Many terms are used in the software engineering literature to describe a malfunction: notably fault, failure, and error, among others. This terminology is precisely defined in [3, c2]. It is essential to clearly distinguish between the cause of a malfunction (for which the term fault will be used here) and an undesired effect observed in the system’s delivered service (which will be called a failure). Indeed there may well be faults in the software that never manifest themselves as failures (see Theoretical and Practical Limitations of Testing in section 1.2, Key Issues). Thus testing can reveal failures, but it is the faults that can and must be removed [3]. The more generic term defect can be used to refer to either a fault or a failure, when the distinction is not important [3]. However, it should be recognized that the cause of a failure cannot always be unequivocally identified. No theoretical criteria exist to definitively determine, in general, the fault that caused an observed failure. It might be said that it was the fault that had to be modified to remove the failure, but other modifications might have worked just as well. To avoid ambiguity, one could refer to failure-causing inputs instead of faults—that is, those sets of inputs that cause a failure to appear.
Key Issues
1. Test Selection Criteria / Test Adequacy Criteria (Stopping Rules)
2. Testing Effectiveness / Objectives for Testing
3. Testing for Defect Discovery
4. The Oracle Problem
5. Theoretical and Practical Limitations of Testing
6. The Problem of Infeasible Paths
7. Test ability
Relationship of Testing to Other Activities
Software testing is related to, but different from, static software quality management techniques, proofs of correctness, debugging, and program construction. However, it is informative to consider testing from the point of view of software quality analysts and of certifiers.
• Testing vs. Static Software Quality Management Techniques (see Software Quality Management Techniques in the Software Quality KA [1*, c12]).
• Testing vs. Correctness Proofs and Formal Verification (see the Software Engineering Models and Methods KA [1*, c17s2]).
• Testing vs. Debugging (see Construction Testing in the Software Construction KA and Debugging Tools and Techniques in the Computing Foundations KA [1*, c3s6])
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Published on : 30-May-2018
Ref no : DTC-WPUB-000028
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