Software Testing:
Types and Methods
Harsh Patel,14bce081
CSE Department, Institute of Technology,
Under Nirma University.
Abstract:-
This paper will include the introduction about software testing
process and basic types and methods of software testing .As a
software is an intangible product, it is very hard to keep track
of its progress/successful behaviour on daily basis so software
testing is used to determining that it meets its requirements.
There are many methods from traditional approach to the
automated testing tools which we will see one by one in this
paper.
I. INTRODUCTION
Software testing is the activity aimed at checking the quality
of product that it meets its requirements. It is used to balance
between time, budget and quality of software. As the
possibility for the inputs in the software can be infinite the
purpose for the software testing is to find the software bug
,and checking whether it is fit for stakeholders to use.
Software bugs are any errors or any other defects with the
requirements. Software testings main purpose is to check
whether it meets all the requirements and respond correctly to
all the inputs. It can be done by mainly software testing team
but it can also be done by other stakeholders by releasing
testing version once it is executable. The job of testing is an
iterative process as when one error is fixed, it can create other
new bugs. Software testing can be started as soon as the
executable software is ready. It can provide information about
the quality of software and risk of its failure to the
stakeholders.
II. TESTING METHODS
A. Static vs. Dynamic Testing
Static testing : In static testing we do not execute the code we
just look through the code.
ex: walkthroughs, inspections, review
Dynamic testing: In dynamic testing we execute the code on
basis of some test cases
ex: black box , white box , grey box
Static testing can be done on any software for dynamic testing
the software must be executable. static testing is mostly used
to check syntax, code structure or data flow while dynamic
testing is used for checking the output for each input. In short
static testing is used for verification while dynamic testing
used for validation.
B. The Box Approach
Software testing methods are mainly divided into three parts,
white-box ,black-box and grey-box testing .these methods are
named as point of view of a person who is testing the
software.
White-box Testing
A software testing method in which the internal structure,
design, implementation of the item being tested is known to
the tester. it is also known as the clear box testing, glass box
testing, transparent box testing.
It is done by the developer or the testing engineer as the
knowledge of the internal structure is compulsory for testing
.it is used to check the internal structure of the software
instead of the output provided to the user. It can test paths
within a unit, paths between units during integration, and
between subsystems during a systemlevel test. This method
only provides whether all the parts are functioning perfectly or
not. it doesnt provide any knowledge about whether the
provided output is correct or not.
ex: Control flow testing, Data flow testing, Branch testing,
Path testing.
Black-box Testing
A software testing method in which the internal
structure/design /implementation of the item being tested is
not known to the tester. These tests can be functional or non-
functional, though usually functional .it is done without seeing
the source code the tester only wants to check how software
reacts to the inputs .he only sees what it does not how it does
it. in this test cases are used and only output is checked .one of
the advantage of this testing is no knowledge of software
structure or implementation is needed so stakeholders can be
involved in testing which make this process a lot faster and
accurate but it can not be trusted based on test cases only
because the test cases may be excluding some of the paths. it
can also be time consuming as the tester is unknown about the
internal structure so he may be repeating the test case on a
single paths many times which can be done only with one test
case.
ex:Equivalence partitioning, Boundary Value Analysis, Cause
Effect Graphing.

Grey-box Testing
To overcome the negative points of the white-box and black-
box testing Grey-box testing is used. it is a combination of
Black Box Testing method and White Box Testing method. in
this method tester have knowledge about the internal data
structures and algorithms but he doesnt have the full access to
the softwares source code .tests that require to modify the log
file or a back-end repository like database is included in grey-
box testing. Grey-box testing is also based on the test cases
but tester can develop more accurate test-cases with the use of
little knowledge of internal structure.
III.TESTING LEVELS
Testing levels are mainly the level of the software on which
the testing is applied. There are mainly four levels of software
tests from the perspective of developer or testing team.
From the perspective of the customer there are two levels of
testing:-
1.low-level testing
It is the testing of the different components or link between the
components. It is done in intermediate stages of the
development for checking specific module and approval of the
customer or stakeholders.
2.high-level testing
It is the testing of the whole software application. it is done
before the product is delivered to the customer. in this the
testing is mainly based on the output and interface between the
modules rather than its structure. Software structure is checked
module-wise in low level testing.
There are mainly four levels of software tests from the
perspective of developer or testing team:-
1)Unit testing
Unit is the smallest testable part of the software. unit testing is
generally done by the developers team. the unit testing is
necessary to go ahead with the program so it is done by the
developers itself instead of the software testers. It is important
to perform unit testing as you can only perform the integration
testing once all of your units are working correctly. it is done
by the persons who have in-depth knowledge of the code so
the test cases for the unit testing are well defined. one of the
benefits of unit testing is that you get the confidence for going
ahead with the code once the unit run correctly. if unit testing
is carried out correctly the foundation of the software can be
strong which will later help in faster development. it can also
be cost saving as the cost of fixing a defect in final stages of
software development is much higher than in initial stages.
2)Integration testing
Once the unit testing is done, the integration testing is the next
phase that is carried out. in integration testing the tester
checks how the units interact with each other. this test requires
knowledge of software testing techniques so it is carried out
by the software testing engineer.
In this form of testing lot of defects related to functional and
performance levels are uncovered. unit testing confirms that
the individual units perform correct individually while
integration testing checks the interface between the units.
Integration testing can be carried out by following
approaches:-
1)Top down approach
In the top down approach where the top levels are
first tested and then one by one sub modules are tested. it is
more useful for finding out the location for the defect or error.
2)Bottom up approach
In the bottom up approach first the sub programs are
tested that one by one upper level component is tested. it can
be done even when the software is not fully completed by
providing the dummy modules at low levels.
3)Component testing
Component testing is done after the integration testing. In
integration testing we check for the interface between the
different units. while in the component testing we check for
the output produced by the component or by the sub module of
the software. integration testing only checks for the data flow
between one unit to another while the component testing
checks for the output produced by the component.
4)System testing
System testing is carried out once the software is successfully
completed and it is ready to deliver to the customer. in this
testing not only the output but the performance and the quality
standards are also be checked. The system testing is purely the
black-box type testing. it just checked the requirement
specifications. this testing is carried out based on the users
point of view. To understand the users point of view this
testing is done by the different stakeholders of the software.
system testing both validates and verifies both user
requirements and business requirements.
IV.TESTING TYPES
There are different types of the testing the software which can
be carried out during different phases of software
development. They are to test whether the product that is
manufactured is ready to launch to the market and it does not
have any bugs or error remained unfixed.
Here we will see the major types of software testing:
1. Installation testing
It is the testing type that check whether the software will be
installed and will work correctly on the customers hardware.
if it is a general purpose software which can be installed in
many platforms than this checks that it works correctly
indifferent to the platform specified.
2. Compatibility Testing
Compatibility with other application software or operating
system can cause failure to the system. So the software that
needs backward compatibility of other application must check
with other applications availibility and compatibility with the
software. The compatibility issue can also occurs when the
software is developed on latest version of the platform, so it
can be possible that some of the functionality may not be
supported in the previous versions which can make the
software to fail. In such cases the situations must be handeled
with exceptions. It can also be solved by abstracting operating
system functionality into a separate program module.
3. Regression Testing
Regression testing is finding any bugs after there is a change
in the code .it checks for the changes in the backward position.
it will take backward on changes to the position where the
code is working correctly. it is used to uncover the bugs that
are incurred during the latest changes in the code. The
advantage of the process is that tester doesnt have to check
for the whole software instead he can save upto the work till
where all the bugs are resolved and start from there and only
check for changes that can create the errors. Regression testing
include severe methods which contains re running the
previous sets of test cases to check whether previous error has
re emerged. regression testing is faster in finding out the bugs
compared to previous methods.
4. System testing
The System testing procedure is described above in the testing
levels. It is the top most level testing of the software input -
output without taking the internal structure or the code into
consideration. it only checks for the different functionality of
the software. It is done by the developers view.
5. Acceptance Testing.
The acceptance testing is just as same as the system testing. It
is also carried out after the whole software is developed. In
this the software is tested for the acceptability of the
customers/users. It is carried out after the system testing. After
the system is verified to working correctly it is checked
whether the system satisfies the acceptance criteria and enable
the user to use the system efficiently. Usually black box
testing method is used for acceptance testing as the user is
more concerned about the user interface or how system looks
and which output it produce rather than how it functions
internally.
6. Performance Testing
Performance testing is used for evaluating the quality and
capability of the product. It is more concentrated over the non-
functional requirements rather than functional requirements.
Performance testing checks for the robustness, security and
speed of the execution. It will check for the all requirement
criteria are satisfied or not. Performance testing is more user
concentrated as the good performance will make it more user
friendly. It also checks for the stability of the software on
different platforms and under different functionality. And
according to its stability it will check it will take out the
number of failures and time needed for system to recover
which are very important parameters in determining the
quality of product.

7. Load Testing
Load testing is measuring the response under the both normal
and peak load conditions. load testing is more relevant to the
multi user system usually created as client-server application
as it can be tested by stimulating multiple users accessing the
system concurrently. Load testing is also used for measuring
the performance of the software but it is specifically used for
performance under the different load. For creating the extra
load load generator(which will replay the previous recorded
scripts) or extra virtual users are created. It is essential testing
for a server-client system like web-services.
8. Stress Testing
Stress testing is also another method for the performance
measuring. While load testing measures the performance of
the system by increasing the number of users to its peak stress
testing measures the performance of the system under multiple
tasks executing simultaneously. It is mostly useful for the
multi-threaded program. It is useful for checking the
recoverability of the program as system might fail during the
multiple executions at a time. It can be measure the time for
system to recover from the failure.
9. Alpha Testing
Alpha testing is the kind of acceptance testing. It is carried out
after the software is completely developed. It is done by the
highly skilled professionals. It is done onsite in the presence of
the developers and business analyst. It is done with both
white-box and black-box testing. It is done before the launch
of the product in the actual market. It can be done in the
virtual environment. It is the last testing before the launch of
the product so it require the highly skilled team which can
evaluate whether the product is 100% ready to lauch in
market.
10. Beta testing
Beta testing is also the acceptance testing. It is carried out
at the time of the software launched in the market. It is done
by the end users by the system. Before the product is made
available to the all users the beta version is launched to test the
product in the real user environment. The product is tested by
the some real end users before it was made available to all the
users. Beta testing is necessary as feedback before launching
the product from end users.
11.A/B testing
A/B testing is basically a method for comparing the two
outputs of the program, when only one parameter is changed.
The software is executed two times with only one parameter is
changed and results are compared. This is very useful for the
small scale situations. For more complex projects multivariant
testing can be done.
V.TESTING PROCESS
Software testing is not a one time process in the software
development. It is the continuous process of testing from the
starting as soon as the executable unit of the software is
developed.
The different types of testing processes are:-
1.Traditional waterfall development model
A common method for software testing is the test the software
after the functionality is developed and before it is shipped to
the customer. It often creates the buffer for the project
development resulting in the delay of the project development.
another practice is to start testing as soon as the project starts
and it is a continuous until the project finishes.
2.Agile or extreme Development model
In contrast to most of development methods where the testing
process starts after the development of the unit, this process
has unit tests are written first by the software engineers. They
all fail initially as they are expected to. Then the code is
written to solve the errors and the test cases are continuously
update as larger portions of the test cases are passed and new
failures are discovered. The ultimate goal of this iterative
process is to achieve the code that solves all the requirements
defined after the coding process has been completed.
3.Automated testing
Automated testing is used more by the developers nowadays.
It is a framework in which tests are written and it will run the
tests automatically every time code is checked into a version
control system, which can be useful for the regression testing
to discover the last working version of the code. there are
various testing tools are available to test the code.
VI. REFERENCES
[1] http://www.cssttechnologies.com/Test%20Requirements%20for
%20automated%20Testing
[2] http://www.automated-testing.com/PATfinal
[3] http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/software-testing-methods/
[4] http://csbapp.uncw.edu/data/mscsis/annalspaper.aspx?v=6&i=1&p=1