Subject: Software Engineering

Topic: Testing Stratergies and Tactics

Difficulty: High

A number of software testing strategies are developed in the testing process. All these strategies provide the tester a template, which is used for testing. Generally, all testing strategies have following characteristics.

• Testing proceeds in an outward manner. It starts from testing the individual units, progresses to integrating these units, and finally, moves to system testing.

• Testing techniques used during different phases of software development are different.

• Testing is conducted by the software developer and by an ITG.

• Testing and debugging should not be used synonymously. However, any testing strategy must accommodate debugging with itself.

Types of Software Testing Strategies

Analytic testing strategy: This uses formal and informal techniques to access and prioritize risks that arise during software testing. It takes a complete overview of requirements, design, and implementation of objects to determine the motive of testing. In addition, it gathers complete information about the software, targets to be achieved, and the data required for testing the software.

Model-based testing strategy: This strategy tests the functionality of the software according to the real world scenario (like software functioning in an organization). It recognizes the domain of data and selects suitable test cases according to the probability of errors in that domain.

Methodical testing strategy: It tests the functions and status of software according to the checklist, which is based on user requirements. This strategy is also used to test the functionality, reliability, usability, and performance of the software.

Process-oriented testing strategy: It tests the software according to already existing standards such as the IEEE standards. In addition, it checks the functionality of the software by using automated testing tools.

Dynamic testing strategy: This tests the software after having a collective decision of the testing team. Along with testing, this strategy provides information about the software such as test cases used for testing the errors present in it.

Philosophical testing strategy: It tests the software assuming that any component of the software can stop functioning anytime. It takes help from software developers, users and systems analysts to test the software.