Combinatorial game theory is about perfect-information two-player games, such as Checkers, Go, Chess, or Nim, which are analyzed using their rules. It tries to answer who will win in a game position (assuming optimal play on both sides), and to quantify who is ahead and by how much. The topic has a rich mathematical theory that relates to discrete mathematics, algebra, and (not touched here) computational complexity, and highly original ideas specific to these games.

As an introduction to white-box testing, the first technique presented shows how to identify lines of code that have not been executed during testing, and how to develop additional tests to ensure that they produce the correct results when executed.

Application testing is often emphasised in practice, as it ensures that an entire software system works for a user. However, this is substantially more complex than unit-testing, so this topic is addressed after the underlying concepts have been introduced in the previous chapters. As for object-oriented testing, this is a significant topic, and the reader is introduced to the common form used in practice: user-story testing. A worked example is used to present the techniques involved to analyse the software interface and produce a fully automated set of tests for a web-based application. A more detailed analysis follows, identifying many of the more difficult problems that an application tester will experience.

Testing is an important element in the software development cycle. This chapter examines where software testing fits into a number of software process models: the waterfall model, the V-model, incremental and Agile development, eXtreme Programming, and SCRUM.

There is a subtle distinction between statements in a program, and the branches between those statements. Even with full statement coverage, faults may remain. This chapter presented shows how to identify branches in the code that have not been taken during testing, and how to develop additional tests to ensure that they produce the correct results when they are taken.

The book is summarised by reviewingthe topics discussed and practised. It then motivates the software testing process used in the book by tracing all the steps backwards based on the data required by each step. We further provide additional reading material, categoriesed by important topics such as random testing, program proving, testing safety-critical software, etc. The chapter closes with a glimpse into current 'hot' research topics.

Combinations of different inputs, when not correctly handled, are a frequent cause of faults in software. Decision tables allow the tester to identify these combinations, and further improve the test coverage. Building on the knowledge gained in the previous chapters, this chapter explains how to identify casues and effects, build a decision table, and then use the rules in the table to develop test cases and automated tests.