Software testing

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 1

 Objectives

To discuss the distinctions between
validation testing and defect testing

To describe the principles of system and
component testing

To describe strategies for generating system
test cases

To understand the essential characteristics
of tool used for test automation

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 2

 The testing process

Component testing
• Testing of individual program components;
• Usually the responsibility of the component developer
(except sometimes for critical systems);
• Tests are derived from the developer’s experience.

System testing
• Testing of groups of components integrated to create a
system or sub-system;
• The responsibility of an independent testing team;
• Tests are based on a system specification.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 3

 Testing phases

Component System
testing testing

Software developer Independent testing team

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 4

 Defect testing

The goal of defect testing is to discover
defects in programs

A successful defect test is a test which
causes a program to behave in an
anomalous way

Tests show the presence not the absence of
defects

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 5

 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.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 6

 The software testing process

Test Test Test Test

cases data results repor ts

Design test Prepar e test Run pr ogram Compar e results

cases data with test da ta to test cases

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 7

 Testing policies

Only exhaustive testing can show a program is free
from defects. However, exhaustive testing is
impossible,

Testing policies define the approach to be used in
selecting system tests:
• All functions accessed through menus should be tested;
• Combinations of functions accessed through the same
menu should be tested;
• Where user input is required, all functions must be tested
with correct and incorrect input.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 8

 System testing

Involves integrating components to create a
system or sub-system.

May involve testing an increment to be
delivered to the customer.

Two phases:
• Integration testing - the test team have access
to the system source code. The system is
tested as components are integrated.
• Release testing - the test team test the
complete system to be delivered as a black-box.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 9

 Integration testing

Involves building a system from its components and
testing it for problems that arise from component
interactions.

Top-down integration
• Develop the skeleton of the system and populate it with
components.

Bottom-up integration
• Integrate infrastructure components then add functional
components.

To simplify error localisation, systems should be
incrementally integrated.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 10

 Incremental integration testing

A T1

T1
A
T1 T2
A B
T2

T2 B T3

T3
B C
T3 T4
C
T4

D T5

Test sequence 1 Test sequence 2 Test sequence 3

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 11

 Testing approaches

Architectural validation
• Top-down integration testing is better at discovering
errors in the system architecture.

System demonstration
• Top-down integration testing allows a limited
demonstration at an early stage in the development.

Test implementation
• Often easier with bottom-up integration testing.

Test observation
• Problems with both approaches. Extra code may be
required to observe tests.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 12

 Release testing

The process of testing a release of a system
that will be distributed to customers.

Primary goal is to increase the supplier’s
confidence that the system meets its
requirements.

Release testing is usually black-box or
functional testing
• Based on the system specification only;
• Testers do not have knowledge of the system
implementation.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 13

 Black-box testing
Inputs causing
anomalous
Input test da ta Ie beha viour

System

Outputs w hich r eveal

the pr esence of
Output test r esults Oe defects

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 14

 Testing guidelines

Testing guidelines are hints for the testing team to
help them choose tests that will reveal defects in the
system
• Choose inputs that force the system to generate all error
messages;
• Design inputs that cause buffers to overflow;
• Repeat the same input or input series several times;
• Force invalid outputs to be generated;
• Force computation results to be too large or too small.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 15

 Testing scenario

A student in Scotland is studying American History and has been asked to write a paper
on ÔFrontier mentality in the American West from 1840 to 1880Õ.To do this, she needs to
find sources from a range of libraries. She logs on to the LIBSYS system and uses the
search facility to discover if she can acce ss original documents from that time. She
discovers sources in various US university libraries and downloads copies of some of
these. However, for one document, she needs to have confirmation from her university
that she is a genuine student and that use is for non-commercial purposes. The student
then uses the facility in LIBSYS that can request such permission and registers her
request. If granted, the document will be downloaded to the registered libraryÕs server
and printed for her. She receives a message from LIBSYS telling her that she will receive
an e-mail message when th e printed document is available for collection.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 16

 System tests

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 17

 Use cases

Use cases can be a basis for deriving the
tests for a system. They help identify
operations to be tested and help design the
required test cases.

From an associated sequence diagram, the
inputs and outputs to be created for the tests
can be identified.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 18

 Collect weather data sequence chart

:CommsController :WeatherStation :WeatherData

request (repor t)

acknowledge ()
repor t ()
summarise ()

send (repor t)
reply (repor t)

acknowledge ()

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 19

 Performance testing

Part of release testing may involve testing
the emergent properties of a system, such
as performance and reliability.

Performance tests usually involve planning a
series of tests where the load is steadily
increased until the system performance
becomes unacceptable.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 20

 Stress testing

Exercises the system beyond its maximum design
load. Stressing the system often causes defects to
come to light.

Stressing the system test failure behaviour..
Systems should not fail catastrophically. Stress
testing checks for unacceptable loss of service or
data.

Stress testing is particularly relevant to distributed
systems that can exhibit severe degradation as a
network becomes overloaded.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 21

 Key points

Testing can show the presence of faults in a system; it cannot
prove there are no remaining faults.

Component developers are responsible for component testing;
system testing is the responsibility of a separate team.

Integration testing is testing increments of the system; release
testing involves testing a system to be released to a customer.

Use experience and guidelines to design test cases in defect
testing.

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 23 Slide 22