Software Testing

This is the home page for the School of Informatics course "ST: Software Testing", given by Stuart Anderson in January-March 2015.

Overview

This course provides in-depth coverage of software testing further to develop the introductory material covered in Informatics 2C - Software Engineering. The goal of the course is to provide students with the skill to select and apply a testing strategy and testing techniques that are appropriate to a particular software system or component. In addition the student will become a capable user of test tools; will be able to assess the effectiveness of their testing activity; and will be able provide evidence to justify their evaluation. The course will be supported by a group practical exercise involving the development of appropriate tests and the application of a range of testing tools. This course is based on the IEEE Software Engineering 2004 Software Testing syllabus and covers the material in the 2013 SWEBOK. The main elements of the course are:

Testing techniques and principles: Defects vs. failures, equivalence classes, boundary testing.
Types of defects.
Black-box vs. Structural testing.
Testing strategies: Unit testing, integration testing, profiling, test driven development.
State based testing; configuration testing; compatibility testing; web site testing.
Alpha, beta, and acceptance testing.
Coverage criteria.
Test instrumentation and tools.
Developing test plans.
Managing the testing process.
Problem reporting, tracking, and analysis.

Descriptor: The course descriptor provides an overview of course content, learning outcomes and administration.

Time Table 2014-2015:: Course meetings are at 1210-1300 on Tuesdays and Fridays in room 2.13 of Geography (Old Infirmary) - Map. Classes commence on Tuesday 13 January.; official timetable (page down to see the Semester 2 timetable); semester dates

Lectures

Copies of the Lecture slides will appear here as they are presented. I hope to have them in place the day before the lecture. Until the lecture is in place the link will be broken. I will try to get as much material as I can in place well before the presentation.

Tuesday 13 January: Course Overview
Friday 16 January: Lecture CANCELLED
Tuesday 20 January: Practical Exercise Overview
Friday 23 January: Testing in the Lifecycle.
Tuesday 27 January: Specification-based testing Supplementary material: Java Compiler
Friday 30 January: Specification-based testing 2
Friday 6 February: Unit testing tools
Tuesday 10 February: Structural Testing
Friday 13 February: Mutation testing
Tuesday 17 February: Innovative Learning Week
Friday 20 February: Innovative Learning Week
Tuesday 24 February: Safety Testing and Standards and Security Testing
Friday 27 February: Dataflow Coverage 1 and Dataflow Coverage 2
Tuesday 3 March: Integration Testing and Regression Testing
Friday 6 March: GUI Testing and System Testing
Tuesday 10 March: Higher Order Testing and Course Review
Friday 13 March: Spare slot that we may use if there is a need to reschedule any lectures.
Tuesday 17 March: Spare slot that we may use if there is a need to reschedule any lectures.
Friday 20 March: Spare slot that we may use if there is a need to reschedule any lectures.
To be arranged: Guest Lecture from Skyscanner

Assessment

The final examination counts for 75% of the final grade for the course. The coursework counts for 25% of the final grade of the course. In line with previous years, the examination will be open book. You will be permitted to take any written material (on paper) into the examinations. Laptops, phones, tablets, e-readers etc are not permitted because of the difficulty of ensuring they cannot communicate outside the examination room.

Coursework

There is a single coursework worth 25% of the overall assessment for the course. You will work in groups of 4 or 5 people to produce a report that has both group and individual contributions. The practical will be issued in the week ending 16 January with a deadline of Monday 16 March at 1600. There will be an opportunity to get formative feedback on draft submissions submitted at or before 1600 on Monday 23 February. Your can find the practical description here (this will be in place before Fri 16 January). The practical has a description of how to work and arrangements for tutorials. Your working groups will be emailed to you this week.

This page is maintained by Stuart Anderson (soa@staffmail.ed.ac.uk)

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