Testing Terms and Terminology

(Source: Anonymous)

A

Acceptance Testing
Testing conducted to enable a user/customer to determine whether to accept a software product. Normally performed to validate the software meets a set of agreed acceptance criteria.

Accessibility Testing
Verifying a product is accessible to the people having disabilities (deaf, blind, mentally disabled etc.)

Ad Hoc Testing

Similar to exploratory testing, but often taken to mean that the testers have significant understanding of the software before testing it. Also, we can call it Monkey Testing.

Agile Testing

Testing practice for projects using agile methodologies, treating development as the customer of testing and emphasizing a test-first design paradigm.

Alpha Testing
Testing of an application when development is nearing completion; minor design changes may still be made as a result of such testing. Typically done by end-users or others, not by programmers or testers.

Application Binary Interface (ABI)
A specification defining requirements for portability of applications in binary forms across different system platforms and environments.

Application Programming Interface (API)
A formalized set of software calls and routines that can be referenced by an application program in order to access supporting system or network services.

Automated Software Quality (ASQ)
The use of software tools, such as automated testing tools, to improve software quality.

Automated Testing
Testing employing software tools that execute tests without manual intervention. Can be applied in GUI, performance, API, etc. testing.
The use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparision of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test perconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions.

B

Backus-Naur Form
A Meta language used to formally describe the syntax of a language.

Basic Block
A sequence of one or more consecutive, executable statements containing no branches.

Basis Path Testing
A white box test case design technique that uses the algorithmic flow of the program to design tests.

Basis Set
The set of tests derived using basis path testing.

Baseline
The point at which some deliverable produced during the software engineering process is put under formal change control.

Beta Testing
Testing when development and testing are essentially completed and final bugs and problems need to be found before final release. Typically done by end-users or others, not by programmers or testers.

Binary Portability Testing
Testing an executable application for portablity across system platforms and environments, usually for confrormation to an ABI specification.

Black Box Testing: Functional Testing
Testing based on an analysis of the specification of a piece of software without reference to its internal workings. The goal is to test how well the component conforms to the published requirements for the component.

• Testing the features and operational behavior of a product to ensure they correspond to its specifications.
• Testing that ignores the internal mechanism of a system or component and focuses solely on the outpurs generated in response to selected inputs and execution conditions.

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.

For further terms and terminology - Click Here (Thankful to ISTQB)