- Black-box testing, also called behavioral testing, focuses on the functional requirements of the software
- That is, black-box testing techniques enable you to derive sets of input conditions that will fully exercise all functional requirements for a program
- Black-box testing is not an alternative to white-box techniques. Rather, it is a complementary approach that is likely to uncover a different class of errors than white box methods.
- Black-box testing attempts to find errors in the following categories:
- Incorrect or missing functions
- Interface errors
- Errors in data structures or external database access
- Behavior or performance errors
- Initialization and termination errors
- Black Box Testing method is applicable to the following levels of software testing:
- It is mainly applied to System testing and Acceptance testing
- Integration Testing
- System Testing
- Acceptance Testing
- Black Box Testing method is applicable to the following levels of software testing:
- The higher the level, and hence the bigger and more complex the box, the more black box testing method comes into use.
Black box testing advantages
- Tests are done from a user’s point of view and will help in exposing discrepancies in the specifications
- Tester need not know programming languages or how the software has been implemented
- Tests can be conducted by a body independent from the developers, allowing for an objective perspective and the avoidance of developer-bias.
- Test cases can be designed as soon as the specifications are complete
Black box testing disadvantages
- Only a small number of possible inputs can be tested and many program paths will be left untested
- Without clear specifications, which is the situation in many projects, test cases will be difficult to design
- Tests can be redundant if the software designer/ developer has already run a test case