lOMoARcPSD|32128595

SASE module 5

Bachelor of Computer Applications (Mahatma Gandhi University)

Scan to open on Studocu

Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)
 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

1
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Module 5
Software Testing

What is testing
Software testing is a process, to evaluate the functionality of a software
application with an intent to find whether the developed software met the
specified requirements or not and to identify the defects to ensure that the
product is defect-free in order to produce a quality product.
Definition

According to ANSI/IEEE 1059 standard – A process of analyzing a software

item to detect the differences between existing and required conditions
(i.e., defects) and to evaluate the features of the software item.

Difference between Bug, Defect, Error, Fault & Failure

Bug

In software testing, a bug is the informal name of defects, which means that
software or application is not working as per the requirement.

Defect

When the application is not working as per the requirement is knows

as defects. It is specified as the aberration from the actual and expected
result of the application or software.

In other words, we can say that the bug announced by the programmer and
inside the code is called a Defect.

Error

The Problem in code leads to errors, which means that a mistake can occur
due to the developer's coding error as the developer misunderstood the
requirement or the requirement was not defined correctly.
The developers use the term error.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

2
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

fault

A fault may happen in a program because of the following reasons:

o Lack of resources
o An invalid step
o Inappropriate data definition

Failure

we can say that if an end-user detects an issue in the product, then that
particular issue is called a failure.

What is Test case?

A test case is a document, which has a set of test data, preconditions,
expected results and post conditions. It is used to test a particular
software or component of software against its requirements.
The test case is defined as a group of conditions under which a tester
determines whether a software application is working as per the
customer's requirements or not
Test suite
Test suite is a container that has a set of tests which helps testers in
executing and reporting the test execution status. It can take any of the
three states namely Active, Inprogress and completed.
A Test case can be added to multiple test suites and test plans. After
creating a test plan, test suites are created which in turn can have any
number of tests.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

3
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Test suite diagram

Verification and validation in software testing

Verification and Validation is the process of investigating that a software
system satisfies specifications and standards and it fulfills the required
purpose. Barry Boehm described verification and validation as the
following:

Verification: Are we building the product right?

Validation: Are we building the right product?

Verification:
Verification is the process of checking that a software achieves its goal
without any bugs. It is the process to ensure whether the product that is
developed is right or not. It verifies whether the developed product fulfills
the requirements that we have. Verification is Static Testing.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

4
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Activities involved in verification:

1. Inspections
2. Reviews
3. Walkthroughs
4. Desk-checking

Validation:

Validation is the process of checking whether the software product is up

to the mark or in other words product has high level requirements. It is
the process of checking the validation of product i.e. it checks what we
are developing is the right product. it is validation of actual and expected
product.
Validation is the Dynamic Testing.
Activities involved in validation:
1. Black box testing
2. White box testing
3. Unit testing
4. Integration testing

Difference between verification and validation

Verification Validation

It includes checking documents, It includes testing and validating

design, codes and programs. the actual product.

Verification is the static testing. Validation is the dynamic testing.

It does not include the execution of It includes the execution of the

the code. code.

Methods used in verification are Methods used in validation are

reviews, walkthroughs, inspections Black Box Testing, White Box
and desk-checking. Testing and non-functional testing.

It checks whether the software

It checks whether the software meets the requirements and
conforms to specifications or not. expectations of a customer or not.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

5
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Verification Validation

It can only find the bugs that could

It can find the bugs in the early not be found by the verification
stage of the development. process.

The goal of verification is

application and software The goal of validation is an actual
architecture and specification. product.

Quality assurance team does Validation is executed on software

verification. code with the help of testing team.

It comes before validation. It comes after verification.

It consists of checking of
documents/files and is performed It consists of execution of program
by human. and is performed by computer.

Acceptance testing
Acceptance testing is formal testing based on user requirements and
function processing. It determines whether the software is conforming
specified requirements and user requirements or not. It is conducted as a
kind of Black Box testing where the number of required users involved
testing the acceptance level of the system. It is the fourth and last level of
software testing.

Acceptance Testing is a method of software testing where a system is

tested for acceptability. The major aim of this test is to evaluate the
compliance of the system with the business requirements and assess
whether it is acceptable for delivery or not.

Alpha Testing

Alpha testing is a type of acceptance testing, which is performed to

identify all possible bugs/issues before releasing the product to the end-
user. Alpha testing implies a meeting with a software vendor and client to
ensure that the developers appropriately meet the client's requirements in
terms of the performance, functionality, and durability of the software.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

6
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Alpha testing needs lab environment, and usually, the testers are an
internal employee of the organization. This testing is called alpha because it
is done early on, near the end of the software development, but before beta
testing.

Beta Testing

Beta Testing is a type of acceptance testing; it is the final test before

shipping a product to the customers. Beta testing of a product is
implemented by "real users "of the software application in a "real
environment."

In this phase of testing, the software is released to a limited number of

end-users of the product to obtain feedback on the product quality. It
allows the real customers an opportunity to provide inputs into the design,
functionality, and usability of the product. These inputs are essential for the
success of the product.

Beta testing reduces product failure risks and increases the quality of the
product through customer validation. Direct feedback from customers is a
significant advantage of beta testing.

Difference between alpha testing and beta testing

Alpha Testing Beta Testing

Alpha testing involves both

the white box and black Beta testing commonly uses black box
box testing. testing.

Alpha testing is performed

by testers who are usually
internal employees of the Beta testing is performed by clients
organization. who are not part of the organization.

Alpha testing is performed Beta testing is performed at end-user

at developer’s site. of the product.

Reliability and security

testing are not checked in Reliability, security and robustness
alpha testing. are checked during beta testing.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

7
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Alpha Testing Beta Testing

Beta testing also concentrates on the

Alpha testing ensures the quality of the product but collects
quality of the product users input on the product and
before forwarding to beta ensures that the product is ready for
testing. real time users.

Alpha testing requires a Beta testing doesn’t require a testing

testing environment or a lab. environment or lab.

Functional Testing:
It is a type of software testing which is used to verify the functionality of
the software application, whether the function is working according to the
requirement specification. In functional testing, each function tested by
giving the value, determining the output, and verifying the actual output
with the expected value. Functional testing performed as black-box testing
which is presented to confirm that the functionality of an application or
system behaves as we are expecting. It is done to verify the functionality of
the application.

Functional testing also called as black-box testing, because it focuses on

application specification rather than actual code. Black box testing is a type
of software testing in which the functionality of the software is not known.
The testing is done without the internal knowledge of the products.

Techniques to design test cases

1. Boundary value analysis

2. Equivalence class testing

3. Decision table based testing

Boundary value analysis

Boundary value analysis is one of the widely used case design technique for
black box testing. It is used to test boundary values because the input
values near the boundary have higher chances of error.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

8
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Boundary values are those that contain the upper and lower limit of a
variable. Assume that, age is a variable of any function, and its minimum
value is 18 and the maximum value is 30, both 18 and 30 will be considered
as boundary values. Boundary Value Analysis is also called range
checking.

There is 18 and 30 are the boundary values that's why tester pays more
attention to these values, but this doesn't mean that the middle values like
19, 20, 21, 27, 29 are ignored. Test cases are developed for each and every
value of the range.

Equivalence class testing

Equivalence Partitioning or Equivalence Class Partitioning is type of

black box testing technique which can be applied to all levels of software
testing like unit, integration, system, etc. In this technique, input data units
are divided into equivalent partitions that can be used to derive test cases
which reduce time required for testing because of small number of test
cases.

• It divides the input data of software into different equivalence data

classes.
• You can apply this technique, where there is a range in the input field.

Example 1: Equivalence and Boundary Value

• Let's consider the behaviour of Order Pizza Text Box Below

• Pizza values 1 to 10 are considered valid. A success message is
shown.
• While value 11 to 99 are considered invalid for order and an error
message will appear, "Only 10 Pizza can be ordered"

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

9
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Here is the test condition

1. Any Number greater than 10 entered in the Order Pizza field(let say
11) is considered invalid.
2. Any Number less than 1 that is 0 or below, then it is considered
invalid.
3. Numbers 1 to 10 are considered valid
4. Any 3 Digit Number say -100 is invalid.

We cannot test all the possible values because if done, the number of test
cases will be more than 100. To address this problem, we use equivalence
partitioning hypothesis where we divide the possible values of tickets into
groups or sets as shown below where the system behavior can be
considered the same.

The divided sets are called Equivalence Partitions or Equivalence Classes.

Then we pick only one value from each partition for testing. The hypothesis
behind this technique is that if one condition/value in a partition passes
all others will also pass. Likewise, if one condition in a partition fails,
all other conditions in that partition will fail.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

10
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Decision table based testing

Decision table is a brief visual representation for specifying which
actions to perform depending on given conditions. The information
represented in decision tables can also be represented as decision trees or
in a programming language using if-then-else and switch-case statements.

A decision table is a good way to settle with different combination inputs

with their corresponding outputs and also called cause-effect table.
Reason to call cause-effect table is a related logical diagramming
technique called cause-effect graphing that is basically used to obtain the
decision table.
It is another popular black box testing. A decision table has following four
portions
(a) Condition stub
(b) Action stub
(c) Condition Entry
(d) Action Entries

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

11
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Structure of decision table: Please refer following decision table

Following steps are used to identify the test cases with decision
tables:
Step – 1: For a module, identify input conditions (causes) and action
(effect).
Step – 2: Develop a cause-effect graph.
Step – 3: Transform this cause-effect graph to a decision table.
Step – 4: Convert decision table rules to test cases.
Each column of the decision table represents a test case.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

12
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Cause Effect Graphing

Cause Effect Graphing based technique is a technique in which a graph
is used to represent the situations of combinations of input conditions.
The graph is then converted to a decision table to obtain the test cases.
Cause-effect graphing technique is used because boundary value analysis
and equivalence class partitioning methods do not consider the
combinations of input conditions. But since there may be some critical
behaviour to be tested when some combinations of input conditions are
considered, that is why cause-effect graphing technique is used.

Steps used in deriving test cases using this technique are:

1. Division of specification:
Since it is difficult to work with cause-effect graphs of large
specifications as they are complex, the specifications are divided into
small workable pieces and then converted into cause-effect graphs
separately.
2. Identification of cause and effects:
This involves identifying the causes(distinct input conditions) and
effects(output conditions) in the specification.
3. Transforming the specifications into a cause-effect graph:
The causes and effects are linked together using Boolean expressions
to obtain a cause-effect graph. Constraints are also added between
causes and effects if possible.
4. Conversion into decision table:
The cause-effect graph is then converted into a limited entry decision
table. If you’re not aware of the concept of decision tables
5. Deriving test cases:
Each column of the decision-table is converted into a test case.

Basic Notations used in Cause-effect graph:

Here c represents cause and e represents effect.

The following notations are always used between a cause and an effect:
1. Identity Function: if c is 1, then e is 1. Else e is 0.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

13
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

2. NOT Function: if c is 1, then e is 0. Else e is 1.

3. OR Function: if c1 or c2 or c3 is 1, then e is 1. Else e is 0.

4. AND Function: if both

c1 and c2 and c3 is 1, then
e is 1. Else e is 0.

Structural Testing (White box Testing)

Structural testing is a type of software testing which uses the internal
design of the software for testing or in other words the software testing
which is performed by the team which knows the development phase of
the software, is known as structural testing.
Structural testing is basically related to the internal design and
implementation of the software i.e. it involves the development team
members in the testing team. It basically tests different aspects of the

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

14
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

software according to its types. Structural testing is just the opposite of

behavioral testing.

Structural testing is also known as white-box testing, glass box testing,

and clear-box testing. Developers mostly implement it to identify the issue
and fix them quickly.

Types of Structural Testing:

There are 4 types of Structural Testing:

Mutation Testing

Mutation Testing is a type of software testing in which certain statements

of the source code are changed/mutated to check if the test cases are able
to find errors in source code. The goal of Mutation Testing is ensuring the
quality of test cases in terms of robustness that it should fail the mutated
source code.

The changes made in the mutant program should be kept extremely small
that it does not affect the overall objective of the program. Mutation Testing
is also called Fault-based testing strategy as it involves creating a fault in
the program and it is a type of White Box Testing

Control flow testing

Control flow testing is a testing technique that comes under white box
testing. The aim of this technique is to determine the execution order of
statements or instructions of the program through a control structure. The
control structure of a program is used to develop a test case for the

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

15
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

program. In this technique, a particular part of a large program is selected

by the tester to set the testing path

Control Flow Graph is formed from the node, edge, decision node, junction
node to specify all possible execution path.

Notations used for Control Flow Graph

1. Node
2. Edge
3. Decision Node
4. Junction node

Node represents the sequence of procedures which procedure is next to

come so on
Edge in control flow graph is used to link the direction of nodes.
Decision node in the control flow graph is used to decide next node of
procedure as per the value.
Junction node in control flow graph is the point where at least three links
meet.

Slice based testing

It was originally proposed by Weiser and Gallagher for the software

maintenance. It is useful for software debugging, software maintenance,
program understanding and quantification of functional cohesion. It
divides the program into different slices and tests that slice which can
majorly affect the entire software.

Data flow testing

Data Flow Testing is a type of structural testing. It is a method that is
used to find the test paths of a program according to the locations of
definitions and uses of variables in the program. It has nothing to do with
data flow diagrams.

It is concerned with:
• Statements where variables receive values,
• Statements where these values are used or referenced.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

16
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Data Flow Testing uses the control flow graph to find the situations that
can interrupt the flow of the program. Anomalies in the flow of the data
are detected at the time of associations between values and variables.
These anomalies are:
• A variable is defined but not used or referenced,
• A variable is used but never defined,
• A variable is defined twice before it is used

Advantages of Data Flow Testing:

Data Flow Testing is used to find the following issues-

• To find a variable that is used but never defined,
• To find a variable that is defined but never used,
• To find a variable that is defined multiple times before it is use,
• De-allocating a variable before it is used.

Disadvantages of Data Flow Testing

• Time consuming and costly process

• Requires knowledge of programming languages

Path testing
Path Testing is a method that is used to design the test cases. In path
testing method, the control flow graph of a program is designed to find a
set of linearly independent paths of execution. In this method Cyclomatic
Complexity is used to determine the number of linearly independent
paths and then test cases are generated for each path.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

17
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Control Flow Graph:

It is also called flow graph. We should draw the corresponding control

flow graph of the program in which all the executable paths are to be
discovered. Notations are

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

18
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

19
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Example

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

20
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Calculating Cyclomatic Complexity

After the generation of the control flow graph, calculate the cyclomatic
complexity of the program using the following formula.
McCabe's Cyclomatic Complexity = E - N + 2P

Where,
E = Number of edges in control flow graph
N = Number of vertices in control floe graph
P = number of connected components.

Path Testing Techniques:

• Control Flow Graph:
The program is converted into control flow graph by representing the
code into nodes and edges.
• Decision to Decision path:
The control flow graph can be broken into various Decision to Decision
paths and then collapsed into individual nodes.
• Independent paths:
Independent path is a path through a Decision to Decision path graph
which cannot be reproduced from other paths by other methods.

Decision to Decision path( DD Path Graph)

Second step in path testing is to draw a dd graph from the flow graph.The
nodes of the flow graph which are in sequences are combined into a single
node in DD graph

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

21
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science
1 1,2

2
3

6 4,5
6 4

5 7,8
7

DD Path graph
8

Flow graph

Independent Path
The independent path traces the edges in the flow graph that are not
traversed before the path is defined.

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

22
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

As in the above flow graph, we can observe that the starting or the first
node or procedural statement is node 1 and the termination of the flow
graph is node 11. So, all the independent path that can be traced in the flow
graph should start from 1 and end to 11:

Path 1: 1-11

Path 2: 1-2-3-4-5-10-1-11

Path 3: 1-2-3-6-8-9-10-1-11

Path 4: 1-2-3-6-7-9-10-1-11

Path 1, 2, 3 & 4 are the independent paths as each path introduces a new
edge i.e. all the paths are unique.

Graph Matrix
A graph matrix is a square matrix whose size represents the number of
nodes in the control flow graph. Each row and column in the matrix
identifies a node and the entries in the matrix represent the edges or links
between these nodes. Conventionally, nodes are denoted by digits and
edges are denoted by letters.
Let’s take an example.

Let’s convert this control flow graph into a graph matrix. Since the graph
has 4 nodes, so the graph matrix would have a dimension of 4 X 4. Matrix
entries will be filled as follows:

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

23
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

Levels of Software Testing

Software Testing is an activity performed to identify errors so that errors
can be removed to obtain a product with greater quality. To assure and
maintain the quality of software and to represents the ultimate review of
specification, design, and coding, Software testing is required. There are
different levels of testing :

Unit Testing
Unit Testing is a software testing technique by means of which individual
units of software i.e. group of computer program modules, usage
procedures and operating procedures are tested to determine whether
they are suitable for use or not. It is a testing method using which every
independent modules are tested to determine if there are any issue by the
developer himself.

Unit Testing is defined as a type of software testing where individual

components of a software are tested.An individual component may be
either an individual function or a procedure. Unit Testing is typically
performed by the developer.
Integration Testing
In this testing, two or more modules which are unit tested are integrated
to test i.e. technique interacting components and are then verified if these
integrated modules work as per the expectation or not and interface
errors are also detected.
The purpose of the integration testing is to expose faults in the interaction
between integrated units. Once all the modules have been unit tested,
integration testing is performed.
System Testing
In system testing, complete and integrated Software’s are tested i.e. all the
system elements forming the system is tested as a whole to meet the
requirements of the system.
System Testing is a type of software testing that is performed on a
complete integrated system to evaluate the compliance of the system with
the corresponding requirements.
In system testing, integration testing passed components are taken as
input. The goal of integration testing is to detect any irregularity between

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)

 lOMoARcPSD|32128595

24
St.Antony’s College,Pervanthanam Dept.of Computer Science

the units that are integrated together. System testing detects defects
within both the integrated units and the whole system
System Testing is carried out on the whole system in the context of either
system requirement specifications or functional requirement
specifications or in the context of both. System testing tests the design and
behavior of the system and also the expectations of the customer.

Validation Testing
The process of evaluating software during the development process or at
the end of the development process to determine whether it satisfies
specified business requirements.
Validation Testing ensures that the product actually meets the client's
needs. It can also be defined as to demonstrate that the product fulfills its
intended use when deployed on appropriate environment.
It answers to the question, Are we building the right product?

BCA SE-Module 5

Downloaded by Nebin Reji (nebinreji2004@gmail.com)