MODULE-2

Chapter 3 – Software Testing

Chapter 3 Software testing 1

Topics covered

 Development testing
 Test-driven development
 Release testing
 User testing

Chapter 3 Software testing 2

Program testing

 You check the results of the test run for errors, anomalies or
information about the program’s non-functional attributes.
 Can reveal the presence of errors NOT their absence.
 Testing is part of a more general verification and validation
process, which also includes static validation techniques.
Program testing goals
 To demonstrate to the developer and the customer that the
software meets its requirements. .
 To discover situations in which the behavior of the software is
incorrect, undesirable or does not conform to its specification.

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Validation and defect testing

 The first goal leads to validation testing

 You expect the system to perform correctly using a given set of
test cases that reflect the system’s expected use.
 The second goal leads to defect testing
 The test cases are designed to expose defects. The test cases in
defect testing can be deliberately obscure and need not reflect
how the system is normally used.

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An input-output model of program testing

Chapter 3 Software testing 5

Verification vs validation

 Verification:
"Are we building the product right”.
 The software should conform to its specification.
 Validation:
"Are we building the right product”.
 The software should do what the user really requires.
V & V confidence
 Aim of V & V is to establish confidence that the system is ‘fit for
purpose’.
 Depends on system’s purpose, user expectations and marketing
environment

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Inspections and testing

 Software inspections Concerned with analysis of

the static system representation to discover problems
(static verification)
 May be supplement by tool-based document and code
analysis.
 Software testing Concerned with exercising and
observing product behaviour (dynamic verification)
 The system is executed with test data and its operational
behaviour is observed.

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Inspections and testing

Chapter 3 Software testing 8

Advantages of inspections

 During testing, errors can mask (hide) other errors.

Because inspection is a static process, you don’t have to
be concerned with interactions between errors.
 Incomplete versions of a system can be inspected
without additional costs.

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Inspections and testing

 Inspections and testing are complementary and not

opposing verification techniques.
 Both should be used during the V & V process.
 Inspections can check conformance with a specification
but not conformance with the customer’s real
requirements.
 Inspections cannot check non-functional characteristics
such as performance, usability, etc.

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A model of the software testing process

Chapter 3 Software testing 11

Stages of testing

 Development testing, where the system is tested

during development to discover bugs and defects.
 Release testing, where a separate testing team test a
complete version of the system before it is released to
users.
 User testing, where users or potential users of a system
test the system in their own environment.

Chapter 3 Software testing 12

Development testing

 Development testing includes all testing activities that

are carried out by the team developing the system.
 Unit testing, where individual program units or object classes
are tested. Unit testing should focus on testing the functionality
of objects or methods.
 Component testing, where several individual units are
integrated to create composite components. Component testing
should focus on testing component interfaces.
 System testing, where some or all of the components in a
system are integrated and the system is tested as a whole.
System testing should focus on testing component interactions.

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Object class testing

 Complete test coverage of a class involves

 Testing all operations associated with an object
 Setting and checking all object attributes
 Put the object in all possible states.
The weather station object interface

14
Weather station testing

Using a state model, identify sequences of state transitions

to be tested and the event sequences to cause these
transitions
 For example:
 Shutdown -> Running-> Shutdown
Automated testing
 Whenever possible, unit testing should be automated so that tests
are run and checked without manual intervention.
 In automated unit testing, you make use of a test automation
framework (such as JUnit) to write and run your program tests.

Chapter 3 Software testing 15

Automated test components

 A setup part, where you initialize the system with the test
case, namely the inputs and expected outputs.
 A call part, where you call the object or method to be
tested.
 An assertion part where you compare the result of the
call with the expected result. If the assertion evaluates to
true, the test has been successful if false, then it has
failed.

Chapter 3 Software testing 16

Testing strategies

 Partition testing, where you identify groups of inputs

that have common characteristics and should be
processed in the same way.
 You should choose tests from within each of these groups.
 Guideline-based testing, where you use testing
guidelines to choose test cases.
 These guidelines reflect previous experience of the kinds of
errors that programmers often make when developing
components.

Chapter 3 Software testing 17

Partition testing

 Input data and output results often fall into different

classes where all members of a class are related.
 Each of these classes is an equivalence partition or
domain where the program behaves in an equivalent
way for each class member.
 Test cases should be chosen from each partition.

Chapter 3 Software testing 18

Equivalence partitioning

Chapter 3 Software testing 19

Equivalence partitions

Chapter 3 Software testing 20

Testing guidelines (sequences)

 Test software with sequences which have only a single

value.
 Use sequences of different sizes in different tests.
 Derive tests so that the first, middle and last elements of
the sequence are accessed.
 Test with sequences of zero length.

Chapter 3 Software testing 21

General testing guidelines

 Choose inputs that force the system to generate all error

messages
 Design inputs that cause input buffers to overflow
 Repeat the same input or series of inputs numerous
times
 Force invalid outputs to be generated
 Force computation results to be too large or too small.

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Component testing

 Software components are often composite components

that are made up of several interacting objects.
 For example, in the weather station system, the reconfiguration
component includes objects that deal with each aspect of the
reconfiguration.
 You access the functionality of these objects through the
defined component interface.
 Testing composite components should therefore focus
on showing that the component interface behaves
according to its specification.
 You can assume that unit tests on the individual objects within
the component have been completed.
Chapter 3 Software testing 23
Interface testing

Chapter 3 Software testing 24

Interface testing

 Objectives are to detect faults due to interface errors or

invalid assumptions about interfaces.
 Interface types
 Parameter interfaces Data passed from one method or
procedure to another.
 Shared memory interfaces Block of memory is shared between
procedures or functions.
 Procedural interfaces Sub-system encapsulates a set of
procedures to be called by other sub-systems.
 Message passing interfaces Sub-systems request services from
other sub-systems

Chapter 3 Software testing 25

Interface errors

 Interface misuse
 A calling component calls another component and makes an
error in its use of its interface e.g. parameters in the wrong order.
 Interface misunderstanding
 A calling component embeds assumptions about the behaviour
of the called component which are incorrect.
 Timing errors
 The called and the calling component operate at different speeds
and out-of-date information is accessed.

Chapter 3 Software testing 26

Interface testing guidelines

 Design tests so that parameters to a called procedure

are at the extreme ends of their ranges.
 Always test pointer parameters with null pointers.
 Design tests which cause the component to fail.
 Use stress testing in message passing systems.
 In shared memory systems, vary the order in which
components are activated.

Chapter 3 Software testing 27

System testing

 System testing during development involves integrating

components to create a version of the system and then
testing the integrated system.
 The focus in system testing is testing the interactions
between components.
 System testing checks that components are compatible,
interact correctly and transfer the right data at the right
time across their interfaces.

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Use-case testing

 The use-cases developed to identify system interactions

can be used as a basis for system testing.
 The sequence diagrams associated with the use case
documents the components and interactions that are
being tested.

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Collect weather data sequence chart

Chapter 3 Software testing 30

Test-driven development

 Test-driven development (TDD) is an approach to

program development in which you inter-leave testing
and code development.
 Tests are written before code and ‘passing’ the tests is
the critical driver of development.
 You develop code incrementally, along with a test for that
increment. You don’t move on to the next increment until
the code that you have developed passes its test.
 TDD was introduced as part of agile methods such as
Extreme Programming. However, it can also be used in
plan-driven development processes.
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Test-driven development

Chapter 3 Software testing 32

TDD process activities

 Start by identifying the increment of functionality that is

required. This should normally be small and
implementable in a few lines of code.
 Write a test for this functionality and implement this as
an automated test.
 Run the test, along with all other tests that have been
implemented. Initially, you have not implemented the
functionality so the new test will fail.
 Implement the functionality and re-run the test.
 Once all tests run successfully, you move on to
implementing the next chunk of functionality.
Chapter 3 Software testing 33
Benefits of test-driven development

 Code coverage
 Every code segment that you write has at least one associated
test so all code written has at least one test.
 Regression testing
 A regression test suite is developed incrementally as a program
is developed.
 Simplified debugging
 When a test fails, it should be obvious where the problem lies.
The newly written code needs to be checked and modified.
 System documentation
 The tests themselves are a form of documentation that describe
what the code should be doing.
Chapter 3 Software testing 34
 Release testing

 Release testing is the process of testing a particular release

of a system that is intended for use outside of the
development team.
 The primary goal of the release testing process is to
convince the supplier of the system that it is good enough
for use.
 Release testing, therefore, has to show that the system delivers its
specified functionality, performance and dependability, and that it
does not fail during normal use.
 Release testing is usually a black-box testing process
where tests are only derived from the system specification.

Chapter 3 Software testing 35

Release testing and system testing

 Release testing is a form of system testing.

 Important differences:
 A separate team that has not been involved in the system
development, should be responsible for release testing.
 System testing by the development team should focus on
discovering bugs in the system (defect testing). The objective of
release testing is to check that the system meets its
requirements and is good enough for external use (validation
testing).

Chapter 3 Software testing 36

Requirements based testing

 Requirements-based testing involves examining each requirement and

developing a test or tests for it.
 MHC-PMS requirements:
 If a patient is known to be allergic to any particular medication, then
prescription of that medication shall result in a warning message being
issued to the system user.
 If a prescriber chooses to ignore an allergy warning, they shall provide a
reason why this has been ignored.
Requirements tests
 Set up a patient record with no known allergies. Prescribe medication for
allergies that are known to exist. Check that a warning message is not
issued by the system.
 Set up a patient record with a known allergy. Prescribe the medication to
that the patient is allergic to, and check that the warning is issued by the
system.
Chapter 3 Software testing 37
Features tested by scenario

 Authentication by logging on to the system.

 Downloading and uploading of specified patient records
to a laptop.
 Home visit scheduling.
 Encryption and decryption of patient records on a mobile
device.
 Record retrieval and modification.
 Links with the drugs database that maintains side-effect
information.
 The system for call prompting.
Chapter 3 Software testing 38
Performance testing

 Part of release testing may involve testing the emergent

properties of a system, such as performance and
reliability.
 Performance tests usually involve planning a series of
tests where the load is steadily increased until the
system performance becomes unacceptable.
 Stress testing is a form of performance testing where
the system is deliberately overloaded to test its failure
behaviour.

Chapter 3 Software testing 39

User testing

 User or customer testing is a stage in the testing process

in which users or customers provide input and advice on
system testing.
 User testing is essential, even when comprehensive
system and release testing have been carried out.
 The reason for this is that influences from the user’s working
environment have a major effect on the reliability, performance,
usability and robustness of a system. These cannot be replicated
in a testing environment.

Chapter 3 Software testing 40

Types of user testing

 Alpha testing
 Users of the software work with the development team to test the
software at the developer’s site.
 Beta testing
 A release of the software is made available to users to allow
them to experiment and to raise problems that they discover with
the system developers.
 Acceptance testing
 Customers test a system to decide whether or not it is ready to
be accepted from the system developers and deployed in the
customer environment.

Chapter 3 Software testing 41

The acceptance testing process

Chapter 3 Software testing 42