Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
to prevent a task from starting which would entail more (wasted) effort compared
to the effort needed to remove the failed entry criteria.
Entry point:
The first executable statement within a component.
Equivalence class:
See
equivalence partition
.
Equivalence partition:
A portion of an input or output domain for which the
behavior of a component or system is assumed to be the same, based on the
specification.
Equivalence partition coverage:
The percentage of equivalence partitions that
have been exercised by a test suite.
Equivalence partitioning:
A black box test design technique in which test cases
are designed to execute representatives from equivalence partitions. In principle test
cases are designed to cover each partition at least once.
Error:
A human action that produces an incorrect result. [IEEE 610]
Error guessing:
A test design technique where the experience of the tester is used
to anticipate what defects might be present in the component or system under test
as a result of errors made, and to design tests specifically to expose them.
Error seeding:
The process of intentionally adding known defects to those already
in the component or system for the purpose of monitoring the rate of detection and
removal, and estimating the number of remaining defects. [IEEE 610]
Error tolerance:
The ability of a system or component to continue normal opera-
tion despite the presence of erroneous inputs. [IEEE 610]
Evaluation:
See
testing
.
Exception handling:
Behavior of a component or system in response to erroneous
input, from either a human user or from another component or system, or to an
internal failure.
Executable statement:
A statement which, when compiled, is translated into object
code, and which will be executed procedurally when the program is running and
may perform an action on data.
Execution phase:
See also
smoke test.
Exercised:
A program element is said to be exercised by a test case when the input
value causes the execution of that element, such as a statement, decision, or other
structural element.
Exhaustive testing:
A test approach in which the test suite comprises all combina-
tions of input values and preconditions.
Exit criteria:
The set of generic and specific conditions, agreed upon with the
stakeholders, for permitting a process to be officially completed. The purpose of
exit criteria is to prevent a task from being considered completed when there are still
outstanding parts of the task which have not been finished. Exit criteria are used to
report against and to plan when to stop testing.
Exit point:
The last executable statement within a component.
Expected outcome:
See
expected result
.
Expected result:
The behavior predicted by the specification, or another source, of
the component or system under specified conditions.