It can be useful in any testing phase, like it is useful in unit, integration, system etc. Equivalence partitioning significantly reduces the number of test cases required to test a system reasonably. An advantage of this approach is it reduces the time required for performing testing of a software due to less number of test cases. Do we need both equivalence partitioning and boundary. Equivalence partitioning in software testing test design. Equivalence partitioning drastically cuts down the number of test cases required to test a system reasonably. It can be applied at any level of testing and is often a good technique to use first. If the system were to handle one case in the class erroneously, it would handle all cases erroneously. In equivalencepartitioning technique we need to test only one condition from each partition. Equivalence partitioning example grocery store example consider a software module that is intended to accept the name of a grocery item and a list of the different sizes the item comes in, specified in ounces. Equivalence partitioning question how to write software. This technique tries to define test cases that uncover classes of errors, thereby reducing the total.
In other words, the behavior of negative testing is more likely to be incorrect than the behavior of positive. Regular expressions 1 equivalence relation and partitions. The below example best describes the equivalence class partitioning. This is achieved by identifying the classes or groups of inputs in such a way that each input value under this class will give the same result. How to take care of your mental health while working from home.
Black box testing and white box testing, williams 10. Black box testing is where test cases are written to test the inputs and verify the output of the software system without the knowledge about the internal working of the software both boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning are black box testing design techniques. Theres a multitude of software testing techniques in the automation landscape. Complexity of equivalence class and boundary value testing. Equivalence partitioning is a test case design technique to divide the input data of software into different equivalence data classes. The word equivalence means the condition of being equal or equivalent in value, worth, function, etc. There are other problems with robust equivalence class testing that hinder the overall progress of testing. A class is a set of input conditions that are is likely to be handled the same way by the system.
If you suspect that elements in an equivalence class are not handled in an identical manner by the aut, split the equivalence class into smaller classes. It is an attempt to get a good hit rate, to find the most errors with the smallest number of test cases. What is the difference between boundary value analysis and. Equivalence partitioning is a black box technique to identify test cases systematically and is often the first technique to be applied when designing test cases. Generate a test case for each valid and invalid equivalence class.
Categories of testing techniques with comprehensive examples. The findings are expressed in words instead of numbers, robson 16. Equivalence partitioning as a basis for dynamic conditional. An advantage of this approach is it reduces the time.
Here are few sample questions for practice from istqb exam papers on equivalence partitioning and bva. The equivalence partitions are frequently derived from the requirements specification for input data that influence the processing of the test object. In this article we will discuss some basic test design techniques used to create better test cases, particularly boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning and how these. Equivalence partitioning is also known as equivalence class partitioning.
I am new to software testing and i am studying the basic techniques. Equivalence partitioning ep is a method for testing software programs. Equivalence partitions are also known as equivalence classes, the two. Istqb exam questions on equivalence partitioning and. In principle, test cases are designed to cover each partition at least once. Both the testing techniques are black box testing techniques and without knowing the code structure we can use these testing techniques. Equivalence classes are built assuming that the program under test exhibits the. The task is to use equivalence class partitioning and boundary value analysis which means to test the input at the boundary of the equivalence class partition to analyze the valid and invalid inputs for microsoft winword or any other software package that you have installed on your computer. Khalifa, husam ali equivalence partitioning equivalence partitioning is a software testing technique that divides the input andor output data of a software unit into partitions of data from which test cases can be derived.
The synonyms for the word are equal, same, identical etc. Lets see what has to say about boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning first. How prezi does project status updates with a distributed workplace. In this method, equivalence classes for input values are identified such that each member of the class causes the same kind of processing and output to occur. Equivalence classes in software testing stack overflow. A technique in black box testing is equivalence partitioning. Equivalence partitioning a black box testing technique. Using equivalence partitioning and boundary value analysis in. Looking for software testing ebooks and interview questions.
Hence selecting one input from each group to design the test cases. Equivalence partitioning is a technique used in software testing which aims to reduce the number of test cases and choose the right test cases. This is because we are assuming that all the conditions in one partition will be treated in the same way by the software. The equivalence partitions are usually derived from the requirements specification for input attributes that influence the processing of the. The set of all equivalence classes form a partition of x we write xrthis set of equivalence classes. In equivalence partitioning, inputs to the software or system are divided into groups that are expected to exhibit similar behavior, so they are likely to be proposed in the same way. Equivalence partitioning is designed to minimize the number of test cases by dividing tests in such a way that the system is expected to act the same way for all tests of each equivalence partition. So, from the above example, we can divide our test cases into three equivalence classes of some valid and invalid inputs. Boundary value analysis is a technique to test boundary value between valid and invalid partitions in test case design. What is equivalence partitioning in software testing. Equivalence class testing, which is also known as equivalence class partitioning ecp and equivalence partitioning, is an important software testing technique used by the team of testers for grouping and partitioning of the test input data, which is then used for the purpose of testing the software product into a number of different classes. Test case design for equivalence partitioning is based on an evaluation of equivalence classes for an input condition.
Boundary value analysis in boundary value analysis, you test boundaries between equivalence partitions. In other words, it is sufficient to select one test case out of each partition to. During strong robust equivalence class testing the first is usually achieved while the latter is not. The idea of equivalence class partitioning is to divide the all possible inputs to the system into equivalence classes, i.
Equivalence partitioning also called as equivalence class partitioning. Boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning qualitance. Equivalence partitions are also known as equivalence classes the two terms mean exactly the same thing. If a condition of a partition is valid, other conditions are valid too. Equivalence partitioning ep is a specificationbased or blackbox technique. The specifications state that the item name is to be alphabetic characters 2 to 15 characters in length.
Equivalence class partitioning simplified software testing. Equivalence partitioning is a blackbox testing method that divides the input domain of a program into classes of data from which test cases can be derived. Boundary value analysis is a refinement of the equivalence class partitioning method which again is one of the most generally applicable methods for blackbox test design. From each partition of data, one test case is needed. As you may observe, you test values at both valid and invalid boundaries. In this technique, the data fed into the software to be tested is divided into partitions of equal sizes. Identify the equivalence classes for the following specification. Equivalent class partitioning is a black box technique code is not visible to tester which can be applied to all levels of testing like unit.
Boundary value analysis and equivalence class partitioning. Equivalence partitioning definition from from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Based on the example we used above for equivalence partitioning, the. The different test cases must test the classes of the software continuously. Equivalence partitioning or equivalence class partitioning ecp is a software testing technique. Test cases are designed for equivalence data class. In other words, the testers have no knowledge of how the system or. In our earlier example instead of checking, one value for each partition you will check the values at the partitions like 0, 1, 10, 11 and so on. What is boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning.
Equivalence class partitioning example problem in software. Equivalence partitioning is black box testing technique. In this example there are two further partitions of invalid ranges. Assume that the application accepts an integer in the range 100 to 999 valid equivalence class partition. Partitioning usually happens for test objects, which includes inputs, outputs, internal values, timerelated values, and for interface parameters. The idea behind the technique is to divide a set of test conditions into groups or sets that can be considered as same. For example, we have a program that measures baldness. Equivalence partitioning or equivalence class partitioning ecp is a software testing technique that divides the input data of a software unit into partitions of equivalent data from which test cases can be derived. The program accepts five to nine inputs which are 3 digit integers greater than 100. Equivalence partitioning test case design technique. In other words, c1 subsumes c2 if every test suite generated by. Equivalence partitioning is a method for deriving test cases.