Software Testing Dictionary
The following definitions are taken from accepted and identified sources.
Ad Hoc Testing: Testing carried out using no recognised test case design technique. [BCS]
Assertion Testing: (NBS) A dynamic analysis technique which inserts assertions about the relationship between program variables into the program code. The truth of the assertions is determined as the program executes.
Benchmarks: Programs that provide performance comparison for software, hardware, and systems.
Benchmarking: is specific type of performance test with the purpose of determining performance baselines for comparison.
Big-bang testing: Integration testing where no incremental testing takes place prior to all the system's components being combined to form the system
Breadth test: - A test suite that exercises the full scope of a system from a top-down perspective, but does not test any aspect in detail
Code Inspection: A manual [formal] testing [error detection] technique where the programmer reads source code, statement by statement, to a group who ask questions analyzing the program logic, analyzing the code with respect to a checklist of historically common programming errors, and analyzing its compliance with coding standards. Contrast with code audit, code review, code walkthrough. This technique can also be applied to other software and configuration items. Syn: Fagan Inspection
Code Walkthrough: A manual testing [error detection] technique where program [source code] logic [structure] is traced manually [mentally] by a group with a small set of test cases, while the state of program variables is manually monitored, to analyze the programmer's logic and assumptions. Contrast with code audit, code inspection, code review.
Coexistence Testing: Coexistence isn’t enough. It also depends on load order, how virtual space is mapped at the moment, hardware and software configurations, and the history of what took place hours or days before. It’s probably an exponentially hard problem rather than a square-law problem.
Compatibility bug: A revision to the framework breaks a previously working feature: a new feature is inconsistent with an old feature, or a new feature breaks an unchanged application rebuilt with the new framework code.
Compatibility Testing. The process of determining the ability of two or more systems to exchange information. In a situation where the developed software replaces an already working program, an investigation should be conducted to assess possible comparability problems between the new software and other programs or systems.
Composability testing:Testing the ability of the interface to let users do more complex tasks by combining different sequences of simpler, easy-to-learn tasks.
Condition Coverage. A test coverage criteria requiring enough test cases such that each condition in a decision takes on all possible outcomes at least once, and each point of entry to a program or subroutine is invoked at least once. Contrast with branch coverage, decision coverage, multiple condition coverage, path coverage, statement coverage
Conformance directed testing. Testing that seeks to establish conformance to requirements or specification.
CRUD Testing. Build CRUD matrix and test all object creation, reads, updates, and deletion.
Data flow testing Testing in which test cases are designed based on variable usage within the code
Database testing. Check the integrity of database field values.
Defect Age. A measurement that describes the period of time from the introduction of a defect until its discovery. .
Defect Discovery Rate.A metric describing the number of defects discovered over a specified period of time, usually displayed in graphical form.
Defect Removal Efficiency (DRE).A measure of the number of defects discovered in an activity versus the number that could have been found. Often used as a measure of test effectiveness.
Defect Seeding.The process of intentionally adding known defects to those already in a computer program for the purpose of monitoring the rate of detection and removal, and estimating the number of defects still remaining. Also called Error Seeding.
Defect Masked.An existing defect that hasn't yet caused a failure because another defect has prevented that part of the code from being executed.
Depth test. A test case, that exercises some part of a system to a significant level of detail.
Decision Coverage. A test coverage criteria requiring enough test cases such that each decision has a true and false result at least once, and that each statement is executed at least once. Syn: branch coverage. Contrast with condition coverage, multiple condition coverage, path coverage, statement coverage
Dirty testing Negative testing.
Equivalence Partitioning: An approach where classes of inputs are categorized for product or function validation. This usually does not include combinations of input, but rather a single state value based by class. For example, with a given function there may be several classes of input that may be used for positive testing. If function expects an integer and receives an integer as input, this would be considered as positive test assertion. On the other hand, if a character or any other input class other than integer is provided, this would be considered a negative test assertion or condition.
Error Guessing: Another common approach to black-box validation. Black-box testing is when everything else other than the source code may be used for testing. This is the most common approach to testing. Error guessing is when random inputs or conditions are used for testing. Random in this case includes a value either produced by a computerized random number generator, or an ad hoc value or test conditions provided by engineer.
Error guessing. A test case design technique where the experience of the tester is used to postulate what faults exist, and to design tests specially to expose them
Error seeding. The purposeful introduction of faults into a program to test effectiveness of a test suite or other quality assurance program.
Exception Testing. Identify error messages and exception handling processes an conditions that trigger them.
Exhaustive Testing.(NBS) Executing the program with all possible combinations of values for program variables. Feasible only for small, simple programs.
Exploratory Testing: An interactive process of concurrent product exploration, test design, and test execution. The heart of exploratory testing can be stated simply: The outcome of this test influences the design of the next test.
Formal Testing. (IEEE) Testing conducted in accordance with test plans and procedures that have been reviewed and approved by a customer, user, or designated level of management. Antonym: informal testing.
Free Form Testing. Ad hoc or brainstorming using intuition to define test cases.
Functional Decomposition Approach. An automation method in which the test cases are reduced to fundamental tasks, navigation, functional tests, data verification, and return navigation; also known as Framework Driven Approach.
Gray box testing Examines the activity of back-end components during test case execution. Two types of problems that can be encountered during gray-box testing are:
1) A component encounters a failure of some kind, causing the operation to be aborted. The user interface will typically indicate that an error has occurred.
2) The test executes in full, but the content of the results is incorrect. Somewhere in the system, a component processed data incorrectly, causing the error in the results.
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Internationalization testing (I18N) - testing related to handling foreign text and data within the program. This would include sorting, importing and exporting test and data, correct handling of currency and date and time formats, string parsing, upper and lower case handling and so forth.
Interoperability Testing which measures the ability of your software to communicate across the network on multiple machines from multiple vendors each of whom may have interpreted a design specification critical to your success differently.
Inter-operability Testing. True inter-operability testing concerns testing for unforeseen interactions with other packages with which your software has no direct connection. In some quarters, inter-operability testing labor equals all other testing combined. This is the kind of testing that I say shouldnÂ’t be done because it canÂ’t be done.
Lateral testing. A test design technique based on lateral thinking principals, to identify faults.
Load testing Testing an application under heavy loads, such as testing of a web site under a range of loads to determine at what point the system's response time degrades or fails.
Load tress test. A test is design to determine how heavy a, load the application can handle.
Load-stability test. Test design to determine whether a Web application will remain serviceable over extended time span.
Load Ìsolation test. The workload for this type of test is designed to contain only the subset of test cases that caused the problem in previous testing.
Monkey Testing.(smart monkey testing) Input are generated from probability distributions that reflect actual expected usage statistics -- e.g., from user profiles. There are different levels of IQ in smart monkey testing. In the simplest, each input is considered independent of the other inputs. That is, a given test requires an input vector with five components. In low IQ testing, these would be generated independently. In high IQ monkey testing, the correlation (e.g., the covariance) between these input distribution is taken into account. In all branches of smart monkey testing, the input is considered as a single event.
Maximum Simultaneous Connection testing. This is a test performed to determine the number of connections which the firewall or Web server is capable of handling.
Mutation testing. A testing strategy where small variations to a program are inserted (a mutant), followed by execution of an existing test suite. If the test suite detects the mutant, the mutant is §Ҧamp;#8992; retired.Â§Ò¡í¹€í¹¦ undetected, the test suite must be revised
Multiple Condition Coverage. A test coverage criteria which requires enough test cases such that all possible combinations of condition outcomes in each decision, and all points of entry, are invoked at least once.[G.Myers] Contrast with branch coverage, condition coverage, decision coverage, path coverage, statement coverage.
Orthogonal array testing: Mathematical technique to determine which variations of parameters need to be tested.
Oracle. Test Oracle: a mechanism to produce the predicted outcomes to compare with the actual outcomes of the software under test
Penetration testing The process of attacking a host from outside to ascertain remote security vulnerabilities.
Performance Testing. Testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specific performance requirements
Preventive Testing Building test cases based upon the requirements specification prior to the creation of the code, with the express purpose of validating the requirements
Prior Defect History Testing. Test cases are created or rerun for every defect found in prior tests of the system.
Our definition of Quality: Achieving the target (not conformance to requirements as used by many authors) & minimizing the variability of the system under test
Recovery testingTesting how well a system recovers from crashes, hardware failures, or other catastrophic problems.
Reengineering.The process of examining and altering an existing system to reconstitute it in a new form. May include reverse engineering (analyzing a system and producing a representation at a higher level of abstraction, such as design from code), restructuring (transforming a system from one representation to another at the same level of abstraction), recommendation (analyzing a system and producing user and support documentation), forward engineering (using software products derived from an existing system, together with new requirements, to produce a new system), and translation (transforming source code from one language to another or from one version of a language to another).
Reference testing. A way of deriving expected outcomes by manually validating a set of actual outcomes. A less rigorous alternative to predicting expected outcomes in advance of test execution.
Reliability testing. Verify the probability of failure free operation of a computer program in a specified environment for a specified time.
Reliability of an object is defined as the probability that it will not fail under specified conditions, over a period of time. The specified conditions are usually taken to be fixed, while the time is taken as an independent variable. Thus reliability is often written R(t) as a function of time t, the probability that the object will not fail within time t.
Any computer user would probably agree that most software is flawed, and the evidence for this is that it does fail. All software flaws are designed in -- the software does not break, rather it was always broken. But unless conditions are right to excite the flaw, it will go unnoticed -- the software will appear to work properly.
Range Testing. For each input identifies the range over which the system behavior should be the same. Risk management.An organized process to identify what can go wrong, to quantify and access associated risks, and to implement/control the appropriate approach for preventing or handling each risk identified.
Robust test. A test, that compares a small amount of information, so that unexpected side effects are less likely to affect whether the test passed or fails.
Scalability testing is a subtype of performance test where performance requirements for response time, throughput, and/or utilization are tested as load on the SUT is increased over time.
Sensitive test. A test, that compares a large amount of information, so that it is more likely to defect unexpected differences between the actual and expected outcomes of the test
Skim Testing A testing technique used to determine the fitness of a new build or release
Smoke test describes an initial set of tests that determine if a new version of application performs well enough for further testing
Specification-based test. A test, whose inputs are derived from a specification.
Spike testing. to test performance or recovery behavior when the system under test (SUT) is stressed with a sudden and sharp increase in load should be considered a type of load test
STEP (Systematic Test and Evaluation Process) Software Quality Engineering's copyrighted testing methodology.
State-based testing Testing with test cases developed by modeling the system under test as a state machine
State Transition Testing. Technique in which the states of a system are fist identified and then test cases are written to test the triggers to cause a transition from one condition to another state.
Static testing. Source code analysis. Analysis of source code to expose potential defects.
Statistical testing. A test case design technique in which a model is used of the statistical distribution of the input to construct representative test cases.
Stealth bug. A bug that removes information useful for its diagnosis and correction.
Storage test. Study how memory and space is used by the program, either in resident memory or on disk. If there are limits of these amounts, storage tests attempt to prove that the program will exceed them.
Stress / Load / Volume test. Tests that provide a high degree of activity, either using boundary conditions as inputs or multiple copies of a program executing in parallel as examples.
Structural Testing. (1)(IEEE) Testing that takes into account the internal mechanism [structure] of a system or component. Types include branch testing, path testing, statement testing. (2) Testing to insure each program statement is made to execute during testing and that each program statement performs its intended function. Contrast with functional testing. Syn: white-box testing, glass-box testing, logic driven testing.
Test conditions. The set of circumstances that a test invokes.
Test Coverage The degree to which a given test or set of tests addresses all specified test cases for a given system or component.
Test Criteria. Decision rules used to determine whether software item or software feature passes or fails a test.
Test data. The actual (set of) values used in the test or that are necessary to execute the test.
Test Documentation. (IEEE) Documentation describing plans for, or results of, the testing of a system or component, Types include test case specification, test incident report, test log, test plan, test procedure, test report.
Test Driver A software module or application used to invoke a test item and, often, provide test inputs (data), control and monitor execution. A test driver automates the execution of test procedures.
Test Harness A system of test drivers and other tools to support test execution (e.g., stubs, executable test cases, and test drivers). See: test driver.
Test Item. A software item which is the object of testing
Test Log A chronological record of all relevant details about the execution of a test
Test Plan.A high-level document that defines a testing project so that it can be properly measured and controlled. It defines the test strategy and organized elements of the test life cycle, including resource requirements, project schedule, and test requirements
Test Rig A flexible combination of hardware, software, data, and interconnectivity that can be configured by the Test Team to simulate a variety of different Live Environments on which an AUT can be delivered
Test strategy. Describes the general approach and objectives of the test activities.
Test Status. The assessment of the result of running tests on software.
Test Stub A dummy software component or object used (during development and testing) to simulate the behaviour of a real component. The stub typically provides test output.
Test Suites A test suite consists of multiple test cases (procedures and data) that are combined and often managed by a test harness.
Test Tree. A physical implementation of Test Suite.
Testability. Attributes of software that bear on the effort needed for validating the modified software
Testing. The execution of tests with the intent of providing that the system and application under test does or does not perform according to the requirements specification.
(TPI) Test Process Improvement A method for baselining testing processes and identifying process improvement opportunities, using a static model developed by Martin Pol and Tim Koomen.
Thread Testing A testing technique used to test the business functionality or business logic of the AUT in an end-to-end manner, in much the same way a User or an operator might interact with the system during its normal use
