Software Testing Terms And Meaning - Part 5

9 February 2025

Software Testing Terms and Meaning - Part 5

Gamma Testing

Gamma testing is a little-known informal phrase that refers derisively to the release of "buggy" (defect-ridden) products. It is not a term of art among testers, but rather an example of referential humor. Cynics have referred to all software releases as "gamma testing" since defects are found in almost all commercial, commodity and publicly available software eventually.
Gorilla Testing

Testing one particular module,functionality heavily
Grey Box Testing

The typical grey box tester is permitted to set up or manipulate the testing environment, like seeding a database, and can view the state of the product after their actions, like performing a SQL query on the database to be certain of the values of columns. It is used almost exclusively of client-server testers or others who use a database as a repository of information,or who has to manipulate XML files (DTD or an actual XML file) or configuration files directly, or who know the internal workings or algorithm of the software under test and can write tests specifically for the anticipated results.
GUI Testing

GUI testing is the process of testing a graphical user interface to ensure it meets its written specifications
Heuristic evaluations

Heuristic evaluations are one of the most informal method of usability inspection in the field of human-computer interaction. It helps identifying the usability problems in a user interface (UI) design. It specifically involves evaluators examining the interface and judging its compliance with recognized usability principles (the "heuristics").
High Order Tests

Black-box tests conducted once the software has been integrated
Incremental Testing

"Integration testing where system components are integrated into the system one at a time until the entire system is integrated.
Installation Testing

Installation testing can simply be defined as any testing that occurs outside of the development environment. Such testing will frequently occur on the computer system the software product will eventually be installed on. While the ideal installation might simply appear to be to run a setup program, the generation of that setup program itself and its efficacy in a variety of machine and operating system environments can require extensive testing before it can be used with confidence
Integration Testing

Integration testing is the phase of software testing in which individual software modules are combined and tested as a group. It follows unit testing and precedes system testing.
Interface Testing

Testing conducted to evaluate whether systems or components pass data and control correctly to each other.
Interoperability testing

The process of testing to determine the interoperability of a software product
Invalid testing

Testing using input values that should be rejected by the component or system
Isolation Testing

Component testing of individual components in isolation from surrounding components, with surrounding components being simulated by stubs
Keyword driven Testing

A scripting technique that uses data files to contain not only test data and expected results, but also keywords related to the application being tested. The keywords are interpreted by special supporting scripts that are called by the control script for the test
Load Testing

Load testing is the act of testing a system under load. It generally refers to the practice of modeling the expected usage of a software program by simulating multiple users accessing the program's services concurrently. This testing is most relevant for multi-user systems, often one built using a client/server model, such as web servers
Localization Testing

This term refers to making software specifically designed for a specific locality
Logic coverage Testing / Logic driven Testing / Structural test case design

Test case selection that is based on an analysis of the internal structure of the component. Also known as white-box testing
Loop Testing

A white box testing technique that exercises program loops
Maintainability Testing / Serviceability Testing

Testing whether the system meets its specified objectives for maintainability.
Maintenance testing

Testing the changes to an operational system or the impact of a changed environment to an operational system
Model Based Testing

Model-based testing refers to software testing where test cases are derived in whole or in part from a model that describes some (usually functional) aspects of the system under test.
Monkey Testing

Testing a system or an Application on the fly, i.e just few tests here and there to ensure the system or an application does not crash out
Mutation testing

A testing methodology in which two or more program mutations are executed using the same test cases to evaluate the ability of the test cases to detect differences in the mutations
N+ Testing

A variation of Regression Testing. Testing conducted with multiple cycles in which errors found in test cycle N are resolved and the solution is retested in test cycle N+. The cycles are typically repeated until the solution reaches a steady state and there are no errors
Negative Testing / Dirty Testing

Testing aimed at showing software does not work.
Operational Testing

Testing conducted to evaluate a system or component in its operational environment.
Pair testing

Two testers work together to find defects. Typically, they share one computer and trade control of it while testing
Parallel Testing

The process of feeding test data into two systems, the modified system and an alternative system (possibly the original system) and comparing results.
Path coverage

Metric applied to all path-testing strategies: in a hierarchy by path length, where length is measured by the number of graph links traversed by the path or path segment; e.g. coverage with respect to path segments two links long, three links long, etc. Unqualified, this term usually means coverage with respect to the set of entry/exit paths. Often used erroneously as synonym for statement coverage
Path Testing

Testing in which all paths in the program source code are tested at least once.
Penetration Testing

The portion of security testing in which the evaluators attempt to circumvent the security features of a system
Performance Testing

Performance testing is testing that is performed to determine how fast some aspect of a system performs under a particular workload.Performance testing can serve different purposes. It can demonstrate that the system meets performance criteria. It can compare two systems to find which performs better. Or it can measure what parts of the system or workload cause the system to perform badly
Playtest

A playtest is the process by which a game designer tests a new game for bugs and improvements before bringing it to market
Portability Testing

Testing aimed at demonstrating the software can be ported to specified hardware or software platforms.
Post-conditions

Cleanup steps after the test case is run, to bring it back to a known state.
Precondition

Dependencies that are required for the test case to run
Progressive Testing

Testing of new features after regression testing of previous features
Quality Control

Quality control and quality engineering are involved in developing systems to ensure products or services are designed and produced to meet or exceed customer requirements and expectations