Abstract
In this chapter we introduce the fundamental ideas underlying software testing. We discuss why software testing is so difficult and challenging, what a ‘test case’ really means, and what the nature of defects is. A short discussion about ‘exploratory vs. scripted testing’ problem is conducted. We also present the ideal tester’s skill set, the role of communication, test process and models in testing. We conclude the chapter with a short, philosophical discussion about the ‘software testing version’ of the problem of universals.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Bibliography
I.M. Testy (2006) https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/imtesty/2006/07/13/the-purpose-of-software-testing/. Accessed 07 08 2016
Alanpa (2006) https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/alanpa/2006/07/10/testing-bug-finding/. Accessed 07 08 2016
Eversystems http://eversystems.eu/Document/18/The_Five_Goals_of_Software_Testing. Accessed 07 08 2016
Jones, C., Bonsignour, O.: The Economics of Software Quality. Pearson, Boston (2012)
Garvin, D.: What does product quality really mean? MIT Sloan Manage. Rev. 26(1), 25–45 (1984)
Jawadekar, W.: Software Engineering. McGraw-Hill, New Delhi (2004)
Agarwal, B., Tayal, S.: Software Engineering, 2nd edn, Firewall Media (2009)
Kan, S.: Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering. Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA (2003)
Hoffman, D.: The Darker Side of Metrics. Software Quality Methods, LLC (2000)
Kaner, C.: The ongoing revolution in software testing. In Software Test and Performance Conference 2004 (2004)
Cohen, D., Dalal, S., Kajla, A., Patton, G.: The automatic efficient test generator (AETG) system. In: Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (1994)
Kuhn, D., Reilly, M.: An investigation of the applicability of design of experiments to software testing. In: Proceedings of the 27th Annual NASA Goddard Software Engineering Workshop, Washington (2002)
Kuhn, D., Kacker, R., Lei, Y.: Introduction to Combinatorial Testing. Taylor & Francis, London (2013)
Compton, T., Withrow, C.: Prediction and control of ADA software defects. J. Syst. Softw. 12, 199–207 (1990)
Lind, R., Vairavan, K.: An experimental investigation of software metrics and their relationship to software development effort. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 15(5), 649–653 (1989)
Fenton, N., Neil, M.: A critique of software defect prediction models. IEEE Trans. Softw. Eng. 25(5), 675–688 (1999)
Bach, J., Bolton, M.: Exploratory Testing 3.0 (2015) http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/1509. Accessed 2016
Itkonen, J., Mäntylä, M.: Are test cases needed? Replicated comparison between exploratory and test-case-based software testing. Empir. Softw. Eng. 19, 303–342 (2014)
Farrell-Vinay, P.: Manage Software Testing. Auerbach Publications, Boca Raton (2008)
GAO: Patriot Missle Defense. Software Problem Led to System Failure at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. United States General Accounting Office (1992)
EuroStar 2012 Conference. What is the most important skill a software tester should have? 12 09 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLxaG0TNgMM. Accessed 2016
von Thun, F.S.: Miteinander reden: Störungen und Klärungen. Psychologie der zwischenmenschlichen Kommunikation. Rowohlt, Reinbek (1981)
Kramer, A., Legeard, B.: Model-Based Testing Essentials. Wiley (2016)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Roman, A. (2018). Fundamentals of Software Testing. In: Thinking-Driven Testing. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73195-7_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73195-7_1
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-73194-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-73195-7
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)