Higher-Order Testing: Principles and Practices - Essay Example

Higher-order Testing Name: Institution name Introduction Testing of system as they are developed is part of the development team and other stake holder. During development a number of test are done and this have become part of development until is difficult to distinguish the two; development and testing. Testing is important in ensuring that the system does what was intended to do. Without proper testing, the result will be system failure and huge losses will be incurred. There are several tests undertaken in system development. For softwares products produced for a wider usage or on contractual basis a kind of higher-order testing is suitable Higher-order Testing Higher order testing is done after module-testing has been successfully done. This is because even after carrying out a module-test it is still difficult to assure users that all errors have been found and corrected. Errors in software are bugs that makes the application as well as system program works poorly that than it is expected to. These errors emanate from barriers of communication and information translation which noise and breakdowns. Communication is normally important in software development as if facilitates exchange of information about eventual program which is later translated from one form to another (Myers et al. 2012). The figure below show the process of system development and test done at each level. Figure 1: Testing and development process, (Myers, Sandler & Badgett, 2012) Functional testing Myers et al. (2012) argues that function testing is a series of tests that are aimed at identifying errors that exist in the program which render it function poorly in relation according to the specification stipulated it achieve at the user level. Function test is normally described as black box activity depending on the large size of the program being tested. This process entails tests conducted on the products functionality and features. It helps to verify the functionality of the system. The results of this test are either system has met or has not met. When carrying out this test, primarily two important things should be well understood, that is, customer and product knowledge (Desikan & Ramesh, (2006). Functional testing is normally carried out in all other kind of test for example unit, component, integration and system testing (Desikan & Ramesh, (2006). It is done by analyzing the specification in order to come up with a set of test cases There are various ways in which functional test is done. Though design or architectural verification which involve cross checking the developed cases against design and architecture in order to validate the product-level test cases .Business vertical which involves the process where operations of the business as well as the usage are cross checked with activities such as management of various business assets (Desikan & Ramesh, (2006). The important aspects of the test that is fundamental to functional test include equivalence partitioning, analysis of boundary value, graphing the cause effect and error guessing methods (Myers et al. 2012). Equivalence partition this entails subdividing the system into small subsets. In locating these subsets it is important to note that the properties need are that the subsets reasonable and it should be the best among other subsets and covers a larger set of the possible sets that exist. After that, the test case is done through the process of identifying the equivalence classes and then test cases definition is done. Boundary value analysis then follows. Those conditions that are above or below the input and out equivalence are termed as boundary conditions. This process is different from partitioning equivalences because it requires selection of more than one elements and the test are derived after examining the classes in output equivalence. Cause-effect graphing method overcomes the problems in both value analysis and equivalence partitioning by failing to examine combination of a group of in circumstances. In cause effect graphing selection of the best set of test classes is achieved through a systematic manner by subdividing the specification into smaller but workable pieces, identification of both the cause and effects of the specification, analysis of semantics of the specification is also done and later on represented on a Boolean graph. The graph is then plotted with the values that provide description of cause and effects. This enables one to trace the conditions and put them in decision table which will later be converted into test classes. There are various approaches to function testing, carrying out user navigation test, testing the transaction and report screen and flow and finally checking the database for retrieval, creating update and delete (HCMUT-CSE, 2014). System testing System testing involves subjecting the functions of the whole system to test. It serves the purpose of examining the system or the program and the comparing it with the initial objectives. It is important to note that system testing is not limited to systems only (Myers et al. 2012). Desikan & Ramesh, (2006) argues that a software solution that is provided to customers may comprise of several products with several components. There is supplier component product organization and solution integration. Test cases from the collected information of design and architectural documentation, module and system requirements specification provide the basis for system testing. The cases are derived from examination of the component and integration test cases stories from user and discussions from customers. This kind of testing exclude negative scenarios verification which include incorrect and negative values testing simply because such test are done by component and integration testing right before system testing the idea of doing system testing after both component and integration test have been done is to correction of basic program logic as well as other defects have been rectified. It is also done to ensure that it ready for the next testing which is user acceptance testing (Desikan & Ramesh, (2006). The discrepancies that are there between program and its objectives are identified by examination of the errors as a result of translation resulting from the design of the external specification. System test does not use external specification when coming up with test cases. More so the objectives document cannot be used in coming up with test cases because it lacks program's interface definition description. System testing is difficult and is done using user documentation and any other publication that provide the same. Most people not only misunderstand this test but they also find it difficult .Test cases are formulated by carrying out an analysis of the user documentation. Some of the test case include facility test case which checks whether the functionality of the software there in the objectives. Others include reliability test case, storage test case security test case and usability test case (Myers et al. 2012). Figure 2: The system test (Myers, Sandler & Badgett, 2012) There are season as to why system testing done. System testing is done in order to identify level of defects and build confidence before the system is delivered to the user. It is also done in order to analyse the risk of delivering the product to the customers and if possible reduce those. This test ensures that all the necessary requirements are met and both functional and non-functional aspect of the product (Desikan & Ramesh, (2006) Acceptance testing Myers et al. (2012) argues that this kind of test is carried out by doing comparison of the initial requirements of the program and end user's current need. Acceptance test is directly proportional to system growth, the more the system grows the more acceptance test are done (Miller & Collins, 2014).This test is not always considered as the responsibility of the organization developing it. It is normally performed by the end user (Zafar, 2012). Acceptance test from are normally validated directly (Miller & Collins, 2014). Although this test is done by the user program developer normally carries out several user acceptance tests before releasing the product to the final consumer (Myers et al. 2012). Acceptance testing is done internally and externally internal acceptance also known as alpha testing performed by the organization that developed the software and external testing which comprise of customer acceptance testing and user acceptance testing also termed as Beta testing. It is important to carry out this test because it helps the development team to capture the requirements of the user viably and they will be able to accurately relate how well the system is going to satisfy those needs. This test is also important as it reveals the problems that unit test failed to reveal (Softwaretestingfundamentals.com, 2012) Acceptance test is done by first writing the test, there should be people to write the test in a language that is understood. They could be business people. These tests are written before there is code implementation for the features to be tested which is done by the developers. Identify the suitable tie to run the test either automatically or manually, running the test is frequently done and is part of the system development function. Finally tracking of test should be done; there is a tracker who keeps track of the tests done on daily basis. Acceptance test is important since it represents the interest of the customers, it gives confidence to the end users because of the assurance that the product will function as they expect. This kind of test is very crucial if the software is to succeed (Miller & Collins, 2014). Installation testing This kind of test is different from the other which tries to find software errors; here the test aims at identifying those errors that occur in program installation. During system or program installation there are a number of activities which takes place that can cause installation error. There are multiple options which users can choose, loading and allocating of files and libraries, hardware configuration, and sometimes the program might require other programs in order to install. It is the responsibility of the software development organization or personnel to do installation testing in order to ensure that files are created and loaded successfully and there is proper hardware configuration. Therefore this means that installation testing is delivered as part of the system and is done even after system is installed (Myers et al. 2012). Conclusion Testing of softwares to determine their suitability to user needs and ensure proper functionality is important in softwares development. It is necessary to take a closer look at each module and to debug the errors present. One way of achieving this is through higher-order testing which a time can be problematic but very important. Through tests such as function test which reveals errors in design and system test which tries to how well the software is designed to meet its initial objectives and acceptance test software and system and other kinds of higher-order testing a successful in terms of performance and acceptance will be released to the market making the whole process of development a success References Desikan, S., & Ramesh, G. (2006). Software testing: principles and practices (3rd ed.). Bangalore, India: Dorling Kindersley (India). HCMUT-CSE,. (2014). Higher-Order Testing (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://www.cse.hcmut.edu.vn/~minhnnn/File/Document/ST/Slide/Chapter4_Part3_Higher_Order_Testing_V1.0.pdf Miller, R., & Collins, C. (2014). Acceptance Testing (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://www.dsc.ufcg.edu.br/~jacques/cursos/map/recursos/Testing05.pdf Myers, G., Sandler, C., & Badgett, T. (2012). The art of software testing (3rd ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Softwaretestingfundamentals.com,. (2012). Acceptance Testing | Software Testing Fundamentals. Softwaretestingfundamentals.com. Retrieved 9 May 2014, from http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/acceptance-testing/ Zafar, R. (2012). What is software testing? What are the different types of testing? - CodeProject. Codeproject.com. Retrieved 9 May 2014, from http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/351122/What-is-software-testing-What-are-the-different-ty Read More