Chapter 8 – Software Testing

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Chapter 8 – Software Testing

Chapter 8 Software testing 2

Topics covered

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

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Program testing

 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.
 Can reveal the presence of errors NOT their absence.
 Testing is part of a more general verification and validation
(V&V) process, which also includes static validation
techniques.

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What is Software Testing ?

Testing is a verification and validation activity that is

performed by executing program code.

Testing is the process of executing a program with the

intent of finding errors.
- Glen Myers

5
 Error, fault, failure

• an error is a human activity resulting in

software containing a fault

• a fault is the manifestation of an error

• a fault may result in a failure

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Point to ponder: maiden flight of Ariane 5

7
 Testing Software is Hard
• If you are testing a bridge’s ability to sustain weight, and you
test it with 1000 tons you can infer that it will sustain weight 
1000 tons

• This kind of reasoning does not work for software systems

– software systems are not linear nor continuous

• Exhaustively testing all possible input/output combinations is

too expensive
– the number of test cases increase exponentially with the number of
input/output variables

8
Program testing goals

 To demonstrate to the developer and the customer that the

software meets its requirements.
 For custom software, this means that there should be at least one
test for every requirement in the requirements document.
 For generic software products, it means that there should be
tests for all of the system features, plus combinations of these
features, that will be incorporated in the product release.
 To discover situations in which the behavior of the software
is incorrect, undesirable or does not conform to its
specification.
 Defect testing is concerned with rooting out undesirable system
behavior such as system crashes, unwanted interactions with other
systems, incorrect computations and data corruption.
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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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 Testing process goals

 Validation testing
 To demonstrate to the developer and the system
customer that the software meets its requirements
 A successful test shows that the system operates as
intended.
 Defect testing
 To discover faults or defects in the software where its
behavior is incorrect or not in conformance with its
specification
 A successful test is a test that makes the system perform
incorrectly and so exposes a defect in the system.
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An input-output model of program testing

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Verification vs validation

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V & V confidence

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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.
 Discussed in Chapter 15.

 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 8 Software testing 16

 Software inspections

 These involve people examining the source 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.
Chapter 8 Software testing 17
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. 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.

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Inspections and testing

Chapter 8 Software testing 19

A model of the software testing process

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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.

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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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Unit testing

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Object class testing

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The weather station object interface

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A generalization hierarchy with added detail

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Weather station testing

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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.

 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. Chapter 8 Software testing 28
 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.

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Unit test effectiveness

 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 2 types of unit test case:
 The first of these should reflect normal operation of a 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.
Chapter 8 Software testing 30
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.

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Partition testing

Chapter 8 Software testing 32

Equivalence partitioning

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Equivalence partitions

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Testing guidelines (sequences)

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 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.

Chapter 8 Software testing 36

Key points

 Testing can only show the presence of errors in a

program. It cannot demonstrate that there are no
remaining faults.
 Development testing is the responsibility of the software
development team. A separate team should be
responsible for testing a system before it is released to
customers.
 Development testing includes unit testing, in which you
test individual objects and methods component testing
in which you test related groups of objects and system
testing, in which you test partial or complete systems.

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Chapter 8 – Software Testing

Lecture 2

Chapter 8 Software testing 38

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.
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Interface testing

Chapter 8 Software testing 40

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 8 Software testing 41

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 8 Software testing 42

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.

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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.

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System and component testing

 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.
 In some companies, system testing may involve a separate
testing team with no involvement from designers and
programmers.

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Use-case testing

 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

documents the components and interactions that are
being tested.

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Collect weather data sequence chart

Chapter 8 Software testing 47

Testing policies

 Exhaustive system testing is impossible so testing

policies which define the required system test coverage
may be developed.

 Examples of testing policies:

 All system functions that are accessed through menus should be
tested.
 Combinations of functions (e.g. text formatting) that are
accessed through the same menu must be tested.
 Where user input is provided, all functions must be tested with
both correct and incorrect input.

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Test-driven development (TDD)

 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 8 Software testing 50

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 8 Software testing 51
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.
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Regression testing

 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 change is

committed.

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 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.

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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).

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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.

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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.
 Set up a patient record in which allergies to two or more drugs are recorded.
Prescribe both of these drugs separately and check that the correct warning
for each drug is issued.
 Prescribe two drugs that the patient is allergic to. Check that two warnings
are correctly issued.
 Prescribe a drug that issues a warning and overrule that warning. Check
that the system requires the user to provide information explaining why the
warning was overruled.

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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.
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A usage scenario for the MHC-PMS
Kate is a nurse who specializes in mental health care. One of her responsibilities
is to visit patients at home to check that their treatment is effective and that they
are not suffering from medication side -effects.
On a day for home visits, Kate logs into the MHC-PMS and uses it to print her
schedule of home visits for that day, along with summary information about the
patients to be visited. She requests that the records for these patients be
downloaded to her laptop. She is prompted for her key phrase to encrypt the
records on the laptop.
One of the patients that she visits is Jim, who is being treated with medication for
depression. Jim feels that the medication is helping him but believes that it has the
side -effect of keeping him awake at night. Kate looks up Jim’s record and is
prompted for her key phrase to decrypt the record. She checks the drug
prescribed and queries its side effects. Sleeplessness is a known side effect so
she notes the problem in Jim’s record and suggests that he visits the clinic to have
his medication changed. He agrees so Kate enters a prompt to call him when she
gets back to the clinic to make an appointment with a physician. She ends the
consultation and the system re-encrypts Jim’s record.
After, finishing her consultations, Kate returns to the clinic and uploads the records
of patients visited to the database. The system generates a call list for Kate of
those patients who she has to contact for follow-up information and make clinic
appointments. Chapter 8 Software testing 59
Performance testing

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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 8 Software testing 61

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. Primarily for custom systems.

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The acceptance testing process

Chapter 8 Software testing 63

Stages in the acceptance testing process

 Define acceptance criteria

 Plan acceptance testing
 Derive acceptance tests
 Run acceptance tests
 Negotiate test results
 Reject/accept system

Chapter 8 Software testing 64

Agile methods and acceptance testing

 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.
 There is no separate acceptance testing process.
 Main problem here is whether or not the embedded user
is ‘typical’ and can represent the interests of all system
stakeholders.

Chapter 8 Software testing 65

Key points

 When testing software, you should try to ‘break’ the software by

using experience and guidelines to choose types of test case that
have been effective in discovering defects in other systems.
 Wherever possible, you should write automated tests. The tests are
embedded in a program that can be run every time a change is
made to a system.
 Test-first development is an approach to development where tests
are written before the code to be tested.
 Scenario testing involves inventing a typical usage scenario and
using this to derive test cases.
 Acceptance testing is a user testing process where the aim is to
decide if the software is good enough to be deployed and used in its
operational environment.
Chapter 8 Software testing 66