Page 39 - SOFTWARE TESTING & QUALITY ASSURANCE

Software Testing and Quality Assurance

Different standards and guidelines are followed for e-manuals and printed manuals.
The tester has to carefully examine them during the testing process.

The software developed can also be benchmarked against products developed by competitors. Some of
the areas of assessment include its complexity, features, quality and security.

Most of the technical documents are based on Microsoft Manual of Style for
Technical Publication (MSTP) which defines standards and guidelines for
publishing technical documents such as user manuals, installation guide and
operating manual.
Static Black Box Testing - Low level Specification Test Technique
High level specification testing focuses on external influences, whereas low level specification test
focuses on the following eight attributes:

1. Completeness: The specification should bring complete information of the product
2. Accuracy: The defined goals of the proposed specification should be addressed without any
errors.
3. Precision, Unambiguity and Clarity: The description should be easy to comprehend. The content
has to be exact and not vague.
4. Relevance: Explanations are necessary and should be traceable to the requirements of the
customer.

5. Feasibility: The feature must be implemented with the available personnel, tools and resources,
with no additional cost.
6. Code-free Explanation: The specification should define the product and should avoid
unnecessary explanations of the technology, design and architecture.

7. Testable: The feature explained should be testable.
Since Low-level specification looks out for clarity of the explanation, a tester has to keenly test
whenever he/she encounters the following words:
1. Always, None, All, Never: The above mentioned cases denote a certain case. A tester has to
foresee where the conditions could be violated
2. Certainly, Clearly, Obviously, Evidently: These words are persuasive words which should be
tested.
3. Etc., And So on: Specifications need to be absolute or should be explained with no confusion. It is
best that such words are avoided.
4. Some, Sometimes, Often, Usually, Mostly: Vague words like these need to be avoided.
5. Good, Fast, Cheap, Efficient, Small: Unquantifiable terms such as these need to be avoided.
The above is a brief list of how low-level specification is carried out. The intention of the low-level
technique is to assure that all details are defined correctly.
Dynamic Black Box Testing
Static black box testing is carried out without the tester executing the code, whereas dynamic black box
testing is carried out with data. It is termed “dynamic” since the tester is able to observe the changes
exhibited by the system. The test is carried out by providing pre-defined inputs and the outputs are
recorded. These outputs are compared with the correct output, and the variation that exists between the
actual output and desired output are segregated as bugs. These tests are carried out using test cases.

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