Unit-7 Verification and Validation

Objectives

.To introduce software verification and validation and to discuss the distinction
between them

.To describe the program inspection process and its role in V & V

.To explain static analysis as a verification technique

.To describe the Clean-room software development process

.To discuss the distinctions between validation testing and defect testing

.To describe the principles of system and component testing

.To describe strategies for generating system test cases

.To understand the essential characteristics of tool used for test automation

Topics covered

.Verification and validation planning

.Software inspections

.Automated static analysis

.Clean room software development

.System testing

.Component testing

.Test case design

.Test automation

Verification v/s validation

.Verification: "Are we building the product right”.

.The software should conform to its specification.

.Validation: "Are we building the right product”.

.The software should do what the user really requires.

The V & V process

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.Is a whole life-cycle process - V & V must be applied at each stage in the software
process.

.Has two principal objectives

•The discovery of defects in a system;

•The assessment of whether or not the system is useful and useable in an

operational situation.

V & V goals

.Verification and validation should establish confidence that the software is fit for
purpose.

.This does NOT mean completely free of defects.

.Rather, it must be good enough for its intended use and the type of use will
determine the degree of confidence that is needed.

V & V confidence

.Depends on system’s purpose, user expectations and marketing environment

•Software function

•The level of confidence depends on how critical the software is to an organisation.

•User expectations

•Users may have low expectations of certain kinds of software.

•Marketing environment

•Getting a product to market early may be more important than finding defects in
the program.

Static and dynamic verification

.Software inspections. Concerned with analysis of the static system representation

to discover problems (static verification)

•May be supplement by tool-based document and code analysis

.Software testing. Concerned with exercising and observing product behaviour

(dynamic verification)

•The system is executed with test data and its operational behaviour is observed

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Static and dynamic V&V Diagram

Program testing

.Can reveal the presence of errors NOT their absence.

.The only validation technique for nonfunctional requirements as the software has
to be executed to see how it behaves.

.Should be used in conjunction with static verification to provide full V&V coverage.

Types of testing

.Defect testing

•Tests designed to discover system defects.

•A successful defect test is one which reveals the presence of defects in a system.

.Validation testing

•Intended to show that the software meets its requirements.

•A successful test is one that shows that a requirements has been properly
implemented.

Testing and debugging

.Defect testing and debugging are distinct processes.

.Verification and validation is concerned with establishing the existence of defects

in a program.

.Debugging is concerned with locating and repairing these errors.

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.Debugging involves formulating a hypothesis about program behaviour then

testing these hypotheses to find the system error.

The debugging process Diagram

V & V planning

.Careful planning is required to get the most out of testing and inspection
processes.

.Planning should start early in the development process.

.The plan should identify the balance between static verification and testing.

.Test planning is about defining standards for the testing process rather than
describing product tests.

The V-model of development Diagram

The structure of a software test plan

.The testing process.

.Requirements traceability.

.Tested items.

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.Testing schedule.

.Test recording procedures.

.Hardware and software requirements.

.Constraints.

The software test plan

The testing process: A description of the major phases of the testing process. These
might be as described earlier in this chapter.

Requirements traceability: Users are most interested in the system meeting its
requirements and testing should be planned so that all requirements are
individually tested.

Tested items: The products of the software process that are to be tested should be
specified.

Testing schedule: An overall testing schedule and resource allocation for this
schedule. This, obviously, is linked to the more general project development
schedule.

Test recording procedures: It is not enough simply to run tests. The results of the
tests must be systematically recorded. It must be possible to audit the testing
process to check that it been carried out correctly.

Hardware and software requirements: This section should set out software tools
required and estimated hardware utilization.

Constraints: Constraints affecting the testing process such as staff shortages

shouldbe anticipated in this section.

Software inspections

.These involve people examining the source representation with the aim of
discovering anomalies and defects.

.Inspections not require execution of a system so may be used before

implementation.

.They may be applied to any representation of the system (requirements,

design,configuration data, test data, etc.).

.They have been shown to be an effective technique for discovering program errors.

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Inspection success

.Many different defects may be discovered in a single inspection. In testing, one

defect ,may mask another so several executions are required.

.The reuse domain and programming knowledge so reviewers are likely to have
seen the types of error that commonly arise.

Inspections and testing

.Inspections and testing are complementary and not opposing verification

techniques.

.Both should be used during the V & V process.

.Inspections can check conformance with a specification but not conformance with
the customer’s real requirements.

.Inspections cannot check non-functional characteristics such as performance,

usability, etc.

Program inspections

.Formalised approach to document reviews

.Intended explicitly for defect detection (not correction).

.Defects may be logical errors, anomalies in the code that might indicate an
erroneous condition (e.g. an uninitialised variable) or non-compliance with
standards.

Inspection pre-conditions

.A precise specification must be available.

.Team members must be familiar with the organisation standards.

.Syntactically correct code or other system representations must be available.

.An error checklist should be prepared.

.Management must accept that inspection will increase costs early in the software
process.

.Management should not use inspections for staff appraisal ie finding out who
makes mistakes.

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The inspection process Diagram

Inspection procedure

.System overview presented to inspection team.

.Code and associated documents are distributed to inspection team in advance.

.Inspection takes place and discovered errors are noted.

.Modifications are made to repair discovered errors.

.Re-inspection may or may not be required.

Inspection roles

Author or owner: The programmer or designer responsible for producing the

program or document. Responsible for fixing defects discovered during the
inspection process.

Inspector: Finds errors, omissions and inconsistencies in programs and documents.

May also identify broader issues that are outside the scope of the inspection team.

Reader: Presents the code or document at an inspection meeting.

Scribe: Records the results of the inspection meeting.

Chairman or moderator: Manages the process and facilitates the inspection. Reports
process results to the Chief moderator.

Chief moderator: Responsible for inspection process improvements, checklist

updating, standards development etc.

Inspection checklists

.Checklist of common errors should be used to drive the inspection.

.Error checklists are programming language dependent and reflect the

characteristic errors that are likely to arise in the language.
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.In general, the 'weaker' the type checking, the larger the checklist.

.Examples: Initialisation, Constant naming, loop termination, array bounds, etc.

Inspection checks Diagram

Inspection rate

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.500 statements/hour during overview.

.125 source statement/hour during individual preparation.

.90-125 statements/hour can be inspected.

.Inspection is therefore an expensive process.

.Inspecting 500 lines costs about 40 man/hours effort - about £2800 at UK rates.

Automated static analysis

.Static analysers are software tools for source text processing.

.They parse the program text and try to discover potentially erroneous conditions
and bring these to the attention of the V & V team.

.They are very effective as an aid to inspections - they are a supplement to but not
a replacement for inspections.

Static analysis checks Diagram

Stages of static analysis

.Control flow analysis. Checks for loops with multiple exit or entry points, finds
unreachable code, etc.

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.Data use analysis. Detects uninitialised variables, variables written twice without
an intervening assignment, variables which are declared but never used, etc.

.Interface analysis. Checks the consistency of routine and procedure declarations

and their use

.Information flow analysis. Identifies the dependencies of output variables. Does not
detect anomalies itself but highlights information for code inspection or review

.Path analysis. Identifies paths through the program and sets out the statements
executed in that path. Again, potentially useful in the review process

.Both these stages generate vast amounts of information. They must be used with
care.

LINT static analysis

Use of static analysis

.Particularly valuable when a language such as C is used which has weak typing and
hence many errors are undetected by the compiler,

.Less cost-effective for languages like Java that have strong type checking and can
therefore detect many errors during compilation.

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Verification and formal methods

.Formal methods can be used when a mathematical specification of the system is

produced.

.They are the ultimate static verification technique.

.They involve detailed mathematical analysis of the specification and may develop
formal arguments that a program conforms to its mathematical specification.

Arguments for formal methods

.Producing a mathematical specification requires a detailed analysis of the

requirements and this is likely to uncover errors.

.They can detect implementation errors before testing when the program is
analysed alongside the specification.

Arguments against formal methods

.Require specialised notations that cannot be understood by domain experts.

.Very expensive to develop a specification and even more expensive to show that a
program meets that specification.

.It may be possible to reach the same level of confidence in a program more
cheaply using other V & V techniques.

Cleanroom software development

.The name is derived from the 'Cleanroom' process in semiconductor fabrication.

The philosophy is defect avoidance rather than defect removal.

.This software development process is based on:

•Incremental development;

•Formal specification;

•Static verification using correctness arguments;

•Statistical testing to determine program reliability.

The Cleanroom process Diagram

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Cleanroom process characteristics

.Formal specification using a state transition model.

.Incremental development where the customer prioritises increments.

.Structured programming - limited control and abstraction constructs are used in

the program.

.Static verification using rigorous inspections.

.Statistical testing of the system.

Formal specification and inspections

.The state based model is a system specification and the inspection process checks
the program against this mode.l

.The programming approach is defined so that the correspondence between the

model and the system is clear.

.Mathematical arguments (not proofs) are used to increase confidence in the

inspection process.

Cleanroom process teams

.Specification team. Responsible for developing and maintaining the system

specification.

.Development team. Responsible for developing and verifying the software. The
software is NOT executed or even compiled during this process.

.Certification team. Responsible for developing a set of statistical tests to exercise

the software after development. Reliability growth models used to determine when
reliability is acceptable.

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Cleanroom process evaluation

.The results of using the Cleanroom process have been very impressive with few
discovered faults in delivered systems.

.Independent assessment shows that the process is no more expensive than other
approaches.

.There were fewer errors than in a 'traditional' development process.

.However, the process is not widely used. It is not clear how this approach can be
transferred to an environment with less skilled or less motivated software
engineers.

The testing process

.Component testing

•Testing of individual program components;

•Usually the responsibility of the component developer (except sometimes for

critical systems);

•Tests are derived from the developer’s experience.

.System testing

•Testing of groups of components integrated to create a system or sub-system;

•The responsibility of an independent testing team;

•Tests are based on a system specification.

Testing phases Diagram

Defect testing

.The goal of defect testing is to discover defects in programs

.A successful defect test is a test which causes a program to behave in an

anomalous way

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.Tests show the presence not the absence of defects

Testing process goals

.Validation testing

•To demonstrate to the developer and the system customer that the software
meets its requirements;

•A successful test shows that the system operates as intended.

.Defect testing

•To discover faults or defects in the software where its behaviour is incorrect or not
in conformance with its specification;

•A successful test is a test that makes the system perform incorrectly and so
exposes a defect in the system.

The software testing process Diagram

Testing policies

.Only exhaustive testing can show a program is free from defects. However,
exhaustive testing is impossible,

.Testing policies define the approach to be used in selecting system tests:

•All functions accessed through menus should be tested;

•Combinations of functions accessed through the same menu should be tested;

•Where user input is required, all functions must be tested with correct and
incorrect input.

System testing

.Involves integrating components to create a system or sub-system.

.May involve testing an increment to be delivered to the customer.

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.Two phases:

•Integration testing - the test team have access to the system source code. The
system is tested as components are integrated.

•Release testing - the test team test the complete system to be delivered as a
black-box.

Integration testing

.Involves building a system from its components and testing it for problems that
arise from component interactions.

.Top-down integration

•Develop the skeleton of the system and populate it with components.

.Bottom-up integration

•Integrate infrastructure components then add functional components.

.To simplify error localisation, systems should be incrementally integrated.

Incremental integration testing Diagram

Testing approaches

.Architectural validation

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•Top-down integration testing is better at discovering errors in the system

architecture.

.System demonstration

•Top-down integration testing allows a limited demonstration at an early stage in

the development.

.Test implementation

•Often easier with bottom-up integration testing.

.Test observation

•Problems with both approaches. Extra code may be required to observe tests.

Release testing

.The process of testing a release of a system that will be distributed to customers.

.Primary goal is to increase the supplier’s confidence that the system meets its
requirements.

.Release testing is usually black-box or functional testing

•Based on the system specification only;

•Testers do not have knowledge of the system implementation.

Black-box testing Diagram

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Testing guidelines

.Testing guidelines are hints for the testing team to help them choose tests that will
reveal defects in the system

•Choose inputs that force the system to generate all error messages;

•Design inputs that cause buffers to overflow;

•Repeat the same input or input series several times;

•Force invalid outputs to be generated;

•Force computation results to be too large or too small.

Testing scenario

A student in Scotland is studying American History and has been asked to write a
paper on ‘Frontier mentality in the American West from 1840 to 1880’. To do this,
she needs to find sources from a range of libraries. She logs on to the LIBSYS
system and uses the search facility to discover if she can access original documents
from that time. She discovers sources in various US university libraries and
downloads copies of some of these. However, for one document, she needs to have
confirmation from her university that she is a genuine student and that use is for
non-commercial purposes. The student then uses the facility in LIBSYS that can
request such permission and registers her request. If granted, the document will be
downloaded to the registered library’s server and printed for her. She receives a
message from LIBSYS telling her that she will receive an e-mail message when the
printed document is available for collection.

System tests

1. Test the login mechanism using correct and incorrect logins to check that valid
users are accepted and invalid users are rejected.

2. Test the search facility using different queries against known sources to check
that the search mechanism is actually finding documents.

3. Test the system presentation facility to check that information about documents
is displayed properly.

4. Test the mechanism to request permission for downloading.

5. Test the e-mail response indicating that the downloaded document is available.

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Use cases

.Use cases can be a basis for deriving the tests for a system. They help identify
operations to be tested and help design the required test cases.

.From an associated sequence diagram, the inputs and outputs to be created for the
tests can be identified.

Collect weather data sequence chart

Performance testing

.Part of release testing may involve testing the emergent properties of a system,
such as performance and reliability.

.Performance tests usually involve planning a series of tests where the load is
steadily increased until the system performance becomes unacceptable.

Stress testing

.Exercises the system beyond its maximum design load. Stressing the system often
causes defects to come to light.

.Stressing the system test failure behaviour.. Systems should not fail
catastrophically. Stress testing checks for unacceptable loss of service or data.

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.Stress testing is particularly relevant to distributed systems that can exhibit severe
degradation as a network becomes overloaded.

Component testing

.Component or unit testing is the process of testing individual components in

isolation.

.It is a defect testing process.

.Components may be:

•Individual functions or methods within an object;

•Object classes with several attributes and methods;

•Composite components with defined interfaces used to access their functionality.

Object class testing

.Complete test coverage of a class involves

•Testing all operations associated with an object;

•Setting and interrogating all object attributes;

•Exercising the object in all possible states.

.Inheritance makes it more difficult to design object class tests as the information to
be tested is not localised.

Weather station object interface

Weather station testing

.Need to define test cases for reportWeather, calibrate, test, startup and shutdown.

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.Using a state model, identify sequences of state transitions to be tested and the
event sequences to cause these transitions

.For example:

•Waiting -> Calibrating -> Testing -> Transmitting -> Waiting

Interface testing

.Objectives are to detect faults due to interface errors or invalid assumptions about
interfaces.

.Particularly important for object-oriented development as objects are defined by

their interfaces.

Interface testing Diagram

Interface types

.Parameter interfaces

•Data passed from one procedure to another.

.Shared memory interfaces

•Block of memory is shared between procedures or functions.

.Procedural interfaces

•Sub-system encapsulates a set of procedures to be called by other sub-systems.

.Message passing interfaces

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•Sub-systems request services from other sub-system.s

Interface errors

.Interface misuse

•A calling component calls another component and makes an error in its use of its
interface e.g. parameters in the wrong order.

.Interface misunderstanding

•A calling component embeds assumptions about the behaviour of the called

component which are incorrect.

.Timing errors

•The called and the calling component operate at different speeds and out-of-date
information is accessed.

Interface testing guidelines

.Design tests so that parameters to a called procedure are at the extreme ends of
their ranges.

.Always test pointer parameters with null pointers.

.Design tests which cause the component to fail.

.Use stress testing in message passing systems.

.In shared memory systems, vary the order in which components are activated.

Test case design

.Involves designing the test cases (inputs and outputs) used to test the system.

.The goal of test case design is to create a set of tests that are effective in
validation and defect testing.

.Design approaches:

•Requirements-based testing;

•Partition testing;

•Structural testing.

Requirements based testing

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.A general principle of requirements engineering is that requirements should be

testable.

.Requirements-based testing is a validation testing technique where you consider

each requirement and derive a set of tests for that requirement.

LIBSYS requirements

1. The user shall be able to search either all of the initial set of databases or select a
subset from it.

2. The system shall provide appropriate viewers for the user to read documents in
the document store.

3. Every order shall be allocated a unique identifier (ORDER_ID) that the user shall
be able to copy to the account’s permanent storage area.

LIBSYS tests

•Initiate user search for searches for items that are known to be present and known
not to be present, where the set of databases includes 1 database.

•Initiate user searches for items that are known to be present and known not to be
present, where the set of databases includes 2 databases

•Initiate user searches for items that are known to be present and known not to be
present where the set of databases includes more than 2 databases.

•Select one database from the set of databases and initiate user searches for items
that are known to be present and known not to be present.

•Select more than one database from the set of databases and initiate searches for
items that are known to be present and known not to be present.

Partition testing

.Input data and output results often fall into different classes where all members of
a class are related.

.Each of these classes is an equivalence partition or domain where the program

behaves in an equivalent way for each class member.

.Test cases should be chosen from each partition.

Equivalence partitioning Diagram

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Equivalence partitions Diagram

Search routine specification

Procedure Search (Key : ELEM ; T: SEQ of ELEM;Found : in out BOOLEAN; L: in out

ELEM_INDEX) ;

Pre-condition -- the sequence has at least one elementT’FIRST <= T’LAST

Post-condition -- the element is found and is referenced by L( Found and T (L) =

Key)

Or -- the element is not in the array( not Found and not (exists i, T’FIRST >= i <=
T’LAST, T (i) = Key ))

Search routine - input partitions

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. Inputs which conform to the pre-conditions.

.Inputs where a pre-condition does not hold.

.Inputs where the key element is a member of the array.

.Inputs where the key element is not a member of the array.

Testing guidelines (sequences)

.Test software with sequences which have only a single value.

.Use sequences of different sizes in different tests.

.Derive tests so that the first, middle and last elements of the sequence are
accessed.

.Test with sequences of zero length.

Search routine - input partitions Diag

Structural testing

.Sometime called white-box testing.

.Derivation of test cases according to program structure. Knowledge of the program

is used to identify additional test cases.

.Objective is to exercise all program statements (not all path combinations).

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Structural testing Diagram

Binary search - equiv. partitions

.Pre-conditions satisfied, key element in array.

.Pre-conditions satisfied, key element not in array.

.Pre-conditions unsatisfied, key element in array.

.Pre-conditions unsatisfied, key element not in array.

.Input array has a single value.

.Input array has an even number of values.

.Input array has an odd number of values.

Binary search equiv. partitions Diag

Binary search - test cases

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Path testing

.The objective of path testing is to ensure that the set of test cases is such that
each path through the program is executed at least once.

.The starting point for path testing is a program flow graph that shows nodes
representing program decisions and arcs representing the flow of control.

.Statements with conditions are therefore nodes in the flow graph.

Binary search flow graph Diag

Independent paths

.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14

.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14

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.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 5, …

.1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 2, 11, 13, 5, …

.Test cases should be derived so that all of these paths are executed

.A dynamic program analyser may be used to check that paths have been executed

Test automation

.Testing is an expensive process phase. Testing workbenches provide a range of

tools to reduce the time required and total testing costs.

.Systems such as Junit support the automatic execution of tests.

.Most testing workbenches are open systems because testing needs are
organisation-specific.

.They are sometimes difficult to integrate with closed design and analysis
workbenches.

A testing workbench Diag

Testing workbench adaptation

.Scripts may be developed for user interface simulators and patterns for test data
generators.

.Test outputs may have to be prepared manually for comparison.

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.Special-purpose file comparators may be developed.

Key points

.Verification and validation are not the same thing. Verification shows conformance
with specification; validation shows that the program meets the customer’s needs.

.Test plans should be drawn up to guide the testing process.

.Static verification techniques involve examination and analysis of the program for
error detection.

.Program inspections are very effective in discovering errors.

.Program code in inspections is systematically checked by a small team to locate

software faults.

.Static analysis tools can discover program anomalies which may be an indication of
faults in the code.

.The Cleanroom development process depends on incremental development, static

verification and statistical testing.

.Testing can show the presence of faults in a system; it cannot prove there are no
remaining faults.

.Component developers are responsible for component testing; system testing is

the responsibility of a separate team.

.Integration testing is testing increments of the system; release testing involves

testing a system to be released to a customer.

.Use experience and guidelines to design test cases in defect testing.

.Interface testing is designed to discover defects in the interfaces of composite

components.

.Equivalence partitioning is a way of discovering test cases - all cases in a partition

should behave in the same way.

.Structural analysis relies on analysing a program and deriving tests from this
analysis.

.Test automation reduces testing costs by supporting the test process with a range
of software tools.

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