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Glossary of Software Testing Terms:
I
This glossary of software testing
terms and conditions is a compilation of knowledge, gathered
over time, from many different sources. It is provided “as-is”
in good faith, without any warranty as to the accuracy or
currency of any definition or other information contained
herein. If you have any questions or queries about the contents
of this glossary, please contact
Project Realms directly.
Implementation Testing
See Installation Testing.
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Incremental Testing
Partial testing of an incomplete product. The goal of incremental
testing is to provide early feedback to software developers.
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Independence
Separation of responsibilities which ensures the accomplishment
of objective evaluation.
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Infeasible
Path
A path which cannot be exercised by any set of possible input
values.
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Inference
Forming a conclusion from existing facts.
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Inference
Engine
Software that provides the reasoning mechanism in an expert
system. In a rule based expert system, typically implements
forward chaining and backward chaining strategies.
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Infrastructure
The organizational artifacts needed to perform testing, consisting
of test environments, automated test tools, office environment
and procedures.
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Inheritance
The ability of a class to pass on characteristics and data to
its descendants.
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Input
A variable (whether stored within a component or outside of
it) that is read by the component.
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Input Domain
The set of all possible inputs.
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Inspection
A group review quality improvement process for written material.
It consists of two aspects; product (document itself) improvement
and process improvement.
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Installability
The ability of a software component
or system to be installed on a defined target platform allowing
it to be run as required. Installation includes both a new installation
and an upgrade.
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Installability Testing
Testing whether the software or system installation being tested
meets predefined installation requirements.
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Installation Guide
Supplied instructions on any suitable media, which guides the
installer through the installation process. This may be a manual
guide, step-by-step procedure, installation
wizard, or any other similar process description.
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Installation Testing
Installation testing has two purposes. The first is to insure
that the software can be installed under different conditions,
such as a new installation, an upgrade, and a complete or
custom installation, and under normal and abnormal conditions.
Abnormal conditions include insufficient disk space, lack
of privilege to create directories, etc. This testing can
be verified through file and component verification. The second
purpose is to verify that, once installed, the software operates
correctly. This usually means running a number of the tests
that were developed for Functional testing.
This type of testing can validate a set of installation instructions
can be followed and produce the expected result. It can also
verify an installation has occurred correctly. This verification
will be a combination of file and component verification and
functional testing to ensure the installation competed successfully.
- File and Component Verification includes determining
if the correct set of files were copied to the system. It
requires the verification of number of files copied, verification
of the creation date associated to each file and determining
whether the correct component version has been installed.
It also requires the verification that the appropriate components
are active (in Windows systems this could mean verifying
that a service has started)
- Functionality Testing is typically based on successfully
executing a Smoke Test (see above) or some other subset
of functional tests used to verify the successful installation.
If the focus of the effort is to validate a patch has been
successfully deployed, then this testing might included
specific tests to verify the expected changes related to
the patch.
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Installation Wizard
Supplied software on any suitable media, which leads the installer
through the installation process. It shall normally run the
installation process, provide feedback on installation outcomes
and prompt for options.
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Instrumentation
The insertion of additional code into the program in order to
collect information about program behavior during program execution.
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Integration
The process of combining components into larger groups or assemblies.
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Integration Environment
The purpose of the Integration environment is to ensure a smooth
Production rollout. The environment should match production
as closely as possible.
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Integration Testing
Integration testing involves exercising interfacing applications.
Integration Testing will consist of the testing from one application
to another. It validates multiple modules or components working
together. The goal of integration testing is to identify errors
resulting from the interaction of the different components and
interfaces. This testing is usually performed after unit and
functional testing. This type of testing is especially relevant
to client/server and distributed systems.
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Interface Testing
Integration testing where the interfaces between system components
are tested.
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Isolation Testing
Component testing of individual components in isolation from
surrounding components.
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Issues
There are both technical and non-technical issues, which should
be managed until they are fully resolved.
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Iteration
A single pass through a group of instructions. Most programs
contain loops of instructions that are executed over and over
again.
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