DOMAIN TESTING

Domain testing is the most frequently described test technique. Some authors write only about domain testing when they write about test design. The basic notion is that you take the huge space of possible tests of an individual variable and subdivide it into subsets that are (in some way) equivalent. Then you test a representative from each subset.

More advanced problems involve combination tests--having done the analysis for several variables, we now test the variables together, using the representative values as if they were the only values of interest. Thus a variable that has a million possible values is reduced to 4 by the traditional domain testing approach (2 valid, 2 invalid). The number of "possible" tests of 3 variables combined would be 4 x 4 x 4 instead of some gargantuan number.

Unfortunately, the classical domain testing approach is a bit too simplistic. Glen Myers showed a more complex variation in his book, The Art of Software Testing (1979), as did Kaner, Falk & Nguyen in Testing Computer Software (1988, 1993). These authors described what was common in practice, rather than in the more theoretical discussions. Those discussions lead to an overly mechanical view of the thinking and practice of domain testing. These two lectures describes a risk-based approach to domain testing, and puts it in the context of three other dominant explanatory structures for the practice of domain testing.

In domain testing, we partition a domain into sub-domains (equivalence classes) and then test using values from each subdomain.

A domain might involve the values of any one variable or combination of variables. Some books look only at input values, but outputs, intermediate calculations, even configuration variables (such as printer type) are commonly analyzed in practical work in the field.

We define an equivalence class as follows: two values are equivalent if, given your theory of possible error, you expect the same test result from each.

The values that we pick to represent each equivalence class are the most powerful members of each set, the best representatives. A best representative is at least as likely to expose an error as any other member of its set.

The last important white box testing  method discussed here is domain testing. The goal is to check values taken by a variable, a condition, or an index, and to prove that they are outside the specified or valid range. It also contains checking that the program acepts only valid input , because it is unlikely to get reasonable results if idiocy has been entered. Colloquially, this part can be called ``garbage in -- garbage out'' testing.

■	Load Testing
■	Stress Testing
■	Domain Testing
■	Exploratory Testing
■	Recovery Testing
■	User Acceptance Testing
■	Alpha Testing
■	Beta Testing
■	Unit Testing
■	Static & Dynamic Analysis Testing
■	Functional Testing
■	Ad-hoc Testing
■	Volume Testing

Domain Testing

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