Software testing techniques Software testing techniques Testing based on specifications Presentation on the seminar Kaunas University of Technology

Testing based on specifications The specification based tester checks the product's conformance with every statement in one or more reference documents. The documents might be formal specifications, user manuals, advertisements.

Reviewing a specification We can approach a spec from many different angles: What is it saying about the product? What claims does it make? Do you have enough information to understand the claims? Is some information missing? Are the claims accurate? Would all stakeholders understand the claims in the same way? Should the specified product be changed? Will the specified product be testable?

Features of testing based on specifications Refers to the process of testing a program based on what its specification says its behavior should be. In particular, we can develop test cases based on the specification of the program's behavior, without seeing an implementation of the program. We can develop test cases before the program even exists!

Testing based on specifications Quality of the system is compliance with the requirements specification. This course does not cover automated extraction of test ideas from specifications, nor the use of program comprehension tools. Instead, we assume the existence of a natural language specification that is analyzed by a human.

The human does such tasks as: identifying a set of reference documents; developing test ideas based on ambiguities or contradictions in the reference documents; developing lists of items or claims to be tested based on assertions in the reference document, and then associating test ideas with each; creating traceability matrices that list items or assertions to test, and test cases that tie to those.

,,Black box” testing A testing method when a program is viewed as a,,black box” disregarding it’s structure: only the input and output is know, not the actual code;,,Black box” testing is a method of software testing that tests the functionality of an application. Test cases are based on requirements specifications;

,,Black box” testing The plans for testing can be made in the early stages of the software development;,,Black box” testing usually performed by a separate person outside the development process, rather than the developer. This method of test can be applied to all levels of software testing: unit, integration, functional, system and acceptance.

,,Black Box” testing techniques: 1.Decision table testing 2.All-pairs testing 3.State transition table 4.Equivalence partitioning 5.Boundary value analysis

,,Black Box” testing techniques 1.Decision table testing - is the method where test cases are designed to execute the combinations of inputs. 2.All-pairs or pairwise testing - is a combinatorial software testing method that, for each pair of input parameters to a system, tests all possible discrete combinations of those parameters. 3.State transition table - is a systematic method of exploring or analyzing the behavior of an object that exhibits history dependent behavior.

,,Black Box” testing techniques 4.Equivalence partitioning - is the method, witch input data ​ divides into data classes and test cases are obtained from these classes. 5.Boundary value analysis - is the method that focuses on the boundary input values ​​.

,,Black box” testing scheme I O System Inputs Outputs Input, causing abnormal behavior. Outputs that indicate the presence of defects.

Examples illustrate the use of specification based tests The unifying feature of this work is that we start with the reference document and base our tests and testing strategy on what we read in the documents. Examples: MS Paint’s Undo function OpenOffice’s Zoom in function

MS Paint In this example we do Specification Based Testing by picking a piece of MS Paint’s specifications (the user manual) and making sure that the application conforms to it. We are going to focus on the specification of the Undo function. The specifications claim that the application can undo up to 3 changes, but that is not always true. If the user is editing graphics, there are cases when it can undo only 2 changes. If the user is editing text in a text box, it can undo only 1 change (the last letter).

OpenOffice In this example we perform Specification Based Testing by making sure that the specifications for the Zoom In function in OpenOffice are satisfied. OpenOffice is an open source multi-platform office suite. Its presentation component has a function Zoom In, which according to specifications, doubles the size of the current window. In reality, it requires the user to select the part that will be enlarged.

Strengths and blind spots Strengths Critical defense against warranty claims, fraud charges, loss of credibility with customers. Reduces support costs, customer complaints by ensuring that no false or misleading representations are made to customers. Blind spots Any issues not in the specification or treated badly in the specification.

Questions 1.Witch documents might be used for specifications based testing? 2.What are the features of testing based on specifications? 3.Witch level of software testing uses,,black box” testing? 4.What the techniques are for,,black box” testing?

Thank you for your attention!