that the path of the logic in a program unit or component is known. White-box testing usually consists of testing paths, branch by branch, to produce predictable results. This technique is usually used during tests executed by the development team, such as Unit or Component testing.
CHAPTER 2 What is Quality? What is quality? or
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Define quality? Lot of quality pioneers defined quality in different ways A quality product is defined as the one that meets product requirements But Quality can only be seen through customer eyes.So the most important definition of quality is meeting customer needs or Understanding customer requirements, expectations and exceeding those expectations.Customer must be satisfied by using the product, then its a quality product. Whats the difference between meeting product requirements and meeting customer needs? Aren't customer needs tranlsated into product requirements? Not always.Though our aim is to accurately capture customer needs into requirements and build a product that satisfies those needs, we sometimes fail to do so because of the following reasons -Customers fail to accurately communicate their exact needs -captured requirements can be misinterpreted Can't we define a quality product as the one that contains no bugs/defects? Quality is much more than absence of defects/bugs.Consider this, though the product may have zero defects, but if the usability sucks i.e it is difficult to learn and operate the product, then its not a quality product. If the product has some defects, can it be still called a quality product? It depends on the nature of those bugs.But in some cases, even though a product has bugs, it can be still called a quality product. Unless the product is very critical, aiming for zero defects is not cost effective always.We should aim for 100% defect 'detection', but given the budget, time and resources constraints, we can still release the product with some unfixed or open bugs. If the open bugs cause no loss to the customer,then it can be still called a quality product. Is quality only testers responsiblity? No. Quality is everybody's responsibility including the customer.We, testers identify the deviations and report them, thats it.There are many factors that impact the quality such as maintainabiltiy, reusability, flexibility, portabilty which the testers can't validate. Testers can only validate the correctness, reliability, usability and interoperability of a product and report the deviations. When is the right time to catch a bug? As soon as possible.The cost of fixing the bug will keep on increasing exponentially as the product development progresses.For example, the cost of fixing a design bug identified in system testing is much more than fixing it, if it had been identified during design phase itself because now you not only have to rectify the design but also the code, the corresponding documents and code that is dependent on this code. Are there any other quality control practices apart from testing? Yes.Inspections, design and code walkthroughs, reviews etc.
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what are software quality factors? software quality factors are attributes of the software that, if they are wanted and not present, pose a risk to the success of the software. There are 11 main factors and their definitions are given below. The priority and importance of the these attributes keeps changing from product to product.Like if the product being developed needs to be changed quite frequently, then flexibility and reusability of the product needs to be given priority. The following are the quality factors Correctness : Extent to which a program satisfies its requirements Reliability : Extent to which a program can be expected to perform its intended function with required precision. Efficiency : The amount of computing resources and code required by a program to perform a function. Integrity : Extent to which access to software or data by unauthorized persons can be controlled. Usability : Effort required learning, operating, preparing input, and interpreting output of a program. Maintainability : Effort required locating and fixing an error in an operational program. Testability : Effort required testing a program to ensure that it performs its intended function. Flexibility : Effort required modifying an operational program. Portability : Effort required to transfer software from one configuration to another. Reusability : Extent to which a program can be used in other applications – related to the packaging and scope of the functions that programs perform. Interoperability : Effort required to couple one system with another.
How to reduce the amount spend to ensure and build quality? or How to reduce the cost of quality? cost of quality includes the total amount spent on preventing errors, identifying and correcting errors. Coming to reducing this cost.Try to build a product that has less defects or no defects even before it goes to testing phase and to achieve this you should spend more money and effort on tyring to prevent errors from going into the product.You must concentrate greatly on building efficient and effective processes and keep on continuously improving them by
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identifying weakness in them.You many not reap great benefits immediately but over a long run you can make significant savings by reducing the cost of quality. How to reduce the cost of fixing a bug? Catch it as early as possible. As the development process progresses,the cost of fixing a bug keep on increasing exponentially. Practice life cycle testing.
CHAPTER 3 Life Cycle Testing or V testing In traditional waterfall model, testing comes at the fag end of the development process.No testing is done during requirements gathering phase, design phase and development phase. Defects identified during this disconnected testing phase are very costly to fix which is this model's biggest disadvantage.
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Life cycle testing or V testing aims at catching the defects as early as possible and thus reduces the cost of fixing them.It achieves this by continuously testing the system during all phases of the development process rather than just limiting testing to the last phase. The life cycle testing can be best accomplished by the formation of a separate test team. when the project starts both the system development process and system test process begins. The team that is developing the system begins the systems development process and the team that is conducting the system test begins planning the system test process.Both teams start at the same point using the same information.The systems development team has the and document the requirements for developmental purposes. The test team will likewise use those same requirements, but for the purpose of testing the system. At appropriate points during the developmental process, the test team will test the developmental process in an attempt to uncover defects. The following is the software testing process which follows life cycle testing Requirements Gathering phase: Verify whether the requirements captured are true user needs Verify that the requirements captured are complete, unambiguous, accurate and non conflicting with each other Design phase: Verify whether the design achieves the objectives of the requirements as well as the design being effective and efficient Verification Techniques: Design walkthroughs, Design Inspections
Coding phase: Verify that the design is correctly translated to code Verify coding is as per company's standards and policies Verification Techniques: Code walkthroughs, code Inspections Validation Techniques: Unit testing and Integration techniques System Testing phase: Execute test cases Log bugs and track them to closure User Acceptance phase: Users validate the applicability and usability of the software in performing their day to day operations.
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Maintenance phase: After the software is implemented, any changes to the software must be thoroughly tested and care should be taken not to introduce regression issues.
The life cycle testing is also called V testing. The project’s Do and Check procedures slowly converge from start to finish (see above figure), which indicates that as the Do team attempts to implement a solution, the Check team concurrently develops a process to minimize or eliminate the risk. If the two groups work closely together, the high level of risk at a project’s inception will decrease to an acceptable level by the project’s conclusion.
CHAPTER 4 Types of Testing - Page 1 Black box testing - not based on any knowledge of internal design or code. Tests are based on requirements and functionality. White box testing - based on knowledge of the internal logic of an application's code. Tests are based on coverage of code statements, branches, paths, conditions.
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Unit testing - Unit is the smallest compilable component. A unit typically is the work of one programmer.This unit is tested in isolation with the help of stubs or drivers.Typically done by the programmer and not by testers. Incremental integration testing - continuous testing of an application as new functionality is added; requires that various aspects of an application's functionality be independent enough to work separately before all parts of the program are completed, or that test drivers be developed as needed; done by programmers or by testers. Integration testing - testing of combined parts of an application to determine if they function together correctly. The 'parts' can be code m odules, individual applications, client and server applications on a network, etc. This type of testing is especially relevant to client/server and distributed systems. Functional testing - black-box testing aimed to validate to functional requirements of an application; this type of testing should be done by testers. System testing - black-box type testing that is based on overall requirements specifications; covers all combined parts of a system. End-to-end testing - similar to system testing but involves testing of the application in a environment that mimics real-world use, such as interacting with a database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems if appropriate. Even the transactions performed mimics the end users usage of the application. Sanity testing - typically an initial testing effort to determine if a new software version is performing well enough to accept it for a major testing effort. For example, if the new software is crashing systems every 5 minutes, bogging down systems to a crawl, or destroying databases, the software may not be in a 'sane' enough condition to warrant further testing in its current state. Smoke testing - The general definition (related to Hardware) of Smoke Testing is: Smoke testing is a safe harmless procedure of blowing smoke into parts of the sewer and drain lines to detect sources of unwanted leaks and sources of sewer odors. In relation to software, the definition is Smoke testing is non-exhaustive software testing, ascertaining that the most crucial functions of a program work, but not bothering with finer details. Static testing - Test activities that are performed without running the software is called static testing. Static testing includes code inspections, walkthroughs, and desk checks Dynamic testing - test activities that involve running the software are called dynamic testing.
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Regression testing - Testing of a previously verified program or application following program modification for extension or correction to ensure no new defects have been introduced.Automated testing tools can be especially useful for this type of testing. Acceptance testing - final testing based on specifications of the end-user or customer, or based on use by end-users/customers over some limited period of time. Load testing -Load testing is a test whose objective is to determine the maximum sustainable load the system can handle. Load is varied from a minimum (zero) to the maximum level the system can sustain without running out of resources or having, transactions suffer (application-specific) excessive delay. Stress testing - Stress testing is subjecting a system to an unreasonable load while denying it the resources (e.g., RAM, disc, mips, interrupts) needed to process that load. The idea is to stress a system to the breaking point in order to find bugs that will make that break potentially harmful. The system is not expected to process the overload without adequate resources, but to behave (e.g., fail) in a decent manner (e.g., not corrupting or losing data). The load (incoming transaction stream) in stress testing is often deliberately distorted so as to force the system into resource depletion.
Types of Testing - Page 2 Performance testing - Validates that both the online response time and batch run times meet the defined performance requirements. Usability testing - testing for 'user-friendliness'. Clearly this is subjective, and will depend on the targeted end-user or customer. User interviews, surveys, video recording of user sessions, and other techniques can be used. Programmers and testers are usually not appropriate as usability testers. Install/uninstall testing - testing of full, partial, or upgrade install/uninstall processes. Recovery testing - testing how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.
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Security testing - testing how well the system protects against unauthorized internal or external access, willful damage, etc; may require sophisticated testing techniques. Compatibility testing - testing how well software performs in a particular hardware/software/ operating system/network/etc. environment. Exploratory testing - often taken to mean a creative, informal software test that is not based on formal test plans or test cases; testers may be learning the software as they test it. Ad-hoc testing - similar to exploratory testing, but often taken to mean that the testers have significant understanding of the software before testing it. Monkey testing:-monkey testing is a testing that runs with no specific test in mind. The monkey in this case is the producer of any input data (whether that be file data, or input device data). Keep pressing some keys randomely and check whether the software fails or not. User acceptance testing - determining if software is satisfactory to an end-user or customer. Comparison testing - comparing software weaknesses and strengths to competing products. Alpha testing - testing of an application when development is nearing completion; minor design changes may still be made as a result of such testing. Typically done by users within the development team. Beta testing - testing when development and testing are essentially completed and final bugs and problems need to be found before final release. Typically done by end-users or others, not by programmers or testers. Mutation testing - a method for determining if a set of test data or test cases is useful, by deliberately introducing various code changes ('bugs') and retesting with the o riginal test data/cases to determine if the 'bugs' are detected. Proper implementation requires large computational resources Cross browser testing - application tested with different browser for usablity testing & compatiblity testing Concurrent testing - Multi-user testing geared towards determining the effects of accessing the same application code, module or database records. Identifies and measures the level of locking, deadlocking and use of single-threaded code and locking semaphores etc.
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Negative testing - Testing the application for fail conditions,negative testing is testing the tool with improper inputs.for example entering the special characters for phone number
CHAPTER 5 Software Testing Techniques Testing techniques can be used to effectively design efficient test cases.These techniques can be grouped into black-box and white-box techniques. Find below some of the techniques
Black-Box Testing techniques When creating black-box test cases, the input data used is critical. Three successful techniques for managing the amount of input data required include: Equivalence Partitioning An equivalence class is a subset of data that is representative of a larger class.Equivalence partitioning is a technique for testing equivalence classes rather thanundertaking exhaustive testing of each value of the larger class. For example, aprogram which edits credit limits within a given range (1,000 - 1,500) would have three equivalence classes: < 1,000 (invalid)
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Between 1,000 and 1,500 (valid) > 1,500 (invalid) Boundary Analysis A technique that consists of developing test cases and data that focus on the input and output boundaries of a given function. In same credit limit example, boundary analysis would test: Low boundary +/- one (999 and 1,001) On the boundary (1,000 and 1,500) Upper boundary +/- one (1,499 and 1,501) Error Guessing Test cases can be developed based upon the intuition and experience of the tester. For example, in an example where one of the inputs is the date, a tester may try February 29, 2000
White-Box Testing techniques White-box testing assumes that the path of logic in a unit or program is known. White-box testing consists of testing paths, branch by branch, to produce predictable results. The following are white-box testing techniques: Statement Coverage Execute all statements at least once. Decision Coverage Execute each decision direction at least once. Condition Coverage Execute each decision with all possible outcomes at least once. Decision/Condition Coverage Execute all possible combinations of condition outcomes in each decision. Treat all iterations as two-way conditions exercising the loop zero times and one time.
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CHAPTER 6 Testing Metrics While testing a product, test manager has to take a lot of decisions like when to stop testing or when is the application ready for production, how to track testing progress, how to measure the quality of a product at a certain point in the testing cycle?Testing metrics can help to take better and accurate decisions Lets start by defining the term 'Metric' A metric is a mathematical number that shows a relationship between two variables. Software metrics are measures used to quantify status or results.
How to track testing progress? The best way is to have a fixed number of test cases ready before test execution cycle begins.Then the testing progress is measured by the total number of test cases executed. % Completion = (Number of test cases executed)/(Total number of test cases)
Not only the testing progress but also the following metrics are helpful to measure the quality of the product % Test cases Passed = (Number of test cases Passed)/(Number of test cases executed)
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% Test cases Failed = (Number of test cases Passed)/(Number of test cases executed) Note: A test case is Failed when atleast one bug is found while executing it, otherwise Passed
How many rounds or cycles of testing should be done? or When to stop testing? Lets discuss few approaches Approach 1:This approache requires, that you have a fixed number of test cases ready before test execution cycle.In each testing cycle you execute all test cases.You stop testing when all the test cases are Passed or % failure is very very less in the latest testing cycle. Approach 2:Make use of the following metrics Mean Time Between Failure: The average operational time it takes before a software system fails. Coverage metrics: the percentage of instructions or paths executed during tests. Defect density: defects related to size of software such as “defects/1000 lines of code” Open bugs and their severity levels,
If the coverage of code is good, Mean time between failure is quite large, defect density is very ow and not may high severity bugs still open, then 'may' be you should stop testing. 'Good', 'large', 'low' and 'high' are subjective terms and depends on the product being tested.Finally, the risk associated with moving the application into production, as well as the risk of not moving forward, must be taken into consideration.
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CHAPTER 7 Test Plan Template Test Planning: is the selection of techniques and methods to be used to validate the product against its approved requirements and design.In this activity we assess the software application risks, and then develop a plan to determine if the software minimizes those risks.We document this planning in a Test Plan document.
Explanation of different sections in the template Document Signoff: Usually a test plan document is a contract between testing team and all the other teams involved in developing the product including the higher management folks. Before signoff all interested parties thoroughly reviews the test plan and gives feedback, raises issues or concerns, if any.Once everybody is satisfied with the test plan, they signoff the document and which is a green signal for the testing team to start executing the test plan. Change History: Under this section, you specify, who changed what in the document and when, along with the version of the document which contain the changes. Review and Approval History: This captures who reviewed the document and whether they Approved the test plan or not. The reviewer may suggest some changes or comments(if any) to be incorporated in the test plan. Document References: Any additional documents that will help better understand the test plan like design documents and/or Requirements document etc.
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Document Scope: In this section specify what the test plan covers and who its intended audience is. Product Summary: In this section describe briefly about the product that is to be tested. Product Quality Goals: In this section describe important quality goals of the product. Following are some of the typical quality goals -Reliability, proper functioning as specified and expected. -Robustness, acceptable response to unusual inputs, loads and conditions. -Efficiency of use by the frequent users -Easy to use even for the less frequent users Testing Objectives: In this section specify the testing goals that need to be accomplished by the testing team. The goals must be measurable and should be prioritized. The following are some example test objectives. Verify functional correctness Test product robustness and stability. Measure performance ‘hot spots’ (locations or features that are problem areas). Assumptions: In this section specify the expectations, which if not met could have negative impact on this test plan execution. Some of the assumptions can be on the test budget that must be allocated, resources needed etc. Testing Scope: In this section specify ‘what will be covered in testing’ and ‘what will not be covered’. Testing Strategy: In this section specify different testing types used to test the product. Tools needed to execute the strategy are also specified. Testing Schedule: In this section specify, first the entire project schedule and then detailed testing schedule. Resources: In this section specify all the resources needed to execute the plan successfully
Communication Approach: In this section specify how the testing team will report the bugs to the development, how it will report the testing progress to management, how it will report issues and concerns to higher ups.
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CHAPTER 8 Test Case Template Test Outline: This document is written before writing test cases.This is a planning document in which the flows or scenarios are written at a high level. These flows or scenarios are later expanded to test cases, in which they are written in detail.Also the biggest advantage of writing this document, before going to test cases is the 'traceability matrix', where you ensure that the project/feature is sufficiently or thoroughly covered by the individual test cases.
Explanation of different sections in the template Change History: Under this section, you specify, who changed what in the document and when, along with the version of the document which contain the changes. Review and Approval History: This captures who reviewed the document and whether they Approved the test outline or not. If approved, the reviewer will specify the review comments(if any) to be incorporated in the test outline.There is a review template at the end of the testcase_template.doc, which can be used to specify the comments for test outline also.If the test outline document is 'Not Approved', then either the scenarios mentioned are not sufficient or the scenarios are in a very bad shape(not in a state to be reviewed) etc. Document References: Any additional documents that will help better understand the test outline document like design documents or Requirements document etc. Projects Covered in Test Outline: Projects can be features of the product or modules which are covered in the test outline document. Traceability Matrix: This Matrix is filled after finishing writing all scenarios in the outline.This is to ensure that all requiremnts or features are sufficiently covered by the test cases and none are missing.So you map the requirement or feature and subfeature to
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the test case that will be covering it. The following IDs uniquely identify the requirements or feature and subfeature.You can add your own IDs based on the need REQ_ID = Requirement ID from the SRS document DD_ID = Detailed Design ID from the Detailed Design document Setup Requirements: Any setup that has to be done in the application being tested, prior to executing this test case, should be mentioned here.For example, if the test case needs certain login IDs with certain settings to begin, which are not created as part of the test case, then such things need to mentioned in this section. Test Objectives: Specify at a very high level, what the test case is intended to achieve or verify. Test Case Limitations: Does the test case achieve the above mentioned test objective completely or are there any exceptions?These exceptions need to be specified in this section.For example, test case has to verify 'something' on type A, type B and type X, but because of some reason it could NOT verify that 'something' on type X, then its a limitation. Test Case Dependencies / Assumptions: Prior to executing this test case, any other test case needs to be run? All those dependencies need to mentioned here. Process Flow: In this section, we specify at a high level what the flow of the test case is.Suppose there are multiple users in the test case, then a process flow can look like user1: does something user2: does something else user1: does again something user2: says good bye Test Outline Table column - 'User': Who has to perform the action. Suppose in a application, there are two roles 'Buyer' and 'Supplier', then user can be those role names. Test Outline Table column - 'Action': Under Action you specify the following Flow Name - A high level name given to action performed by the user.Suppose Buyer has to create certain purchase orders in the applications, then the flow name can be 'Create Purchase Orders' Description - The following things should be mentioned here at a high level Description of what actions should be performed What is the type or characteristics of data to be used. What should be verified or checked after performing the action. Effort Estimates: In this section you specify the effort needed to write each test case and the effort needed to execute them.
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CHAPTER 9 Test Case Template Explanation of different sections in the template Change History: Under this section, you specify, who changed what in the document and when, along with the version of the document which contain the changes. Review and Approval History: This captures who reviewed the document and whether they Approved the test case or not. If approved, the reviewer will specify the review comments to be incorporated in the test case.There is a review template at the end of the template document, which can be used to specify the comments.If the test case document is 'Not Approved', then either the test case is not necessary(redundant) or it is in a very bad shape(not in a state to be reviewed) Document References: Any additional documents that will help better understand the test case like test oulines or design documents or Requirements document etc. Introduction/Overall Test Objectives: Specify at a very high level, what the test case is intended to achieve or verify. Test Case Limitations: Does the test case achieve the above mentioned test objective completely or are there any exceptions?These exceptions need to be specified in this section.For example, test case has to verify something on type A, type B and type X, but because of some reason it could NOT verify that something on type X, then its a limitation. Test Case Dependencies / Assumptions: Prior to executing this test case, any other test case needs to be run? All those dependencies need to mentioned here. Setup Requirements: Any setup that has to be done in the application being tested, prior to executing this test script should be mentioned here.For example, if the test case needs certain Login IDs with certain settings to begin, which are not created as part of the test case, then such things need to mentioned in this section Process Flow: In this section, we mention who does what in the test case. Suppose there are multiple users in the test case, then a process flow can look like user1: does something
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user2: does something else user1: does again something user2: says good bye
Test Case: The actual test case begins in section 5, which can be further divided into subsections upon convenience and need.For example, if the test case is for an integrated application, then everytime we login to a new application, we can have a new subsection. Following is the example of how a test case looks like Step Num: 1 Step Description: check login Path and Action: Enter user name, Enter pwd, click Login Test Data: abcd, abcd Expected Results: Verify error message is thrown that username and password entered are wrong Appendix: This section contain any additional data that the test case refers.For example if your test case has large amounts of 'Test Data' which is difficult to put under the column 'Test Data' for each step, then you can use the appendix section to hold the data and in the test case, can give reference to appendix. Test Case Review Template: This template can be used by the reviewers to provide their review comments.They can classify the comments based on their severity.The Test Engineer who incorporates the comments in the test case, should specify the action taken by him in the template and then 'Close' the comment.
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CHAPTER 10 Life Cycle of a Software Bug Once a bug(defect or error) is found, it should be communicated to the developers who can fix it. Once the bug is fixed/resolved, the fix should be verified by the testers and should be closed. The following topics are discussed in this page Bug Information: Information that should be captured in the bug so that developers can clearly understand the bug and fix it. List of Bug statuses: Lifecycle of some types of bugs: Analysis of bugs :Bugs logged during a testing phase a invaluable source to improve the existing testing processes.
Bug information The following information should be captured in the bug so that developers can clearly understand the bug, get an idea of it's severity, and reproduce it if necessary.Also the developer should mention in the bug, the cause of the problem, steps he has taken to fix it/fix description, steps he has taken to verify the fix and any information that helps to prevent such issues in future. Bug ID : A unique identifier(number) of the bug Bug status: In the long road between logging bug and fixing it, the status of a bug communicates where it is.Eg: New,Assigned,fixed,closed etc. A list of different bug statuses are mentioned below along with their descriptions. Application details: Details of the application like application name, version, URL, database details etc. Component and/or subcomponent: The part of the application in which the bug was found by tester Enviroment details: Such as Operating system, hardware platform etc. Severity/Criticality: Priority: For bugs of same severity, this field can be used to decide which one's to fix first.
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Test case name/number/identifier: Subject: One-line description of the bug Bug Description: A detailed description of the bug Reproducible steps: A step by step description to reproduce the bug Data used: Additional information: File excerpts,error messages,log file excerpts, screen shots that would be helpful in finding the cause of the problem or fix it. Tester name: Tester contact details: Bug reporting date and time: Assigned to: Developer to which the bug is assigned. Description of problem cause: Description of fix: Code section/file/module/class/method that was fixed: Date of fix: Version of the file that contains the fix:
List of Bug statuses New: When a bug is found, the tester logs the bug and the status of ‘New’ is assigned to the bug. Assigned: The development team verifies if the bug is valid. If the bug is valid, development leader assigns it to a developer to fix it and a status of ‘Assigned’ is set to it. Additional information Requested: When developer/dev_lead needs more information from tester to understand the bug Not Reproducible: When dev lead could not reproduce the bug Not a Bug: Invalid bug(a bug that does not require any code fix)
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