General Testing Principles

Question 1

Principle 1: shows presence of defects

Answer 1

-can show present defects but can’t prove there’s no defects
-reduces probability of undiscovered defects remaining in software

Question 2

Principle 2: exhaustive testing is impossible

Answer 2

If we could do exhaustive testing most tests would be duplicates which tell us nothing
We need selective efficient tests
We use risk and priorities to focus our testing efforts

Question 3

Principle 3: early testing

Answer 3

-testing activities should happen ASAP in software devkolemnt life cycle

Question 4

Principle 4: defect clustering

Answer 4

Small amount of modules contain most of defects discovered during pre release testing

Question 5

Principle 5 - pesticide paradox

Answer 5

If the same tests are repeated again and again eventually no more defects, this is the pesticide paradox. When all defects removed our test will find no more.

Question 6

Principle 6: testing is context dependent

Answer 6

E.g. safety critical software tested differently than e commerce sight because risk of failure higher

Question 7

Principle 7: absence of errors fallacy

Answer 7

System might have good specification and be tested thoroughly but might still not meet user specification , might night meet needs of users.