Quality is an important issue for the software industry, though there is a balance between cost and quality. Starting with a few examples of software failures, this chapter discusses the need for testing, and uses an example to demonstrate why heuristics are needed to test software. A seven-step approach to testing software is introduced: analysis, identifying test coverage items and test cases, verifying the test design, implementing and executing the tests, and interpreting the test results. Key concepts are defined as used throughout the book, with a reference to the key IEEE/ISO software testing standard.

Random testing presents three main chanllenges: the test oracle problem, the test data selection problem, and the problem of when to finish testing. These are discussed in detail, and unit-test and application-test examples are worked using a simple but effective solution to these.Barriers to full automation are presented along with an overview of more advanced types of random testing. Some of the limitations are examined through the introduction of faults.

Testing with equivalence partitions introduces the reader to the first and simplest form of black-box and unit testing. First a worked example is used to demonstrate how to progress from a specification of the software to a fully automated test. The steps of the process are then examined in more detail, and the strengths and weaknesses examined through the introduction of faults into the software. The chapter ends, as do all the chapters which introduce new testing techniques, with notes for the experienced tester.

Testing object-oriented software is a significant topic in its own right, and this chapter presents the user with the essential underlying test techniques: testing in class context, and inheritance testing. As in the previous chapters, a worked example is used to introduce the reader to the concepts, which are then subsequently discussed in more detail. The chapter then summarises some more advanced techniques; state-based testing, UML-based testing, and built-in testing. Some of the limitations are examined through the introduction of faults into the working code.

Some forms of testing are significantly more time consuming to develop, and all-paths coverage is one of these. Is introduced to the reader as it is one of the most powerful forms of white-box testing, ensuring that every path from the beginning to the end of the code is exercised during testing. It is unlikely that a tester will use this technique in practice, but an understanding of this technique provides a baseline to compare other white-box tests against.

Building on the knowledge gained in chapter 1, this chapter explains the next form of black-box testing, based on the boundary values of each equivalence partition.

This chapter provides a more detailed description of the background of black-box and white-box testing. it then discusses a number of more advanced issues, covering testing with: more complex data types and data structures, more complex specifications, and more complex code. The chapter ends with an overview of some more advanced forms of white-box testing: condition coverage, decision coverage, decision-condition coverage, multiple condition coverage, and modified condition/decision coverage.

Test automation is used to make software testing must be reliable, fast, and repeatable. This chapter usesan exemplar test framework (TestNG) to demonstrate typical automation features. The handling of timeouts and exceptiomns is examined. A mode advanced look at inheritance testing is presented. The chapter ends with a further look at examining different types of application: web-based, desktop, and mobile.

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.