Testing and Checking

Testing and Checking

 

Checking

• Doesn’t mean the product works
• Help us know that the product works within expectations
• Can ‘pass’ but still have serious problems
• Automated tests are checks
• Need specifications
• Helps answer – does the system do what it is supposed to do?
• Great programmers do alot of checking

Is

• Confirmation
• Verification
• Validation
• Making sure the program doesn’t fail
• Verifying beliefs we expect to be true

Checks
Are machine decidable:

• Yes
• No
• True
• False
• Pass
• Fail

Testing

Is

• Exploration
• Learning
• Finding new information
• Discovery
• Investigation
• Evaluating
• Finding problems
• Searching for extents and limitations
• Driven by questions
• Finding problems not covered in checks

Tests

• Have open ended results
• Asks if there is a problem here?
• Can be about finding out if checks have been good enough
• Problems found from testing can be used to create checks to stop them appearing in the future
• Do not require specifications
• Involves some checking

The Debate

• Why do we need to define the difference?
• Does more terminology just cause more confusion?
• What problem is this distinction solving?
• Should it not be ‘versus’ it should be Testing AND Checking