Software Testing Strategy

Software development houses employ a range of software testing techniques in order to maintain quality control, benchmark against intended scope, minimize software development time and improve software functionality. Software testing techniques are used to test an applications usability, robustness, platform and system compliance. The project plan for software development is an integral part of the project development and to outline software testing methods. This documentation comprises the software test requirements, the range of software testing techniques to be used, outlines resource requirements and provides a structured testing schedule. This documentation is used by the development team as a guideline during the software testing process. The software testing techniques used depend, to some extent, on the style and view taken by the software engineer when designing software test cases.

One common software testing technique is known as white box testing. This is where an internal view of the testing process is adopted and applied to the structure and format of the code. White box testing is an effective method for software testing and usually undertaken by someone who has knowledge of the development language used. This is an advantage to the testing process because having a coder involved allows for immediate on the job formulation of input and output test data requirements aids in the optimization process and speeds up the removal of redundant code that can contribute to logic and program errors.

The black box software testing technique assumes an external view of the testing process. Data is entered as an input and only the results of the output are known. This can encompass feedback from end users, the results of interaction with platforms used and the programs that the software interfaces with. No knowledge of coding or the coding structure is required for the black box software testing technique and the primary focus is on the appropriate selection of data inputs to test against the software functional specifications. Feedback for the testing is collated on software performance behavior and used by the development team to improve the software product.

Grey box testing is a software testing technique that is commonly used by testers that have some interaction with database structures or can manipulate the code directly. An example of this would be a developer subjecting the application to a range of tests to determine whether the application is subject to code injection that can compromise data integrity. The test cases used for grey box testing almost always have some knowledge of the coding internal structure, architecture, platform, system design and dependence. This allows the creation of test scenarios to test for a range different scenarios and performance measure for anticipated structural and functional result.

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