Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
is done by developers. Unit and integration testing is collectively known as white
box testing. One more external source of defects is integration with other software
systems. In any company at any point in time there are many enterprise systems
that are used for different purposes and are integrated to each other. This integra-
tion happens at the application or database level. Integration can also be done using
middleware software. Nowadays one more type of integration happens. With the
proliferation of software service components (known as SAAS or “software as a
service”), loosely coupled integration happens between an application and a SAAS
component. For example, one travel portal offers cheap airfares to users through
their portal. When a user tries to choose the cheapest fares, the portal application
sources data available with SAAS components of different airlines and comes up
with comparative fares and presents it to the user. All this happens in real time, and
the user gets current fare data from many airlines. This kind of functionality is not
possible if the portal is tightly coupled with the application.
1.11
Software Testing Evolution
Welcome to the world of software testing! Software testing is not a new field, hav-
ing existed for over 60 years now. But its importance has been recognized for only
the last 10 years or so. Earlier software development processes used to have only one
phase for testing. Software used to get designed after getting requirements and then
it was developed. Once software was developed, it would be thrown at software
testers to test it. Some defects may be found and rectified, and then it was handed
over to end users.
Even if end users had problems using this defective software, they were help-
less, as their management was happy just to have that piece of software installed at
their premises. It was the era when software development guys were the kings and
whatever complaints the end users had with the installed software would go to deaf
ears. The market conditions were such that there were not many software vendors
and software service providers in the market, and so the end users were supposed to
accommodate shoddy software without any complaints.
After the Internet started becoming popular in the 1990s, the number of software
companies mushroomed. This started a sense of competition among software compa-
nies. With competition came price wars, addressing quality of software products, and
so on. And due to this change in scenario, rebirth of software testing took place. Also,
as the architecture of Internet-enabled software systems or software applications are
hugely different from old mainframe or client server applications, software develop-
ment methodology also got changed. The new software development model, called
agile development or extreme programming, has changed many aspects of software
project management. This has also made a big impact on software testing. This kind
of testing calls for approaches that are well suited for iterative and incremental soft-
ware testing. Not only does the test team get involved with black box and other kinds
