Unit 5

Software Testing

Definition of testing
Software testing is the process of checking the quality, functionality,
and performance of a software product before launching. To do
software testing, testers either interact with the software manually or
execute test scripts to find bugs and errors, ensuring that the software
works as expected.
Testing is intended to show that a program does what it is
intended to do and to discover program defects before it is put
into use. When you test software, you execute a program using
artificial data. You check the results of the test run for errors,
anomalies or information about the program's non-functional
attributes. Testing can reveal the presence of errors, but NOT
their absence. Testing is part of a more general verification and
validation process, which also includes static validation techniques.
Goals of software testing:

 To demonstrate to the developer and the customer

that the software meets its requirements.
o 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.
o A successful test shows that the system operates as
intended.
 To discover situations in which the behavior of the software
is incorrect, undesirable or does not conform to its
specification.
o Leads to defect testing: the test cases are designed
to expose defects; the test cases can be deliberately
obscure and need not reflect how the system is
normally used.
o A successful test is a test that makes the system
perform incorrectly and so exposes a defect in the
system.

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 Testing can be viewed as an input-output process:

Verification and validation

Testing is part of a broader process of software verification and
validation (V & V).

 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.

The goal of V & V is to establish confidence that the system is good

enough for its intended use, which depends on:

 Software purpose: the level of confidence depends on

how critical the software is to an organization.
 User expectations: users may have low expectations of certain
kinds of software.
 Marketing environment: getting a product to market
early may be more important than finding defects in the
program.
Inspections and testing
Software inspections involve people examining the source

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 representation with the aim of discovering anomalies and defects.
Inspections not require execution of a system so may be used before
implementation. They may be applied to any representation of the
system (requirements, design,configuration data, test data, etc.). They
have been shown to be an effective technique for discovering program
errors.

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 Advantages of inspections include:

 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. If a program is incomplete, then you need
to develop specialized test harnesses to test the parts that
are available.
 As well as searching for program defects, an inspection can
also consider broader quality attributes of a program,
such as compliance with standards, portability and
maintainability.

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.
Typically, a commercial software system has to go through three stages
of testing:

 Development testing: the system is tested during

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

Development testing
Development testing includes all testing activities that are carried out by
the team developing the system:

 Unit testing: individual program units or object classes are

tested; should focus on testing the functionality of objects or
methods.
 Component testing: several individual units are
integrated to create composite components; should
focus on testing component interfaces.
 System testing: some or all of the components in a system
are integrated and the system is tested as a whole; should
focus on testing component interactions.

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 Unit testing
Unit testing is the process of testing individual components in
isolation. It is a defect testing process. Units may be:

 Individual functions or methods within an object;

 Object classes with several attributes and methods;
 Composite components with defined interfaces used to access
their functionality.

When testing object classes, tests should be designed to provide

coverage of all of the features of the object:

 Test all operations associated with the object;

 Set and check the value of all attributes associated with the
object;
 Put the object into all possible states, i.e. simulate all events
that cause a state change.

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. Unit testing frameworks provide
generic test classes that you
extend to create specific test cases. They can then run all of the tests
that you have implemented and report, often through some GUI, on
the success of otherwise of the tests. An automated test has three
parts:

 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.

The test cases should show that, when used as expected, the
component that you are testing does what it is supposed to do. If
there are defects in the component, these should be revealed by test
cases. This leads to two types of unit test cases:

 The first of these should reflect normal operation of a

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 program and should show that the component works as
expected.
 The other kind of test case should be based on testing
experience of where common problems arise. It should use
abnormal inputs to check that these are properly
processed and do not crash the component.

Component testing
Software components are often composite components that are
made up of several interacting objects. 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. Objectives are to detect faults due to interface errors or
invalid assumptions about interfaces. Interface types include:

 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.

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 behavior 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.

General guidelines for interface testing:

 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.

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 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. System testing tests the
emergent behavior of a system.
During system testing, reusable components that have been separately
developed and off-the-shelf systems may be integrated with newly
developed components. The complete system is then tested.
Components developed by different team members or sub-teams may
be integrated at this stage. System testing is a collective rather than an
individual process.
The use cases developed to identify system interactions can be used
as a basis for system testing. Each use case usually involves
several system components so testing the use case forces these
interactions to occur. The sequence diagrams associated with the
use case document the components and their interactions that
are being tested.
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. This is a differentiating
feature of TDD versus writing unit tests after the code is written: it
makes the developer focus on the requirements before writing the
code. The code is developed 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.
TDD example - a string calculator.
The goal of TDD isn't to ensure we write tests by writing them first,
but to produce working software that achieves a targeted set
of requirements using simple, maintainable solutions. To
achieve this goal, TDD provides strategies for keeping code
working, simple, relevant, and free of duplication.

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 TDD process includes the following activities:

1. Start by identifying the increment of functionality that is

required. This should normally be small and implementable in
a few lines of code.
2. Write a test for this functionality and implement this as an
automated test.
3. 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.
4. Implement the functionality and re-run the test.
5. Once all tests run successfully, you move on to implementing the
next chunk of functionality.

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.

Regression testing is testing the system to check that changes

have not 'broken' previously working code. In a manual testing
process, regression testing is expensive but, with automated testing, it
is simple and straightforward. All tests are rerun every time a change
is made to the program. Tests must run 'successfully' before the

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 change is committed.
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 customer 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.
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).

Requirements-based testing involves examining each

requirement and developing a test or tests for it. It is validation rather
than defect testing: you are trying to demonstrate that the system
has properly implemented its requirements.
Scenario testing is an approach to release testing where you devise
typical scenarios of use and use these to develop test cases for the
system. Scenarios should be realistic and real system users should be
able to relate to them. If you have used scenarios as part of the
requirements engineering process, then you may be able to reuse
these as testing scenarios.
Part of release testing may involve testing the emergent properties
of a system, such as performance and reliability. Tests should reflect
the profile of use of the system. 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 behavior.
User testing

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 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. Types of user testing include:
 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.

In agile methods, the user/customer is part of the development team

and is responsible for making decisions on the acceptability of the
system. Tests are defined by the user/customer and are integrated
with other tests in that they are run automatically when changes are
made. Main problem here is whether or not the embedded user is
'typical' and can represent the interests of all system stakeholders.
Use of Acceptance Testing
1. To find the defects missed during the functional testing phase.
2. How well the product is developed.
3. A product is what actually the customers need.
4. Feedback help in improving the product performance and user
experience.
5. Minimize or eliminate the issues arising from the production.
Advantages of Acceptance Testing
1. This testing helps the project team to know the further
requirements from the users directly as it involves the
users for testing.
2. Automated test execution.
3. It brings confidence and satisfaction to the clients as
they are directly involved in the testing process.
4. It is easier for the user to describe their requirement.
5. It covers only the Black-Box testing process and hence
the entire functionality of the product will be tested.

Alpha testing

Alpha testing is conducted in the organization and tested by a

representative group of end-users at the developer's side and
sometimes by an independent team of testers.

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 Alpha testing is simulated or real operational testing at an in-house
site. It comes after the unit testing, integration testing, etc. Alpha
testing used after all the testing are executed.

It can be a white box, or Black-box testing depends on the requirements -

particular lab environment and simulation of the actual environment
required for this testing.

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 What is the alpha testing process?
Alpha testing follows the following process:

1. Requirement Review: Review the design of the specification and

functional requirement
2. Test Development: Test development is base on the
outcome of the requirement review. Develop the test cases and
test plan.

3. Test case design: Execute the test plan and test cases.
4. Logging Defects: Logging the identified and detected bug found in
the application.
5. Bug Fixation: When all the bugs are identified and logged, then
there is a need to fix the bug.
6. Retesting: When all the issues are solved, and fixed retesting is
done.

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 What are the phases of alpha testing?
Alpha testing ensures that the software performs flawlessly and does
not impact the reputation of the organization; the company
implements final testing in the form of alpha testing. This testing
executed into two phases.

There are two phases of alpha testing.

First Phase: In-house developers of software engineers do the first
phase of testing. In this phase, the tester used hardware debugger or
hardware aided debugger to catches the bugs quickly. During the
alpha testing, a tester finds a lot of bugs, crashes, missing features,
and docs.

Second Phase: The second phase involves the quality assurance staff

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 performs the alpha testing by involving black box and white box
techniques.

o It provides a complete test plan and test cases.

o Free the team member for another project.
o Every feedback helps to improve software quality.
o It provides a better observation of the software's reliability and
accountability.

Beta Testing
Beta testing is a type of User Acceptance Testing among the most
crucial testing, which performed before the release of the software.
Beta Testing is a type of Field Test. This testing performs at the end
of the software testing life cycle. This type of testing can be considered
as external user acceptance testing. It is a type of salient testing. Real
users perform this testing. This testing executed after the alpha
testing. In this the new version, beta testing is released to a limited
audience to check the accessibility, usability, and functionality, and
more.

o Beta testing is the last phase of the testing, which is carried out at
the client's or customer's site.

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 What is a beta version of the software?
The beta version of the software is delivered to a restricted number of
users to accept their feedback and suggestions on quality
improvement. Hence, there are two types of beta version:

1) Closed beta version: Closed beta version, also known as a private

beta, it is released to a group of selected and invited people. Those
people will test the software and evaluate their features and
specifications. This beta version represents the software which is
capable of delivering value, but it is not ready to be used by everyone.
Because it shows the issues like lack of documentation or missing vital
features.

2) Open beta version: Open beta is also known as a public beta. The
open beta opened to the public. Any user as a tester can assess the
beta version to provide the relevant feedback and reviews. Open beta
version improves the quality of the final release. This version helps to
find the various undetected errors and issues.

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 The beta testing process orients this beta version.

What are the advantages of Beta Testing?

Beta testing performed at the end of the software testing lifecycle.
Beta testing offers numerous benefits to testers, software developer,
as well as the users. In the assistance of this type of testing, it enables
developers, testers to test the product before its release in the market.
The

1. Beta testing focuses on the customer's satisfaction.

2. It helps to reduce the risk of product failure via user validations.
3. Beta testing helps to get direct feedback from users.
4. It helps to detect the defect and issues in the system, which is
overlooked and undetected by the team of software testers.

5. Beta testing helps the user to install, test, and send feedback
regarding the developed software.
What are the disadvantages of

Beta Testing? Disadvantages of

beta testing:

1. In this type of testing, a software engineer has no control over

the process of the testing, as the users in the real-world
environment perform it.

2. This testing can be a time-consuming process and can delay the

final release of the product.
3. Beta testing does not test the functionality of the software in depth
as software still in development.
4. It is a waste of time and money to work on the feedback of the
users who do not use the software themselves properly.

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