Software Testing Principles and Strategies: A Comprehensive Analysis

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MITS5501 Presentation and Research Report
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Software Testing..............................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Presentation....................................................................................................................................12
Reference.......................................................................................................................................19
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Introduction
Software testing is the process of determining the software with an objective to find out a bug in
it. The main objective behind software testing is to measure an attribute of a product or program
and defining that they have met its quality. For compatibility, reliability, security, usability,
efficiency, integrity, maintainability, etc. can also be examined by software testing techniques. In
this report, the main principles behind software testing, various software testing methods, and
strategies. Further, this report will also discuss the difference between software testing and
debugging.
Software testing is requiring developing software against a set of requirements. The software
testing is also needed in validating and verifying the software. Software testing offers a suitable
software solution and also ensures the accuracy of the software. If any bug or error is found then
the software will be unfeasible for a client that is the reason for using software testing
techniques. This helps in removing bugs and errors from the system.
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Software Testing
Software testing comprises of several goals such as verification and validation, traceable,
deterministic, priority coverage and balanced that means while developing the software, the
developer may leave an error in the program so to find out defect is the main objective of testing.
Testing should be effective and efficient within budgets and must balance the technical
constraints and client expectations. Success and failures document must be generated during the
testing process.
There are two types of software testing:
1. Manual testing
Manual testing refers to the process of using the features and functions of the application in order
to find defects without using any automation scripting and tools. It can be done by technical
review, inspection and informal review.
2. Automated testing
As per Sawant, et. al., (2012), in this method of testing, the automation tool is used. It allows the
user to perform more testing in less time, enhances coverage and reduces human testers to do an
extensive type of testing. And it is further categorized into four types:
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(Source: Author)
Correctness is less required is software, and it refers to the input-output behavior of an algorithm.
Correctness testing is further categorized into three methods:
White Box Testing: is also known as open-box or transparent box testing, this testing technique
includes internal design and implementation of software that is being tested. It offers an internal
perspective, errors in the codes are exposed, in order to maintain validity internal data structured
is examined.
Black Box testing: it is also referred to as behavioral testing. It helps in determining the
functionality of an application devoid of knowing its internal workings. The testing includes
functional and non-functional but generally functional. Some of the various types of black box
techniques include Fuzz Testing, Boundary Value analysis, comparison based technique, etc.
This tester has no relation with the code.
Gray Box Testing
Gray Box testing integrates the techniques if white box testing as well as Black box testing. This
technique is performed with limited internal information. The recent implementation of the gray
box is extensively dependable to execute and validate the software.
Performance Testing
It is a type of testing to ensure whether the application will perform fairly under their desired
workload. The main objective of the performance technique is to remove performance
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Automated testing
Correctness
Testing
Performance
Testing
Security
Testing
Reliability
Testing

bottlenecks. The main focus is to check the scalability, stability, and speed of the software
program. Performance Testing includes Stress testing that involves testing under extreme
workloads to determine data processing and high traffic handling. And Load Testing that
authorizes if the software is able to perform under expected user loads.
Reliability Testing
This testing assures that the software is fault free as well as reliable for proposed purpose
Measurements, modeling and improvements are the three main segments of reliable testing. The
purpose behind reliable testing is to discover the main reason behind failure, and a number of
failures in a specific time and also determine the structure of repeat failures (Sawant, et. al.,
2012).
Security testing
The security testing is all about knowing the possible loopholes and weaknesses of software. The
objective of security testing is to analyze the threats in the system and measure its possible
liabilities so the software does not exploit. This testing also offers the detection of security risks
and assists developers in improving these threats through coding. The main types of security
testing include Security Auditing, Ethical hacking, vulnerability scanning, penetration testing,
posture assessment, etc. A technique in Security Testing includes tiger box, Gray box, Black
box.
Software Testing Strategies
Software testing strategies depict the software development testing approach. This includes total
resources required, testing objectives, procedures of testing new functionalities, etc. some factors
to consider while choosing strategies Risk Management, Smart skills, business considerations,
and some rules and regulations (Sawant, et. al., 2012).
There are four software testing strategies:
1. Unit testing
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Unit testing is done during the programming of an application. The goal is to separate a section
of the program and verify its accuracy. Unit testing is completed during the developing stage.
Unit testing helps the developer to understand the base of code and make changes frequently.
This testing technique is cost effective and offers a much reliable enhancement for system level
testing.
2. Integration testing
In this testing, software sections are integrated rationally and tested as a group. To execute
integration testing, methodologies used are:
Big bang approach in this all the elements are integrated together. This approach is best for
small systems.
Incremental Approach is carried out by Top-down Approach and Bottom-Up Approach.
Top-down Approach:
Testing is created from top to down succeeding the control flow. There is a possibility to acquire
an early prototype.
Bottom Up testing:
In this strategy, each lower module is tested with the upper one until the entire modules are
tested. Drivers are included in this testing. This testing does not waste time in waiting modules to
develop like another approach.
Fault localization is easier in bottom up as well as a top-down approach.
3. Acceptance Testing
The system is tested for accessibility. The objective is to evaluate system amenability with
business needs. There are various types of acceptance testing:
User Acceptance Technique
Contract Acceptance Technique
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Business Acceptance Testing
Compliance Accepting Testing
Operational Acceptance Testing
Beta testing
Alpha Testing
This testing technique facilitates minimizing the issues from the production of the product.
4. System Testing
This refers to the testing of an entire software product. system testing is actually a sequence of
various testing. System testing involves testing entirely integrated applications and verifies every
input in the application to check the preferred outputs. There is a total of 50 types of system
testing some of them are Usability testing, recovery testing, load testing, Functional testing,
regression testing, hardware and software testing, migration testing (Sawant, et. al., (2012).
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Research Method Used
In this report, the Qualitative Research Method is used. A journal pdf is used to study Software
Testing. The data is presented in this report in the accurate manner that is necessary for this
report. This report is quite significant as the concern of software testing is discussed in this
assessment in very descriptive manner.
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Issues
Some of the issues are incurred by an author on software testing strategies:
1. Only a small number of inputs can be tested in Black Box testing.
2. The white box missed out the cases absent in the program.
3. Some back end sections are not tested at all in black box testing techniques.
4. It is nearly impossible from white box testing to find out hidden errors that result in
failure of software.
5. A skilled individual is required for white box testing and it requires the cost to hire a
skilled persons.
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Conclusion
This paper on Software testing labels about software testing, the necessity of software testing,
Software testing objectives, and principles. Software testing is a systematic and specified
planned process. Debugging arises as a sign of successful testing. That is after a test case exposes
an error, repairing is the process that outcomes in the elimination of the error. To achieve testing
successfully and efficiently, one and all involved with testing must be acquainted with simple
software testing objectives, principles, boundaries, and concepts. And further illuminates various
Software testing techniques such as Correctness testing, Reliability testing, Performance testing,
Security testing. It is discussed that the elementary principles of black box testing, gray box
testing, and white box testing. It has been measured some of the strategies offering these
paradigms, and has concluded their pros and cons. It is also described various software testing
approaches such as Integration testing, unit testing, acceptance testing, and system testing.
Lastly, there is an evaluation between debugging and testing. Testing is just additional than
debugging .testing is performed to localized errors and used them in the validation and
verification method.
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Presentation
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