Software Testing
Software Testing
Objectives
To discuss the distinctions between
validation testing and defect testing
To describe the principles of system and
component testing
To describe strategies for generating system
test cases
To understand the essential characteristics
of tool used for test automation
Topics covered
System testing
Component testing
Test case design
Test automation
The testing process
Component testing
• Testing of individual program components;
• Usually the responsibility of the component developer
(except sometimes for critical systems);
• Tests are derived from the developer’s experience.
System testing
• Testing of groups of components integrated to create a
system or sub-system;
• The responsibility of an independent testing team;
• Tests are based on a system specification.
Testing phases
Component System
testing testing
A T1
T1
A
T1 T2
A B
T2
T2 B T3
T3
B C
T3 T4
C
T4
D T5
System
A student in Scotland is studying American History and has been asked to write a paper
on ÔFrontier mentality in the American West from 1840 to 1880Õ.To do this, she needs to
find sources from a range of libraries. She logs on to the LIBSYS system and uses the
search facility to discover if she can acce ss original documents from that time. She
discovers sources in various US university libraries and downloads copies of some of
these. However, for one document, she needs to have confirmation from her university
that she is a genuine student and that use is for non-commercial purposes. The student
then uses the facility in LIBSYS that can request such permission and registers her
request. If granted, the document will be downloaded to the registered libraryÕs server
and printed for her. She receives a message from LIBSYS telling her that she will receive
an e-mail message when th e printed document is available for collection.
System tests
Use cases
Use cases can be a basis for deriving the
tests for a system. They help identify
operations to be tested and help design the
required test cases.
From an associated sequence diagram, the
inputs and outputs to be created for the tests
can be identified.
Collect weather data sequence chart
request (repor t)
acknowledge ()
repor t ()
summarise ()
send (repor t)
reply (repor t)
acknowledge ()
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
Exercises the system beyond its maximum design
load. Stressing the system often causes defects to
come to light.
Stressing the system test failure behaviour..
Systems should not fail catastrophically. Stress
testing checks for unacceptable loss of service or
data.
Stress testing is particularly relevant to distributed
systems that can exhibit severe degradation as a
network becomes overloaded.
Component testing
Component or unit testing is the process of
testing individual components in isolation.
It is a defect testing process.
Components 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.
Object class testing
Complete test coverage of a class involves
• Testing all operations associated with an object;
• Setting and interrogating all object attributes;
• Exercising the object in all possible states.
Inheritance makes it more difficult to design
object class tests as the information to be
tested is not localised.
Weather station object interface
WeatherStation
identifier
repor tWeather ()
calibrate (instruments)
test ()
star tup (instruments)
shutdown (instruments)
Weather station testing
Need to define test cases for reportWeather,
calibrate, test, startup and shutdown.
Using a state model, identify sequences of
state transitions to be tested and the event
sequences to cause these transitions
For example:
• Waiting -> Calibrating -> Testing -> Transmitting
-> Waiting
Interface testing
Objectives are to detect faults due to
interface errors or invalid assumptions about
interfaces.
Particularly important for object-oriented
development as objects are defined by their
interfaces.
Interface testing
Test
cases
A B
C
Interface types
Parameter interfaces
• Data passed from one component 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-system.s
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.
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.
Test case design
Involves designing the test cases (inputs and
outputs) used to test the system.
The goal of test case design is to create a
set of tests that are effective in validation
and defect testing.
Design approaches:
• Requirements-based testing;
• Partition testing;
• Structural testing.
Requirements based testing
A general principle of requirements
engineering is that requirements should be
testable.
Requirements-based testing is a validation
testing technique where you consider each
requirement and derive a set of tests for that
requirement.
LIBSYS requirements
LIBSYS tests
Initiate user search for searches for items that are known to
be present and known not to be present, where the set of
databases includes 1 database.
Initiate user searches for items that are known to be present
and known not to be present, where the set of databases
includes 2 databases
Initiate user searches for items that are known to be present
and known not to be present where the set of databases
includes more than 2 databases.
Select one database from the set of databases and initiate
user searches for items that are known to be present and
known not to be present.
Select more than one database from the set of databases
and initiate searches for items that are known to be present
and known not to be present.
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.
Equivalence partitioning
System
Outputs
Equivalence partitions
3 11
4 7 10
9999 100000
10000 50000 99999
Less than 1 0000 Betw een 1 0000 and 99999 More than 99999
Input v alues
Structural testing
Sometime called white-box testing.
Derivation of test cases according to
program structure. Knowledge of the
program is used to identify additional test
cases.
Objective is to exercise all program
statements (not all path combinations).
Structural testing
Test da ta
Tests Derives
Component Test
code outputs
Key points
Testing can show the presence of faults in a system;
it cannot prove there are no remaining faults.
Component developers are responsible for
component testing; system testing is the
responsibility of a separate team.
Integration testing is testing increments of the
system; release testing involves testing a system to
be released to a customer.
Use experience and guidelines to design test cases
in defect testing.
Key points
Interface testing is designed to discover defects in
the interfaces of composite components.
Equivalence partitioning is a way of discovering test
cases - all cases in a partition should behave in the
same way.
Structural analysis relies on analysing a program
and deriving tests from this analysis.