Monday 5 September 2011

Black Box testing Pro's & Con's

Black Box testing Pro's & Con's:

Black box (also know as closed box) does not require knowledge of the internal structure of the system. Below are the advantages and disadvantages of Black Box Testing.
Advantages of Black Box Testing:
a) Testers do not have to be Technical instead they need to be strong in functional/domain knowledge i.e., they do not have to go through the code to analyze to understand how application is built or to find defects.
b) Testing can be done faster compared to the time required for performing white box testing.
c) Test Case design can be done in parallel with coding/construction i.e., tests planning and preparation can be done even before construction is done. Incase of white box testing one has to wait till coding is completed in order to prepare for testing.
d) UI (User Interface) issue can only be caught through Black Box Testing.
e) Compatibility testing can only be done as Black Box testing, be it browser or hardware or any other compatibility testing.
Disadvantages of Black Box Testing:
a) Cannot ensure 100% code coverage because Black box testing approach does not take into consideration the number of conditions, branches and statements that are to be tested.
b) Black Box testing cannot uncover all types of errors and issues. Issues like redundant code, unreachable code, incorrect formatting of code, usage of depreciated functions which can lead to application or functionality failure once JVM (Java Virtual Machine) is upgraded to next version etc., or defects that can occur only at particular time e.g.:- Order submitted exactly at 00:00:00 hours do not get processed, these kind of tests cannot be easily done by Black box testing approach.
c) Test Inputs have to be of larger set. Requires significant time and effort for Test Data creation. Moreover test data cannot be stubbed like in case of White box testing.
d) Executing tests can be very time consuming unless the tests are automated.

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