Software Testing

Here are links to the course home page and the formal TQA description.

Description

This course is intended to provide in-depth coverage of software testing further to develop the introductory material covered in Inf2C. 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 two practical exercises 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.

Syllabus

• 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.

Assessed Coursework

The coursework will comprise two, equally weighted, assessed practicals the first will concentrate on unit and integration testing the second on acceptance and performance testing. Both practicals will involve working with a reasonably large sample of code.

References:

* Glenford J. Myers, et al, The Art of Software Testing, John Wiley & Sons Inc, 2004

* Scott Loveland et al, Software Testing Techniques: Finding the Defects That Matter , Charles River Media, 2004

* R. Patton, Software Testing, SAMS, 2005

* C Kaner, J Bach & B Pettichord, Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach, Wiley Europe, 2002

* There is also extensive supporting material online which will be used in teaching