Software Testing Tools and Its Taxonomy

Dr. Himanshu HoraSRMS College of Engineering & Technology

Bareilly (INDIA)

Myths Vs Facts

Myths : – Developers require more skills in comparative

to QA.– Development needs more effort then testing.

Facts:– Tester needs to think one step ahead then

developers to breaks their code.– Testing is more creative than development

because you need to be creative to become destructive :

Software Testing

“Software Testing is a process of evaluating a system by manual or automatic means and verify that it

satisfies specified requirements or identify differences between expected

and actual results”

Software Testing Tools

• Boundary value analysis: A method of dividing application system into segments so that testing can occur within the boundaries of those segments.

• Cause-effect graphic: Attempts to show the effect of each test event processed.

• Checklist: A series of probing questions designed to review a predetermined area or function.

Cont…• Code Comparison: Identifies differences between

two versions of the same program. • Confirmation: Verifies the correctness of many

aspects of the system by contacting third parties, such as users, or examining a document to verify that it exists.

• Data Dictionary: The documentation tool for recording data elements and the attributes of the data elements that , under some implementations, can produce test data to validate the system’s data edits.

Cont…• Database: A repository of data collected for testing

or about testing that can be summarized, re-sequenced, and analyzed for test purposes.

• Desk Checking: Reviews by originator of the requirements, design, or program as a check on the work performed by that individual.

• Disaster Test: a procedure that predetermines a disaster as a basis for testing the recover process.

Cont…

• Fact finding: information needed to conduct a test or to ensure the correctness of a document information achieved through a investigative process requiring obtaining information.

• Flow chart: graphically represents the system in order to evaluate the completeness of the requirement, design, or program specifications.

Cont…

• Inspections: A highly structured step by step reviews of the deliverables produced by each phase of the system of the system development life cycle in order to identify the potential defects.

• Instrumentation: The use of monitor or counters to determine the frequency with which predetermine events occur.

Cont…• Integrated test facility: a concept that permits the

introduction of the test data into a production environment so that application can be tested at the same time they are running in production.

• Risk matrix: test adequacy of controls through the identification of risk and the controls implemented each part of the application system to reduce those risk to a level acceptable.

Cont…

• Test data: System transactions that are created for the purpose of testing the application system.

• Test script: A sequential series of actions that a user of automated system would enter to validate the correctness of software processing.

Cont…

• Tracing: A representation of the paths followed by computer programs as they process data or the paths followed in a data base to locate one more pieces of data.

• Use cases: Test transactions that focus on how users will use the software in an operational environment.

Cont…

• Walk through: A process that ask the programmer to explain the application system to a test team typically by using a simulation of the execution of application system.

Test Tools Taxonomy

• Why Test Tools Taxonomy? In order to make right choices among tools, you must

be able to classify them. Otherwise, any choice would be at best haphazard. Without functioning classification, you would not be able to understand new tools fast, nor come up with ideas of using, or creating, new tools.

Existing Taxonomies

Software testing lacks standards, and software test automation lacks them almost totally:

• The section on testing tools in software testing chapter of Wikipedia is very confusing – to say the least.

• ISO/IEC 29119 software testing standard is under development and far from complete.

Cont…

• Software process standards such as TMMI or TPI state their tool taxonomy only indirectly – by stating vaguely what types of test tools are required for various maturity levels.

• Maturity Model for Automated Software Testing (MMAST) sounds promising, but is far from satisfactory, and almost totally unknown in software industry.

References

• victo.eu/wiedza/English/test_tools_taxonomy.pdf• www.kaner.com/pdfs/BugTaxonomies.pdf• Effective Methods for Software Testing (Third Edition)

By William E. Perry

THANK YOU

Dr. Himanshu HoraSRMS College of Engineering & Technology

Bareilly (INDIA)