Testing Terminology
- Fault: an error, a mistake in the implementaion or design of the program.
- Error: a fault.
- Failure: the misbehaviour of the program, resulting from the program encountering a fault.
- Conditions: Failures occur under conditions. Conditions must be met for failures to occur.
- Symptom: Like a failure but less serious.
- Bug: A catch-all term that could refer to anything wrong with the software. Someone reporting a bug might describe a fault,a failure, or a limitation of the program that makes it less valuable to a stakeholder.
- Quality: Value to some person.
- Bug Report: a statement that some person considers the product less valuable because of the thing being described as a bug.
- Defect: This term can carry a legal charge. It means Something Is Definately Wrong With The Product.
- Resolved: a bug is resolved after someone (programmers, change control board, testers) either fixes it or decides not to fix it. The status can be any of fixed, deferred, not reprodicible, works as designed, any of these ... although bugzilla only is used to recognize fixed, verified or closed.)
- Black box testing: Testing the external behaviour of the program by feeding it inputs and examining the ouputs.
- Behavioural testing: Testing the external behaviour of the system, similar to balck box testing, but using as much knowledge of the internals of the system as is available to the tester and relevant to the test.
- Functional testing: Black box or behavioural testing
- White box or glass-box testing: Testing with knowledge of the internals of the system
- Structural Testing: White box testing that is focused on the internal structure of the program, such as the flow of control from one decision or action to the next
- Smoke testing or build verification testing: A standard suite of tests applied to a new release. the tests look for instability or key things missing or broken. If the releae fails these test then testing of the new release is halted but testing continues on the old release while waiting for repairs to the new one.