Software test strategies

[sabah]

Hi,

Could you please list a few you’ve either worked with or heard off (used in your company etc)

And add a short pro/con comment as well.

Thanks

PS. It’s SW in general, nothing specific.

[Lucid_Chaotic]

well if its general techniques you're looking for, then most strategies can be divided into either white-box testing or black-box testing. The former consists of structural tests to verify the structure of the software itself and require complete access to the source code. The latter, on the other hand, examines the observable behavior of software without reference to internal functions.

Also, you can differentiate between software verification and validation as two techniques in identifying programming bugs and anomalies in output.

Finally, developers & engineers would usually test the software in stages starting with unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing.

Buss short answer tow itna hee hai... for more info, come to my MBA MIS course ;-)

If you tell me the context of your inquiry, may be I can help a lil more.

[sharjeel]

I call testing an art rather than a formalizable procedure.

So my approach is simple. Hire a hacker and let him apply his heuristics to find bugs in your software.

[Lucid_Chaotic]

^^ yep... honeypots and honeynets are very commonly used in testing information security architectures.

[nos]

well if its general techniques you’re looking for, then most strategies can be divided into either white-box testing or black-box testing. The former consists of structural tests to verify the structure of the software itself and require complete access to the source code. The latter, on the other hand, examines the observable behavior of software without reference to internal functions.

Also, you can differentiate between software verification and validation as two techniques in identifying programming bugs and anomalies in output.

Finally, developers & engineers would usually test the software in stages starting with unit testing, integration testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing.

:k: bravo, a very concise and beautiful answer.

I call testing an art rather than a formalizable procedure.

So my approach is simple. Hire a hacker and let him apply his heuristics to find bugs in your software.

hmmm … so you think hackers just start their stunts just outta the blue … believe me the experienced hackers have a methodology, an [layered] approach. And by definition, hacking means: “An interesting solution to an intricate problem” or something of that sort .. I read it some time ago .. might have mixed things up a bit.

yep… honeypots and honeynets are very commonly used in testing information security architectures.

^^ He never mentioned anything about honeynets/pots and I personally think honeyNey/pots have nothing to do with the testing of software or security architectures. They are used for two purposes mainly:

1. To keep the average skiddie busy/deviated
2. To log activities of attacks and learn from them.