A free, searchable by word and topic on-line vocabulary and thesaurus with definitions, synonyms and quotations for over 600 terms associated with Software Testing and QA (Quality assurance)
Acceptance Test. Formal tests (often performed by a customer) to determine whether or not a system has satisfied predetermined acceptance criteria. These tests are often used to enable the customer (either internal or external) to determine whether or not to accept a system.
Accessibility testing. Testing that determines if software will be usable by people with disabilities.
Ad Hoc Testing. Testing carried out using no recognised test case design technique. [BCS]
Acronyms and Abbreviations related to software testing This page lists many acronyms and abbreviations that can be related to software testing
Algorithm verification testing. A software development and test phase focused on the validation and tuning of key algorithms using an iterative experimentation process.[Scott Loveland, 2005]
Alpha Testing. Testing of a software product or system conducted at the developer's site by the customer.
Aperiodic bug. A transient bug that becomes active periodically (sometimes referred to as an intermittent bug). Because of their short duration, transient faults are often detected through the anomalies that result from their propagation. [Peter Farrell-Vinay 2008] .
Artistic testing. Also known as Exploratory testing.
Assertion Testing. (NBS) A dynamic analysis technique which inserts assertions about the relationship between program variables into the program code. The truth of the assertions is determined as the program executes.
Automated Testing. Software testing which is assisted with software technology that does not require operator (tester) input, analysis, or evaluation.
Audit.
ABEND Abnormal END. A mainframe term for a program crash. It is always associated with a failure code, known as an ABEND code.[Scott Loveland, 2005]
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Background testing. Is the execution of normal functional testing while the SUT is exercised by a realistic work load. This work load is being processed "in the background" as far as the functional testing is concerned. [ Load Testing Terminology by Scott Stirling ]
Bandwidth testing. Testing a site with a variety of link speeds, both fast (internally connected LAN) and slow (externally, through a proxy or firewall, and over a modem); sometimes called slow link testing if the organization typically tests with a faster link internally (in that case, they are doing a specific pass for the slower line speed only).[Lydia Ash, 2003]
Basis path testing. Identifying tests based on flow and paths of the program or system. [William E. Lewis, 2000]
Basis test set. A set of test cases derived from the code logic which ensure that 100\% branch coverage is achieved. [BCS]
Beta Testing. Testing conducted at one or more customer sites by the end-user of a delivered software product or system.
Benchmarks Programs that provide performance comparison for software, hardware, and systems.
Benchmarking is specific type of performance test with the purpose of determining performance baselines for comparison. [Load Testing Terminology by Scott Stirling ]
Big-bang testing. Integration testing where no incremental testing takes place prior to all the system's components being combined to form the system.[BCS]
Black box testing. A testing method where the application under test is viewed as a black box and the internal behavior of the program is completely ignored. Testing occurs based upon the external specifications. Also known as behavioral testing, since only the external behaviors of the program are evaluated and analyzed.
Blink testing. What you do in blink testing is plunge yourself into an ocean of data-- far too much data to comprehend. And then you comprehend it. Don't know how to do that? Yes you do. But you may not realize that you know how.[James Bach's Blog]
Boot testing - testing that must verify that the system can boot up its software image from all available boot options.
Bottom-up Testing. An approach to integration testing where the lowest level components are tested first, then used to facilitate the testing of higher level components. The process is repeated until the component at the top of the hierarchy is tested. [BCS]
Boundary Value Analysis (BVA). BVA is different from equivalence partitioning in that it focuses on "corner cases" or values that are usually out of range as defined by the specification. This means that if function expects all values in range of negative 100 to positive 1000, test inputs would include negative 101 and positive 1001. BVA attempts to derive the value often used as a technique for stress, load or volume testing. This type of validation is usually performed after positive functional validation has completed (successfully) using requirements specifications and user documentation.
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Boundary Value Analysis
Branch Coverage Testing. - Verify each branch has true and false outcomes at least once. [William E. Lewis, 2000]
Breadth test. - A test suite that exercises the full scope of a system from a top-down perspective, but does not test any aspect in detail [Dorothy Graham, 1999]
Bug: glitch, error, goof, slip, fault, blunder, boner, howler, oversight, botch, delusion, elision. [B. Beizer, 1990], defect, issue, problem
Bug crawl - a meeting focused on review of existing in the system bugs.
Business Process Testing enables structured testing of an application by combining test automation and automatically generated, easy-to-understand test documentation. [HP quality center help]
BRS - Business Requirement Specification
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This Internet Software Testing Computer Encyclopedia can be useful for students and other educational purposes as well as a reference material and a glossary for technical support.