Foundations of Software Testing

Overview

This first course is a basic introduction to black box testing. It presents basic terminology and considers:

the mission of testing

the oracle problem

the measurement problem

the impossibility of complete testing

More info on the Learning Objectives for Foundations of Software Testing are available on the BBST.info website.

Slides

Videos

Lecture 1: Overview & Basic Definitions

This provides an overview of the online Black Box Software Testing courses and introduces some definitions commonly used in the testing field.

Lecture 2: Strategy

This considers why testers test, what they are trying to learn, and how they can organize their work to achieve their mission.

Lecture 3: Oracles

This presents software oracles as heuristics that help testers make a judgment whether or not software passes the tests that are run.

Lecture 4: Programming Fundamentals & Coverage

This presents information about basic data handling and storage to help testers think about the multi-dimensional problem of test coverage in more sophisticated ways.

Lecture 5: The Impossibility of Complete Testing

This explores the complexity of determining when testing is finished and how the goal of complete testing is unattainable.

Lecture 6: Introduction to Measurement

This addresses the challenges of measurement in software testing.

Readings

All readings archived on this site are reposted by permission of the copyright holders.

Required Readings

Recommended Readings

Austin, Robert. (1996), Measuring and Managing Performance in Organizations (BOOK)

Koen, Billy V. Definition of the Engineering Method, American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). (A later version that is more thorough but maybe less approachable is Discussion of the Method, Oxford University Press, 2003) (BOOK)

Petzold, Charles. (1993), Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software. Microsoft Press (BOOK)

Popper, Karl (2002, 3rd Ed.) , Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (RoutledgeClassics). (BOOK)

Assignments

Study Guide