Black/White box testing - do you ?

_SuperString

I think it about time I started doing documented testing (long overdue).

Im in the process of writing test guidlines for my PHP application and would like to hear your opinions on what should/shoul'nt be included.

Here is the basic outline I have:

Black Box (For me and the users)

Project Details

Project Name
Date
Project Stage
Test Version

Environment

Testers Name
Client Machine
Server Machine
OS
Browser Version
Screen Resolution
User Input Method (keyboard/mouse etc)

Testing Areas

Presentation - Layout
Presentation - Content
Validation - Client Side (JavaScript)
Validation - Server Side (PHP/MySQL)
Functionality - Logic
Functionality - Exceptions

White Box testing has already been done (not much docs there though 🙁). Do any of you have good expereince on writing test documentation ? if so, I would be happy to hear your comments.

tomhath

The document I first hated but have learned to appreciate is the RVTM (Requirements Verification Tracability Matrix).

Just a grid, system requirements are the rows, where it is verified/tested are the columns. Make sure every requirement is tested somewhere (assuming you have written requirements 😉 , if not then black box testing is more like "shot in the dark" testing because you never really know if the system does what it's supposed to do).

_SuperString

Your right, Requirement/Specification Documents are a must when testing. (they also help when building the thing too..🙂, and even better when they don't get changed every day by some folks). An other thing that’s very important is the tester (obviously), its usually the developer first, but these results are clearly not conclusive (its very hard to spot your own errors). It can also be hard to get testers that actually understand what there testing for, and to report true errors.

After a quick look 'Requirements Traceability Matrix Verification' information, it does seem a logic place to start testing. And will obviously identify any system requirement errors. But to me this is just a small part of the testing. I need to incorporate more testing methods that take into account things like 'bug finding and exception handling' etc. I suppose these types of thing must be custom designed to accommodate the current system.