Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

ISSN No:-2456-2165

A Comparative Study on Testing

Techniques of Software
Sakshi Rastogi

Abstract:- Software Testing is done taking the aim of II. TERMINOLOGY

finding the errors in the software’s. Errors can be
occurred at any stage of the development or testing Software- The set of programs, documentations and
phase, it can occurred even after the deployment. The operating procedures.
aim of this paper is to describe about various popular Software Testing- Software testing is the process in which
Software Testing. It further gives the summary of the quality of the Software System is checked.
different Software Testing and also gives the comparison Fault or Defect- When an incorrect step, any wrong process
between them to find out the best one in order to find the or wrong data definition is occurred in the program.
errors. Error- The difference between the actual result and the
result after the testing.
Method:- I compare some of the popular Software
Testing Techniques on the basis of their point of focus in III. LITERATURE REVIEW
doing testing of the software, summarize them and
provide a conclusion that which one is the finest. Divyani Shivkumar Takey, Dr. Bageshree Pathak
(2020) described in their study about Software Testing and
Keywords:- Software, Software Testing, Software its aspects like Techniques of Software Testing and also
Development Stages, Software Testing Techniques, White Strategies of Software Testing. They further described some
Box Testing, Black Box Testing, Grey Box Testing, Agile basic life cycles that are needed in testing the quality. The
Testing, Smoke Testing, Acceptance Testing, Adhoc Testing, conclusion was in manual testing the design of test cases are
Security Testing. done by Human Testers while in Automation Testing the
Automation Tools are needed. They further concluded that
I. INTRODUCTION Automation Testing needed less complex testing as
compared to Manual Testing [1]. Arun Kumar Arumugam
Software Testing is the process of checking the quality (2019) described in their research about existing and
of the Software System. It should be performed by Software improved testing techniques that are used for the assurance
Testing Engineer. The Software should also be checked at of the better quality of the project. They further described
the Customer’s level as to give the reviews (either good or about the testing metrics. The conclusion was that testing is
bad) to the developer. By performing the testing of the main part of the Software Development Life Cycle because
software the feedback is which works as the next target for the final delivery of the product depends on the same [2]. 1 J.
the developer. Software can be tested at any phase but it Punitha, 2 S. Nivetha, 3 Dr. M. Inbavalli (2018) described in
should be planned before start implementation. The main their paper about the discussion between three types of
goal is to perform testing systematically and stepwise with testing namely- black, white and grey box testing
the aim of giving fewer amounts of time and effort. techniques. They further described about the testing
strategies, common errors that occurs and bug report. The
Some of the Testing’s that are described in this paper conclusion was that bug report plays a vital role in finding
are- software bugs in the future [3]. Er Suruchi (2016) gives the
 White Box Testing analysis and comparison of various testing techniques with
 Black Box Testing the aim to find the best technique in order to find errors.
 Grey Box Testing They also described about the Phases that are involved in
 Agile Testing the Software Testing Life Cycle. They further described
 Smoke Testing about the Unit Testing, Integration Testing, System Testing,
 Acceptance Testing Acceptance Testing and also various Software Testing
 Adhoc Testing Methodologies like Black Box, White Box and Grey Box.
The conclusion was that main focus in software engineering
 Security Testing
project is Quality [4].

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Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
Mihai Liviu (2014) in their paper described various C. Design- It is the stage in which the model of the project
specific characteristics that are involved in Software is made. Web Applications and Mobile Applications are
Development Project Management. They compared them by becoming more and more important of layout in comparison
focusing on strengths and weakness. They compared them to desktop applications. After this stage the project owner
on the basis of the users (directly or indirectly connected may get the new requirements that were not examined in the
with project) point of view. The conclusion was Software Research and Planning Stage.
Development Methodologies work with two philosophies-
heavyweight & lightweight [5]. 1 Keertika Singh, 2 Sumit D. Development- It is the stage in which the code of the
Kumar Mishra, 3Gaurav Shrivastava (2014) described in software is written and it is stage from where the actual
their paper about the brief summary on Software Testing building of the software application is started. It starts with
Approach and Techniques. They further include about Code creating the environment for development and testing
Coverage, Prototyping Testing and Traceability. They also purpose. The code is written on the development
deal with the- important issues that occurred in testing. The environment code and is further posted on the testing
conclusion was that the main goal of testing is to find the environment. The project manager is responsible for
errors before deploying it to the clients and to understand determining the progress and comparison with initial
reasons behind testing [6]. Antonia Bertolino (2007) planning.
described in their research that testing is widely spread E. Testing- It is the stage where identification of the errors
approach for validation in industry but at the same time it is is done and the developers try to fix them. Testing can be
still expensive. They start their research from some past divide into two kinds i.e., Manual Testing and Automation
achievements and their final destination consists of four Testing. Automation Testing is easier as compared to
identified goals to which research tends. The conclusion was Manual Testing.
that there are many relations amongst software testing &
other research areas [7]. F. Setup- It is the stage where installation of the application
is done. The setup involves the information that is related
IV. SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT STAGES with security, hardware and software resources. After the
establishment of the product it is again reviewed and tested.
When software is to build it has to go through certain
stages before the completion. Each and every stage has its G. Maintenance- It is the stage which covers improvement
own importance and is necessary in the development of the resulting to the application and furthermore it is liable for
software. In the process of building software there are many guaranteeing that the application is running inside the range
stages that are followed by any organization in order to give of the software.
the final project.
A. Research These above mentioned stages are accepted by the
B. Planning most of the Software Development Groups as there are
C. Design foundations of developing a software project. They can be
D. Development found with some other name in some different Software
E. Testing Development Methodology.
F. Setup
G. Maintenance V. SOFTWARE TESTING TECHNIQUES

A. Research- In this stage of the software development, There are plenty of Software Testing Techniques that
exchange of the information is done between the clients and are used by the Testers to find the errors in the Software for
the company. In this stage the Project Owner do his best to resolving them to get the better product. Some of the
find the people that are needed on the software and also testing’s that are described in this paper are -
which have the knowledge of the things that related with the  White Box Testing
project in the aim of complete the goal on time.  Black Box Testing
 Grey Box Testing
B. Planning- It is the stage in which we organize all the  Agile Testing
elements required for the development of the software  Smoke Testing
product. The start of the Planning Phase is performed by  Acceptance Testing
making design of the overall flow regarding the application.
 Adhoc Testing
It further performs the cracking of the module into smaller
 Security Testing
parts that are easy to work. After all this the product
manager should decide management things and the protocol
that are needed.

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Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165

Fig. 4 Types of Functional Testing [8]

a. Unit Testing- It is one of the most popular techniques

that are used in the organizations. Unit the word itself
suggests the meaning that it is talking about the smallest
thing. In this type of Software Testing Technique all the
small modules developed by the developers are tested
Fig. 1 Kinds of Software Testing Techniques individually.
b. Integration Testing- As the word integration itself
I. White Box Testing- The main goal of this technique of suggests that it means combination of something’s. In this
Software Testing is to check the inner functionalities of the type of Software Testing Technique the modules that were
software. It can be further divided into following kinds- tested individually are combined together and are tested in
1. Path Testing aim to find the errors.
2. Loop Testing c. System Testing- In this type of testing technique whole
3. Condition Testing system is checked with the operating system in order find
the errors.
ii. Non- Functional Testing- It gives the detailed overview
on software product performance and technologies that are
used. It can be further divided into-
a. Performance Testing
Fig. 2 Types of White-Box Testing [10] b. Compatibility Testing
c. Usability Testing
i. Path Testing- In this type of white-box testing the flow
graphs are made and all the paths are tested independently
with the goal of finding errors.
ii. Loop Testing- In this type of white-box testing, all the
loops that are included in the software are tested to examine
whether they are working accordingly or not.
iii. Condition Testing- In this type of white-box testing, all
logical conditions are checked for finding the errors. In this Fig. 5 Types of Non-Functional Testing [8]
both if & else conditions are examined [10].
a. Performance Testing- In this type of non-functional
II. Black Box Testing- The main goal of this technique is to testing the test engineer focus on some specific key factors
focus on the final outputs of the software, it need not to like- Load, Stress, Scalability and Stability.
focus on the inner working. It can be further divided into b. Compatibility Testing- In this we have to examine the
following that are as follows- functionality of the software in some hardware and software
i. Functional Testing environments.
ii. Non-Functional Testing c. Usability Testing- In this type of non-functional testing
we focus on the requirements of user-friendly environment
with the aim of finding the errors [8].

III. Grey Box Testing- The aim of this type of testing

technique is to search the deformities if any because of ill-
advised design or inappropriate use of utilization. It can be
Fig. 3 Types of Black-Box Testing [8]
further divided into-
i. Matrix Testing
i. Functional Testing- In this type of black-box testing all
ii. Regression Testing
the components are examined by providing some values,
iii. Pattern Testing
identifying outputs and checking the actual outputs with the
iv. Array Testing
expected one. This testing is also known as Component
Testing. The functional testing can further be divided into
following-
a. Unit Testing
b. Integration Testing
c. System Testing

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 Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
i. User Acceptance Testing- In this the software is fully
checked that it is working according to the user
requirements.
ii. Business Acceptance Testing- This is used for
determining that whether the software is meeting the
business goals that were discussed earlier.
iii. Alpha Testing- In this type of acceptance testing
software is checked by the specialized testers. These testers
Fig. 6 Types of Grey-Box Testing [9] are basically known as alpha testers.
iv. Beta Testing- In this type of acceptance testing software
i. Matrix Testing- We get the report of status of the is deployed to some friendly users to test the software.
software from this type of Gray-Box Testing. Feedback is collected from them and after that changes are
ii. Regression Testing- It focus on the re-start of the made in the software accordingly.
test cases if the changes applied on the software. v. Contract Acceptance Testing- This testing is done after
iii. Pattern Testing- It’s focus is basically on the design, the product is live. In this type of acceptance testing one
architecture and patterns of the application. period is determined earlier and in that acceptance testing is
iv. Array Testing- It is used as a subset of all combinations performed. In this the software should perform accurately
that can be made to test the software [9]. with all the test cases that are made for the acceptance of the
software.
IV. Agile Testing- In this type of testing all the works are vi. Regulations Acceptance Testing- In this type of
performed using the rules and regulations of the Agile acceptance testing it is examined that software should not
Methodology. With the help of Agile we can save time and break the rules and regulations defined by the government.
money. Documentation part is minimized when we are vii. Operational Acceptance Testing- In this type of
working with this type of testing. Interaction with the client acceptance testing the main focus on testing of recovery,
is the most importance thing in this type of testing so they compatibility, maintainability etc. [15].
take regular feedback with clients [11].
VII. Adhoc Testing- It is an unorganized type of software
V. Smoke Testing- This testing is performed when the testing which focuses on interrupting the process of testing
software is already under testing with the aim to check in between with the aim of finding defects at the early stage.
whether it is ready for the further processing. They are said In this type of testing we didn’t need any documentation,
to be the subset of the test cases that usually covers the very planning and the processes that will be followed. It can be
important functionality with the aim of finding whether divided into following-
main functions work accordingly [12]. i. Buddy Testing
ii. Pair Testing
VI. Acceptance Testing- This type of testing is done at the iii. Monkey Testing
client side in order to check that all the requirements are
fulfilled or not and that to accept the project. It usually finds
the defects that were lacked in the functional testing phase.
It can be further divided into-
i. User Acceptance Testing
ii. Business Acceptance Testing
iii. Alpha Testing
iv. Beta Testing Fig. 8 Types of Adhoc Testing [13]
v. Contract Acceptance Testing
vi. Regulations Acceptance Testing i. Buddy Testing- In this type of testing two buddies work
vii. Operational Acceptance Testing on the same modules in order to find the errors if any. In this
usually one person is from development team and the other
is from testing team. This testing works in the favor of both
the person’s as it helps the testers to define better test cases
and developers to make changes in the design in the earlier
phase.
ii. Pair Testing- In this type of testing the two testers are
given same modules for testing. They both share ideas and
work on the same machines with the aim to find defects.
One person executes the tests and the other one take notes of
the findings of the tests.
iii. Monkey Testing- In this type of testing we randomly
test the product or application. The main goal of this type of
Adhoc Testing is system interruption [13].

Fig. 7 Types of Acceptance Testing [15]

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 Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
VIII. Security Testing- It determines whether the system is i. Vulnerability Scanning- It is usually done with the help
properly protected from the intruders that might be possible. of automated software with the aim to scan the system to
It further examine the software application are free from risk find the known vulnerability patterns.
or threats or not. It focuses on finding the weaknesses of the ii. Security Scanning- It is done to find the network and
system. It can be further classified into- system weaknesses. After that it provides the solution too
i. Vulnerability Scanning for decreasing the risks.
ii. Security Scanning iii. Penetration Testing- It is done to provide analysis of a
iii. Penetration Testing system in order to examine attacks from hackers to hack the
iv. Risk Assessment system.
v. Security Auditing iv. Risk Assessment- In these security risks are identified
vi. Ethical Hacking that can be observed in the organization. They can be further
vii. Posture Assessment classified into- Low, Medium and High.
v. Security Auditing- It refers to the internal examination
of applications and operating systems with the aim to
inspect the security defects.
vi. Ethical Hacking- The main aim of this is to find out the
security loopholes in the organization system.
vii. Posture Assessment- It combines various things like
security scanning, ethical hacking and risk assessments in
order to give an overall posture of security of an
organization [14].

Fig. 9 Types of Security Testing [14]

VI. SUMMARY

Sr. No. Name Performed By Focus

1. White Box Testing Development Team Internal Function of the system
2. Black Box Testing Testing Team Outputs of system
3. Unit Testing Development Team Small Modules
4. Integration Testing Development Team Integrated Modules
5. System Testing Testing Team Whole system with operating systems
6. Performance Testing Testing Team Load, Stress, Scalability, Stability
7. Compatibility Testing Testing Team Functionality of Software with Hardware &
Software Environment
8. Grey Box Testing Testing Team Improper Structure
9. Agile Testing Testing Team Agile Methodology
10. Smoke Testing Quality Assurance Engineer Ready for further processing or not
11. Alpha Testing Alpha Testing Team They find the errors
12. Beta Testing Friendly Customer’s Friendly Customer’s finds the bugs
13. Acceptance Testing Clients Client check whether to accept or not
14. Adhoc Testing Development & Testing Interrupt the process
Team
15. Buddy Testing Development & Testing Both work on same modules
Team
16. Pair Testing Testing Team Two Testers work on same modules
17. Monkey Testing Testing Team Random Testing
18. Security Testing Development Team Protect from Intruders
Table 1 Summary of Software Testing Techniques

VII. CONCLUSION  Less Documentation is needed

 Feedback is taken regularly
Agile Testing is the best technique amongst the above  Daily Meetings are conducted for resolving issues
mentioned Software Testing Techniques because-  Test Driven Methodology
 It works on Agile Methodology
 Customer Interaction is the top priority
 It saves time and effort

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Volume 6, Issue 7, July – 2021 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology
ISSN No:-2456-2165
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Author Details- Sakshi Rastogi is currently pursuing

Masters in Technology (Software Engineering) from Babu
Banarasi Das University, Lucknow, U.P.

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