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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">
<chapter>
<header>
<copyright>
<year>2003</year><year>2016</year>
<holder>Ericsson AB. All Rights Reserved.</holder>
</copyright>
<legalnotice>
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
</legalnotice>
<title>Some Thoughts about Testing</title>
<prepared>Siri Hansen</prepared>
<docno></docno>
<date></date>
<rev></rev>
<file>why_test_chapter.xml</file>
</header>
<section>
<title>Goals</title>
<p>It is not possible to prove that a program is correct by
testing. On the contrary, it has been formally proven that it is
impossible to prove programs in general by testing. Theoretical
program proofs or plain examination of code can be viable options
for those wishing to certify that a program is correct. The test
server, as it is based on testing, cannot be used for
certification. Its intended use is instead to (cost effectively)
<em>find bugs</em>. A successful test suite is one that reveals a
bug. If a test suite results in OK, then we know very little that
we did not know before.</p>
</section>
<section>
<title>What to Test</title>
<p>
There are many kinds of test suites. Some concentrate on
calling every function or command (in the documented way) in
a certain interface.
Some others do the same, but use all kinds of illegal
parameters, and verify that the server stays alive and rejects
the requests with reasonable error codes. Some test suites
simulate an application (typically consisting of a few modules of
an application), some try to do tricky requests in general, and some
test suites even test internal functions with help of special
Load Modules on target.</p>
<p>Another interesting category of test suites is the one
checking that fixed bugs do not reoccur. When a bugfix is introduced,
a test case that checks for that specific bug is written
and submitted to the affected test suites.</p>
<p>Aim for finding bugs. Write whatever test that has the highest
probability of finding a bug, now or in the future. Concentrate
more on the critical parts. Bugs in critical subsystems are much
more expensive than others.</p>
<p>Aim for functionality testing rather than implementation
details. Implementation details change quite often, and the test
suites are to be long lived. Implementation details often differ
on different platforms and versions. If implementation details
must be tested, try to factor them out into separate test
cases. These test cases can later be rewritten or skipped.</p>
<p>Also, aim for testing everything once, no less, no more. It is
not effective having every test case fail only because one
function in the interface changed.</p>
</section>
</chapter>
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