#software testing terminologies

Acceptance testing – Formal testing of user needs, requirements, and business processes conducted to determine whether or not a system meets the acceptance criteria and to allow the user, customers, or other authorized entity to determine whether or not to accept the system.

2. Alpha testing – Simulated or actual operational testing by potential users/customers or an independent testing team on the developers’ website, but outside the development organization. Alpha testing is often employed as a form of the internal acceptance test.

3. Attack – Directed and focused attempt on quality assessment, especially reliability, of a test object, trying to force specific failures.

4) Beta testing – Operational testing by users / potential customers and/or existing on an external site that is not involved with developers. Its purpose is to determine whether a component or system meets the needs of the user/client and fits within the business processes. Beta testing is often employed as a form of external acceptance testing to get market feedback.

5) Black box testing – Functional or non-functional tests, without reference to the internal structure of the component or system.

6)Boundary value analysis: A black box test design technique in which test cases are designed based on threshold values.

7)Branch coverage: The percentage of branches that were evaluated by a set of tests. One hundred percent affiliate coverage implies 100% decision coverage and 100% declaration coverage.

8)Code coverage: An analysis method that determines which parts of the software were run (covered) by the test suite and which parts were not executed.

9)Compiler: A software tool that translates programs expressed in a machine language.

10)Complexity: The degree to which a component or system has an internal design and/or structure that is difficult to understand, maintain, and verify.

11)Component integration testing: Tests performed to identify defects in interfaces and interactions between integrated components.

12)Component testing: Testing individual software components.

13)Configuration control: A configuration management element which consists of evaluating, coordinating, approving, or disapproving, and implementing changes to configuration items after the formal establishment of your configuration ID.

14)Configuration item: An aggregation of hardware, software, or both, which is intended for configuration management and treated as a single entity in the configuration management process.

15)Configuration management: A discipline that applies direction, technical and administrative surveillance to identify and document the functional and physical characteristics of a configuration item, track changes in these characteristics, record and report change processing and implementation status, and verify compliance with the specified requirements.

16)Control flow: An abstract representation of all possible sequences of events and paths in execution through a component or system.

17)Coverage: The grade, expressed as a percentage, to which a specified coverage item was run by a test suite.

18)Coverage tool: A tool that provides objective measurements of which structural elements were executed by the test suite.

19)Cyclomatic complexity: The number of independent paths through a program.

20)Data-driven testing: A scripting technique that stores test input and expected results in a table or worksheet so that a single control script can run all tests in the table. Data tests are often used to support the application of test execution tools such as capture/playback tools.

21)Data flow An abstract representation of the sequence and possible changes in the state of data objects, where the state of an object is any creation, use, or destruction.

22)Debugging: The process of finding, analyzing, and removing the causes of software failures.

25)Debugging tool: A tool used by programmers to reproduce failures, investigate the state of programs, and find the corresponding defect. Debuggers allow programmers to run programs step by step, stop a program in any program instruction, and define and examine program variables.

26)Decision coverage: The percentage of decision results that were exercised by a set of tests. One hundred per cent decision coverage implies both 100% affiliate coverage and 100% declaration coverage.

27)Decision table testing: A black box testing technique in which test cases are designed to perform the combinations of inputs and/or stimuli (causes) shown in a decision table.

28)Defect: A failure in a component or system that can cause the component or system to fail when performing its required function. An incorrect declaration or data definition. A defect, if found during execution, can cause a component or system failure.

29)Defect density: The number of defects identified in a component or system divided by the size of the component or system (expressed in terms of standard measurement, for example, lines of code, number of classes, or function points).

30)Defect management: The process of recognition, investigation, action, and elimination of defects. It involves recording defects, classifying them, and identifying the impact. It is a very important software testing terminology.