Chapter 1

A Perspective on Testing

Why do we test? The two main reasons are to make a judgment about quality or acceptability and to discover problems. We test because we know that we are fallible—this is especially true in the domain of software and software-controlled systems. The goal of this chapter is to create a framework within which we can examine software testing.

1.1 Basic Definitions

Much of testing literature is mired in confusing (and sometimes inconsistent) terminology, probably because testing technology has evolved over decades and via scores of writers. The International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) has an extensive glossary of testing terms (see the website http://www.istqb.org/downloads/glossary.html). The terminology ...

Get Software Testing, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.