Software Testing

By Mr. Tarus

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 Objectives

 Introduce software testing and the software testing processes

 Understand the stages of testing from testing, during
development to acceptance testing by system customers;
 Understand test-first development, where you design tests
before writing code and run these tests automatically;
 Know the important differences between component, system,
and release testing and be aware of user testing processes
and techniques.

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Topics covered

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

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 S/W / 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
process, which also includes static validation techniques.

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 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.
 NB: This goal leads to validation testing
 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.
 NB: This goal leads to defect testing. 5
 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 behaviour 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

 V & V processes are concerned with checking that software

being developed meets its specification and delivers the
functionality expected by the people paying for the software.
These checking processes start as soon as requirements
become available and continue through all stages of the
development process.
 Verification:
"Are we building the product right”.
 The software should conform to its specification (functional and
non-functional).
 Validation:
"Are we building the right product”.
 The software should do what the user really requires. 9
 V & V confidence

 Aim of V & V is to establish confidence that the system is ‘fit for

purpose’. (system must be good enough for its intended use.)
 Level of confidence depends on system’s purpose, user
expectations and marketing environment
 Software purpose
• The level of confidence depends on how critical the
software is to an organisation.
 User expectations
• Users may have low expectations of certain kinds of s/w.
 Marketing environment
• Getting a product to market early may be more important
than finding defects in the program.
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 Inspections and testing

 Software inspections Concerned with analysis of

the static system representation to discover problems (static
verification)
 Analyze and check the system requirements, design
models, the program source code, and even proposed
system tests.

 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

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 Software inspections

 These involve people examining the source representation

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

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 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. A single inspection session
can discover many errors in a system.
 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

 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.

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A model of the software testing process

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 Stages of testing in Commercial S/W

 Development testing; Where the system is tested during

development to discover bugs and defects.
(System designers and programmers are involved in this testing
process.)
 Release testing; Where a separate testing team test a
complete version of the system before it is released to users.
(Aim is to check that the system meets the requirements of
system stakeholders)
 User testing; Where users or potential users of a system test
the system in their own environment.
 E.g., acceptance testing: type of user testing where the
customer formally tests a system to decide if it should be
accepted from the supplier or if further development is required.
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 Conclusion

 Testing process usually involves a mixture of manual and

automated testing.
 Manual testing; a tester runs the program with some test data
and compares the results to their expectations. (They note and
report discrepancies to the program developers).
 Automated testing; the tests are encoded in a program that is
run each time the system under development is to be tested.
 Usually faster than manual testing, especially when it involves
regression testing (re-running previous tests to check that
changes to the program have not introduced new bugs).
Development testing

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 Development testing

 Includes all testing activities that are carried out by the team
developing the system. It includes: -
 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

 Unit testing is the process of testing individual components in

isolation.
 It is a defect testing process.(Aim is to discover bugs)
 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.

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 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.

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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.

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 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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 Choosing unit test cases

 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.
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 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

 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.

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Equivalence partitioning

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Equivalence partitions

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 Testing guidelines (sequences)

 Test software with sequences which have only a single value.

 Use sequences of different sizes in different tests.
 Derive tests so that the first, middle and last elements of the
sequence are accessed.
 Test with sequences of zero length.

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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.

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 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

 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
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Interface testing

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 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.

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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 behaviour 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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 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

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 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.
 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

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 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.
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 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 45
 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

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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.
 Mentcare system 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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 A usage scenario for the Mentcare system

George is a nurse who specializes in mental healthcare. One of his 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, George logs into the Mentcare system and uses it to print his schedule of
home visits for that day, along with summary information about the patients to be visited. He
requests that the records for these patients be downloaded to his laptop. He is prompted for his key
phrase to encrypt the records on the laptop.
One of the patients that he 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. George looks up Jim’s record and is prompted for his key phrase to decrypt the record. He
checks the drug prescribed and queries its side effects. Sleeplessness is a known side effect so he
notes the problem in Jim’s record and suggests that he visits the clinic to have his medication
changed. Jim agrees so George enters a prompt to call him when he gets back to the clinic to make
an appointment with a physician. George ends the consultation and the system re-encrypts Jim’s
record.
After, finishing his consultations, George returns to the clinic and uploads the records of patients
visited to the database. The system generates a call list for George of those patients who He has to
contact for follow-up information and make clinic appointments.

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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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 Performance testing

 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 behaviour.

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User 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.

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 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. 57
The acceptance testing process

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Stages in the acceptance testing process

 Define acceptance criteria

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

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 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.

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 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.
 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. 61
 Key points

 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.

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