Test Case Design Techniques

Designing Effective Tests for Manual, Automated and Exploratory Testing

This two-day course teaches participants a number of advanced testing techniques. The course commences with a brief discussion of black-box and glass-box test models followed by a discussion of practical test coverage criteria for both models.

The course then moves on to an in-depth discussion of various black-box testing techniques. This is followed by a demonstration of how the techniques can be applied to both the conventional and “model-based” approaches to testing.

The second-half of the course covers glass-box testing techniques and shows how these may be applied to both conventional testing and the static analysis of program code.

The course concludes with a brief discussion of how the techniques learnt during the course can be used with automated test tools.

Course Features

• Compatible with the BCS Draft Standard for Software Component Testing (BS 7925-2)
• Arms participants with a tool box of test case design techniques
• Integrates disparate test case design techniques into an integrated approach
• Relevant to IT and embedded systems software

Participant Benefits

• Understanding of different test models and their related test coverage criteria
• Ability to apply black-box and glass-box test case design techniques to conventional testing, model-based testing and static analysis of program code
• Practical experience in applying the techniques to comprehensive exercise examples

Who Should Attend

• Process Engineers, Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) Staff, Methodologists, Process Improvement Staff
• Software Development Managers, Software Engineers, Developers, Requirements Engineers, Requirements Analysts
• Test Managers, Test Engineers, Testers, Quality Assurance Staff

Course Duration

2 days full-time.

Course Agenda

Introduction

• Some definitions
• Testing concepts
  • The functional or black-box view
  • The structural or glass-box view
  • The “ translucent-box ” or grey-box view
  • Mapping project roles to software views
  • The test-driven development (TDD) approach
• Test models
  • Black-box test models
  • Glass-box test models
• Test case coverage
  • Black-box coverage goals
  • Glass-box coverage goals

Black-Box Testing and Test-Driven Development (TDD) Test Case Design Techniques

• Requirements verification
• Equivalence partitioning
  • Identifying partitions of equivalent values
  • Selecting partition test cases
  • Equivalence partition coverage criteria
• Test oracles
  • Who “tests” the test cases?
  • Automated test oracle
• Boundary value analysis
  • Testing on the boundary between partitions
  • Selecting boundary test cases
  • Risks and coverage criteria
• Syntax testing
  • A notation for modelling the syntax of inputs and outputs
  • Selecting test cases
  • Testing for invalid syntax
• Decision Tables
• State transition testing
  • State transition diagrams
  • State tables
  • Testing single transitions
  • Testing sequences of transitions
  • Constructing a state tree
  • Selecting test cases
  • State transition coverage criteria

Model-Based Testing

• Goals of model-based testing
• Generating test cases from models
  • Partitions and boundaries
  • States and transitions
  • Syntax
• Using model-based testing when there is no specification or it is out of date
• Applying models-based testing to random and reliability testing

Glass-Box Test Case Design Techniques

• Statement testing
  • Rules for counting statements
  • Statement coverage
• Control flow graphs
  • Modelling control flow with “ nodes ” and “ edges ”
  • Control flow and cyclomatic complexity
• Branch/decision testing
  • Branches vs. decisions
  • Selecting test cases
• Condition testing
  • Branches vs. conditions
  • Branch condition testing
  • Branch condition combination testing
  • Modified condition decision testing
• Path Testing
  • Linear Code Sequence and Jump (LCSAJ) testing
  • Basis path testing
  • Data flow testing
  • Coverage and Infeasible Paths
• Comparing Glass-Box Test Case Design Techniques

Static Analysis of Program Source Code

• Applying glass-box test case design techniques to static analysis
• Static analysis of program data flow
• Static analysis of program paths
• Automated static analysis tools

Regression Testing

• Performing an Impact Analysis
• Identifying the Regression Test Cases

Test Cases and Automated Testing

• Automating unit testing
  • Applying glass-box and black-box test cases to unit testing
  • Test cases and unit test frameworks
  • Glass-box testing and coverage tools
• Automating system testing
  • Applying black-box test cases to system testing
  • Test cases and capture/replay tools
    • GUI tools
    • Web tools
  • System and acceptance test frameworks