Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Boundary Value Analysis

Boundary value analysis is a software testing technique in which tests are designed to include representatives of boundary values. Values on the minimum and maxiumum edges of an equivalence partition are tested. The values could be either input or output ranges of a software component. Since these boundaries are common locations for errors that result in software faults they are frequently exercised in test cases.
[edit] Application

The expected input and output values to the software component should be extracted from the component specification. The values are then grouped into sets with identifiable boundaries. Each set, or partition, contains values that are expected to be processed by the component in the same way. Partitioning of test data ranges is explained in the equivalence partitioning test case design technique. It is important to consider both valid and invalid partitions when designing test cases.

For an example, if the input values were months of the year expressed as integers, the input parameter 'month' might have the following partitions:

... -2 -1 0 1 .............. 12 13 14 15 .....
--------------|-------------------|-------------------
invalid partition 1 valid partition invalid partition 2

The boundary between two partitions is the place where the behavior of the application changes and is not a real number itself. The boundary value is the minimum (or maximum) value that is at the boundary. The number 0 is the maximum number in the first partition, the number 1 is the minimum value in the second partition, both are boundary values. Test cases should be created to generate inputs or outputs that will fall on and to either side of each boundary, which results in two cases per boundary. The test cases on each side of a boundary should be in the smallest increment possible for the component under test, for an integer this is 1, but the input was a decimal with 2 places then it would be .01. In the example above there are boundary values at 0,1 and 12,13 and each should be tested.

Boundary value analysis does not require invalid partitions. Take an example where a heater is turned on if the temperature is 10 degrees or colder. There are two partitions (temperature<=10, temperature>10) and two boundary values to be tested (temperature=10, temperature=11).

Where a boundary value falls within the invalid partition the test case is designed to ensure the software component handles the value in a controlled manner. Boundary value analysis can be used throughout the testing cycle and is equally applicable at all testing phases.

Equivalence partitioning

Equivalence partitioning (also called Equivalence Class Partitioning or ECP[1]) is a software testing technique that divides the input data of a software unit into partitions of data from which test cases can be derived. In principle, test cases are designed to cover each partition at least once. This technique tries to define test cases that uncover classes of errors, thereby reducing the total number of test cases that must be developed.

In rare cases equivalence partitioning is also applied to outputs of a software component, typically it is applied to the inputs of a tested component. The equivalence partitions are usually derived from the requirements specification for input attributes that influence the processing of the test object. An input has certain ranges which are valid and other ranges which are invalid. Invalid data here does not mean that the data is incorrect, it means that this data lies outside of specific partition. This may be best explained by the example of a function which takes a parameter "month". The valid range for the month is 1 to 12, representing January to December. This valid range is called a partition. In this example there are two further partitions of invalid ranges. The first invalid partition would be <= 0 and the second invalid partition would be >= 13.

... -2 -1 0 1 .............. 12 13 14 15 .....
--------------|-------------------|---------------------
invalid partition 1 valid partition invalid partition 2

The testing theory related to equivalence partitioning says that only one test case of each partition is needed to evaluate the behaviour of the program for the related partition. In other words it is sufficient to select one test case out of each partition to check the behaviour of the program. To use more or even all test cases of a partition will not find new faults in the program. The values within one partition are considered to be "equivalent". Thus the number of test cases can be reduced considerably.

An additional effect of applying this technique is that you also find the so called "dirty" test cases. An inexperienced tester may be tempted to use as test cases the input data 1 to 12 for the month and forget to select some out of the invalid partitions. This would lead to a huge number of unnecessary test cases on the one hand, and a lack of test cases for the dirty ranges on the other hand.

The tendency is to relate equivalence partitioning to so called black box testing which is strictly checking a software component at its interface, without consideration of internal structures of the software. But having a closer look at the subject there are cases where it applies to grey box testing as well. Imagine an interface to a component which has a valid range between 1 and 12 like the example above. However internally the function may have a differentiation of values between 1 and 6 and the values between 7 and 12. Depending upon the input value the software internally will run through different paths to perform slightly different actions. Regarding the input and output interfaces to the component this difference will not be noticed, however in your grey-box testing you would like to make sure that both paths are examined. To achieve this it is necessary to introduce additional equivalence partitions which would not be needed for black-box testing. For this example this would be:

... -2 -1 0 1 ..... 6 7 ..... 12 13 14 15 .....
--------------|---------|----------|---------------------
invalid partition 1 P1 P2 invalid partition 2
valid partitions

To check for the expected results you would need to evaluate some internal intermediate values rather than the output interface. It is not necessary that we should use multiple values from each partition. In the above scenario we can take -2 from invalid partition 1, 6 from valid partition, and 15 from invalid partition 2.

Equivalence partitioning is not a stand alone method to determine test cases. It has to be supplemented by boundary value analysis. Having determined the partitions of possible inputs the method of boundary value analysis has to be applied to select the most effective test cases out of these partitions.