9/11/2023
1 Design & Implementation of Human-Computer Interfaces
NPTEL-MOOCS
Dr Samit Bhattacharya
Computer Science and Engineering
IIT Guwahati
2 L27 - Black Box Testing
Dr Samit Bhattacharya
Computer Science and Engineering
IIT Guwahati
3
4 Recap
• Code testing - TWO ways
• Review-based
• Execution-based
5 Recap
• Review based testing - TWO types
• Code walkthrough (similar to cognitive walkthrough)
• Code inspection (similar to heuristic evaluation)
6 Review Based Testing – Pros & Cons
• Review-based testing informal – mostly evaluates code qualitatively
• Good for early evaluation to ‘clean up’ the code before more rigorous and formal
testing is done
7 Next
• Let’s learn about the other code testing method
• Execution based testing
• Also can be thought of as (formal) program testing
8 (Formal) Program Testing
• Consists of
• Providing program a set of test inputs (or test cases)
• Observing program behavior (and/or output)
9 (Formal) Program Testing
• If program fails to behave as expected (or output mismatch), the conditions under
which failure occurs are noted for later debugging and correction
10 Terminology
• Test case – a triplet [I,S,O]
• I = data input
• S = system state at input time
• O = expected output
• For simplicity, we will consider only the doublet [I,O]
11 Terminology
• Test suite - set of all test cases with which a given software is to be tested
12 Choice of Test Cases (Suite)
• Exhaustive testing impractical - possible input data values extremely large or infinite
• We must design test suite that is of reasonable size and can uncover as many 1
• S = system state at input time 9/11/2023
• O = expected output
• For simplicity, we will consider only the doublet [I,O]
11 Terminology
• Test suite - set of all test cases with which a given software is to be tested
12 Choice of Test Cases (Suite)
• Exhaustive testing impractical - possible input data values extremely large or infinite
• We must design test suite that is of reasonable size and can uncover as many
errors existing in the system as possible
13 Choice of Test Cases (Suite)
• Randomly selected test cases not necessarily contribute to significance of test suite
• Need not detect additional defects not already detected by other test cases
14 Choice of Test Cases (Suite)
• Number of test cases not indication of testing effectiveness
• Large number of test cases selected at random does not guarantee all (or even
most) of the errors will be uncovered
15 Choice of Test Cases (Suite)
• Implication - test suite should be carefully designed (not decided randomly)
• Require systematic approaches
16 (Systematic) Code Testing
• Broadly of TWO types
17 (Systematic) Code Testing
• Functional testing - test cases designed using only functional specification of
software, i.e. without any knowledge of internal structure [Black-box testing]
18 (Systematic) Code Testing
• Structural testing - test cases designed using knowledge of internal structure of
software [white-box testing]
19
Black-Box Testing
20 Idea
• Design test cases based on input/output values ONLY [no knowledge of design or
code required]
21 Idea
• TWO main approaches to design test cases
• Equivalence class partitioning
• Boundary value analysis
22 Equivalence Class & Partitioning
• Domain of input values partitioned into sets – each called ‘equivalence class’
23 Equivalence Class & Partitioning
• Program behavior similar for every input data belonging to an equivalence class
24 Equivalence Class & Partitioning
• Testing code with any ONE value of an equivalence class is as good as testing with
ALL input values belonging to that class
25 Boundary Value Analysis
• Check at the class boundaries
2
22 Equivalence Class & Partitioning 9/11/2023
• Domain of input values partitioned into sets – each called ‘equivalence class’
23 Equivalence Class & Partitioning
• Program behavior similar for every input data belonging to an equivalence class
24 Equivalence Class & Partitioning
• Testing code with any ONE value of an equivalence class is as good as testing with
ALL input values belonging to that class
25 Boundary Value Analysis
• Check at the class boundaries
26 Note
• In the next lecture, we shall learn more on black-box testing with examples
27 Reference
• Rajib Mall (2018). Fundamentals of Software Engineering, 5th ed, PHI Learning Pvt
Ltd. Chapter 10
• Roger S Pressman (2020). Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach, 9th ed,
McGraw-Hill Education, New York, Chapter 19-21
