CS302: Software Engineering (2021.B.01)

Testing is the process of finding errors in an application's code and documentation. Testing is a difficult activity because it is a high-cost, time-consuming activity for which the returns diminish upon success. As such, it is frequently difficult for managers to understand the importance of testing in application development.

The levels of developmental testing include unit, integration, and system. In addition, an agent, who is not a project team member, performs quality assurance testing to validate the documentation and processing for the user. Code tests are on subroutines, modules, and programs to verify that individual code units work as expected. Integration tests verify the logic and processing for suites of modules, verifying intermodular communications. Systems tests verify that the application operates in its intended environment" and meets requirements for constraints, response time, peak processing, backup and recovery, and security, access, and audit controls.

Strategies of testing are either white-box, black-box, top-down, or bottom-up. White-box tests verify that specific logic of the application works as intended. White-box strategies include logic tests, mathematical proof tests, and cleanroom tests. Black-box strategies include equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, and error guessing. Heuristics for matching the test level to the strategy were provided.