Levels of Testing

Software products are tested at

three levels:
Unit testing
Integration testing
System testing

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 Unit testing
During unit testing, modules are
tested in isolation:
If all modules were to be tested
together:
it may not be easy to
determine which module has
the error.

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 Unit testing

Unit testing reduces debugging

effort several folds.
Programmers carry out unit
testing immediately after they
complete the coding of a module.

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 Stubs

 The upper modules are prepared first and are ready for
testing. While the bottom modules are not yet prepared
by the developers. So in order to form the complete
application we create dummy programs for the lower
modules in the application. Hence all the functionalities
can be tested.

 The main purpose of a stub is to allow testing of the

upper levels of the code. Hence, when the lower levels
of the code are not yet developed.

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 Driver
 A driver is basically a piece of code through which other programs
or pieces of code or modules can be called. Drivers are the main
program through which other modules are called.

 If we want to test any module it is required that we should have a

main program which will call the testing module. Without the
dummy program or driver, the complete testing of the module is
not possible.

 Testing of the bottom level modules is not possible with the help of
main program. So we prepare a dummy program or driver to call
the bottom level modules and perform its testing.

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Stubs and Drivers Example

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Stubs and Drivers Example

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 Integration testing

After different modules of a system

have been coded and unit tested:
modules are integrated in steps
according to an integration plan
partially integrated system is
tested at each integration step.

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 Integration Testing

Develop the integration plan by

examining the structure chart :
big bang approach
top-down approach
bottom-up approach
mixed approach

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 Big bang Integration
Testing

Big bang approach is the simplest

integration testing approach:
all the modules are simply put
together and tested.
this technique is used only for
very small systems.

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 Big bang Integration
Testing

Main problems with this approach:

if an error is found:
it is very difficult to localize the error
the error may potentially belong to any
of the modules being integrated.
debugging errors found during big
bang integration testing are very
expensive to fix.
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Big bang Integration
Testing

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 Bottom-up Integration
Testing
Integrate and test the bottom level
modules first.
A disadvantage of bottom-up
testing:
when the system is made up of a
large number of small subsystems that
are at the same level.
This extreme case corresponds to the
big bang approach.
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 Bottom-up Integration
Testing

Advantages:
A principle advantage of this integration
testing is that several disjoint subsystems
can be tested simultaneously.
Low level modules get tested thoroughly
which increases the reliability of the
system.

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Bottom-up Integration
Testing

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 Top-down integration
testing

Top-down integration testing starts with

the main routine:
and one or two subordinate routines in the
system.
After the top-level 'skeleton’ has been
tested:
immediate subordinate modules of the
'skeleton’ are combined with it and tested.

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Top-down integration
testing

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 Top-down integration
testing

 An advantage of top-down integration testing is that it

requires writing only stubs, and stubs are simpler to
write compared to drivers.

 A disadvantage of the top-down integration testing

approach is that in the absence of lower-level routines,
it becomes difficult to exercise the top-level routines in
the desired manner since the lower level routines
usually perform input/output (I/O) operations.

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 Mixed integration testing

Mixed (or sandwiched)

integration testing:
uses both top-down and
bottom-up testing approaches.
Most common approach

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Mixed integration testing

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 Integration Testing
In top-down approach:
testing waits till all top-level
modules are coded and unit
tested.
In bottom-up approach:
testing can start only after
bottom level modules are ready.

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 Phased versus Incremental
Integration Testing

Integration can be incremental or

phased.
In incremental integration testing,
only one new module is added to
the partial system each time.

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 Phased versus Incremental
Integration Testing

In phased integration,

a group of related modules are
added to the partially integrated
system each time.
Big-bang testing:
a degenerate case of the phased
integration testing.

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Phased versus Incremental
Integration Testing

Phased integration requires less

number of integration steps:
 compared to the incremental
integration approach.
However, when failures are detected,
it is easier to debug if using incremental
testing
since errors are very likely to be in the
newly integrated module.

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 System Testing

System testing involves:

validating a fully developed system
against its requirements.

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 System Testing

There are three main kinds of

system testing:
Alpha Testing
Beta Testing
Acceptance Testing

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 Alpha Testing

System testing is carried out by

the test team within the
developing organization.

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 Beta Testing

System testing performed by a select

group of friendly customers.

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 Acceptance Testing

System testing performed by the

customer himself:
to determine whether the system
should be accepted or rejected.

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 System Testing

During system testing, in addition

to functional tests:
performance tests are performed.

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 Performance Testing

Addresses non-functional
requirements.
May sometimes involve testing
hardware and software together.
There are several categories of
performance testing.

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 Stress testing

Evaluates system performance

when stressed for short periods of
time.
Stress testing
also known as endurance testing.

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 Stress testing
 Stress testing a Non-Functional testing technique that is
performed as part of performance testing. During stress
testing, the system is monitored after subjecting the
system to overload to ensure that the system can sustain
the stress.

 The recovery of the system from such phase (after

stress) is very critical as it is highly likely to happen in
production environment.

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 Stress Testing

If the requirements is to handle a

specified number of users, or
devices:
stress testing evaluates system
performance when all users or
devices are busy simultaneously.

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 Stress Testing
 A most prominent use of stress testing is to
determine the limit, at which the system or
software or hardware breaks. It also checks whether
the system demonstrates effective error management
under extreme conditions.

 The application under testing will be stressed when 5GB

data is copied from the website and pasted in notepad.
Notepad is under stress and gives 'Not Responded' error
message.

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Stress Testing (Real World Examples)

Commercial shopping apps or websites need to

perform stress testing as the load becomes very
high during festivals, sale or special offer period.

Web or emailing apps need to be stress tested.

Social networking websites or apps, blogs etc.,

need to be stress tested etc.

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 Volume Testing
 VOLUME TESTING is a type of Software Testing, where
the software is subjected to a huge volume of data. It is
also referred to as flood testing. Volume testing is done
to analyze the system performance by increasing the
volume of data in the database.

 Fields, records, and files are stressed to check if their size

can accommodate all possible data volumes.

 Test the site behavior when there are more than 10,000
laptops are available under the 'laptops' category.

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 Configuration Testing
 Configuration testing is defined as a software testing
type, that checks an application with multiple
combinations of software and hardware to find out the
optimal configurations that the system can work without
any flaws or bugs.

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 Configuration Testing

Various Configurations:
Operating System Configuration:Win XP,
Win 7 32/64 bit, Win 8 32/64 bit, Win 10 etc.
Database Configuration:Oracle, DB2, MySql,
MSSQL Serveretc.
Browser Configuration:IE 8, IE 9, Chrome,
Microsoft Edge etc.

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 Recovery Testing

These tests check response to:

presence of faults or to the loss of
data, power, devices, or services
subject system to loss of resources
check if the system recovers
properly.

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 Recovery Testing
 While downloading a movie over a Wifi network, if we move to a
place where there is no network, then the downloading process will
be interrupted. Now to check if the process recovers from the
interruption and continues working as before, we move back to a
place where there is a Wifi network. If the downloading resumes,
then the software has a good recovery rate.

 Another example could be when a browser is working on multiple

sessions, we can stimulate software failure by restarting the
system. After restarting the system, we can check if it recovers
from the failure and reloads all the sessions it was previously
working on.

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 Maintenance Testing

Verify that:
all required artifacts for
maintenance exist
they function properly

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 Documentation tests

Check that required documents

exist and are consistent:
user guides,
maintenance guides,
technical documents

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 Usability tests

All aspects of user interfaces are

tested:
Display screens
messages
report formats
navigation and selection problems

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 Security Testing

 SECURITY TESTING is a type of Software Testing that

uncovers vulnerabilities, threats, risks in a software
application and prevents malicious attacks from
intruders.
 This is an example of a very basic security test which
anyone can perform on a web application:
a. Log into the web application.
b. Log out of the web application.
c. Click the BACK button of the browser (Check if you are
asked to log in again or if you are provided the logged-
in application.)
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 Regression Testing

Does not belong to either unit

test, integration test, or system
test.
In stead, it is a separate dimension
to these three forms of testing.

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 Regression testing

Regression testing is the running of

test suite:
after each change to the system or
after each bug fix
ensures that no new bug has been
introduced due to the change or the bug
fix.

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 Regression testing

Regression tests assure:

the new system’s performance is at
least as good as the old system
always used during phased system
development.

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