Automated testing
Automated Testing Terminology
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
Acceptance testing |
Formal testing conducted to enable a user, customer, or other authorized entity to determine whether to accept a system or component. [IEEE] |
Agile Testing |
Testing practice for projects using agile methodology's, treating development as the customer of testing and emphasizing a test-first design paradigm. |
Automated Software Quality (ASQ) |
The use of software tools, such as automated testing tools, to improve software quality |
Automated Testing |
Testing employing software tools which execute tests without manual intervention. Can be applied in GUI, performance, API, etc. testing. |
Black box testing |
See functional test case design. |
Business Process |
A set of user actions performed in an application to accomplish a business task. Often referred to as a "transaction." |
Capture/playback tool |
A test tool that records test input as it is sent to the software under test. The input cases stored can then be used to reproduce the test at a later time. |
Capture/replay tool |
See capture/playback tool. |
CAST |
Acronym for computer-aided software testing. |
CMM |
The Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM or SW-CMM) is a model for judging the maturity of the software processes of an organization and for identifying the key practices that are required to increase the maturity of these processes. |
Compatibility testing |
Testing whether the system is compatible with other systems with which it should communicate. |
Data Driven Testing |
Testing in which the action of a test case is parameterized by externally defined data values, maintained as a file or spreadsheet. A common technique in Automated Testing. |
End-to-End testing |
Testing a complete application environment in a situation that mimics real-world use, such as interacting with a database, using network communications, or interacting with other hardware, applications, or systems if appropriate. |
Functional Decomposition |
A technique used during planning, analysis and design; creates a functional hierarchy for the software. |
Functional specification |
The document that describes in detail the characteristics of the product with regard to its intended capability. [BS 4778, Part2] |
Functional test case design |
Test case selection that is based on an analysis of the specification of the component without reference to its internal workings. |
Integration |
The process of combining components into larger assemblies. |
Integration testing |
Testing performed to expose faults in the interfaces and in the interaction between integrated components. |
Interface testing |
Integration testing where the interfaces between system components are tested. |
Maintainability testing |
Testing whether the system meets its specified objectives for maintainability. |
Regression testing |
Retesting of a previously tested program following modification to ensure that faults have not been introduced or uncovered as a result of the changes made. |
| Requirements-based testing | Designing tests based on objectives derived from requirements for the software component (e.g., tests that exercise specific functions or probe the non-functional constraints such as performance or security). See functional test case design. |
| Software Testing | A set of activities conducted with the intent of finding errors in software. |
| System testing | The process of testing an integrated system to verify that it meets specified requirements. [Hetzel] |
| Test automation | The use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions. |
| Test case | A set of inputs, execution preconditions, and expected outcomes developed for a particular objective, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific requirement. After [IEEE,do178b] |
| Test case design technique | A method used to derive or select test cases. |
| Test case suite | A collection of one or more test cases for the software under test. |
| Test completion criterion | A criterion for determining when planned testing is complete, defined in terms of a test measurement technique. |
| Test coverage | See coverage. |
| Test Driven Development | Testing methodology associated with Agile Programming in which every chunk of code is covered by unit tests, which must all pass all the time, in an effort to eliminate unit-level and regression bugs during development. Practitioners of TDD write a lot of tests, i.e. an equal number of lines of test code to the size of the production code. |
| Test plan | A record of the test planning process detailing the degree of tester independence, the test environment, the test case design techniques and test measurement techniques to be used, and the rationale for their choice. |
| Test script | Commonly used to refer to the automated test procedure used with a test harness. |
| Test specification | For each test case, the coverage item, the initial state of the software under test, the input, and the predicted outcome. |
| Test Suite | A collection of tests used to validate the behavior of a product. The scope of a Test Suite varies from organization to organization. There may be several Test Suites for a particular product for example. In most cases however a Test Suite is a high level concept, grouping together hundreds or thousands of tests related by what they are intended to test. |
| Testing | The process of exercising software to verify that it satisfies specified requirements and to detect errors. After [do178b] |
| Test Tools | Computer programs used in the testing of a system, a component of the system, or its documentation. |
| Traceability Matrix | A document showing the relationship between Test Requirements and Test Cases. |
| Validation | Determination of the correctness of the products of software development with respect to the user needs and requirements. |
| Verification | The process of evaluating a system or component to determine whether the products of the given development phase satisfy the conditions imposed at the start of that phase. [IEEE] |
| WinRunner | A Mercury Interactive enterprise functional testing tool, used to create scripts. The scripts form the basis of transaction files, run by Topaz Business Process Monitor profiles to emulate end-user experience and monitor application performance. |
