Black box vs White box Testing

Question

Which type of testing would you say should be the emphasis (for testers/QAs), and why?

A quick set of definitions from wikipedia:

Black box testing

• takes an external perspective of the test object to derive test cases. These tests can be functional or non-functional, though usually functional. The test designer selects valid and invalid input and determines the correct output. There is no knowledge of the test object's internal structure.

White box testing

• uses an internal perspective of the system to design test cases based on internal structure. It requires programming skills to identify all paths through the software. The tester chooses test case inputs to exercise paths through the code and determines the appropriate outputs. In electrical hardware testing, every node in a circuit may be probed and measured; an example is in-circuit testing (ICT).

edit: just to clarify a bit more, I realize that both are important, but usually they are separate between dev and QA.

Is internal knowledge important for the tester/QA? I've heard arguments that testing with this knowledge in mind enables them to better test for problems, but I've also heard arguments that this knowledge can distract from functional needs and promote "testing to to the code" rather than to the intended solution.

Answer 1

White Box Testing equals Software Unit Test. The developer or a development level tester (e.g. another developer) ensures that the code he has written is working properly according to the detailed level requirements before integrating it in the system.

Black Box Testing equals Integration Testing. The tester ensures that the system works according to the requirements on a functional level.

Both test approaches are equally important in my opinion.

A thorough unit test will catch defects in the development stage and not after the software has been integrated into the system. A system level black box test will ensure all software modules behave correctly when integrated together. A unit test in the development stage would not catch these defects since modules are usually developed independent from each other.

Answer 2

It's a bit of an open door, but in the end both are about equally important.

What's worse?

1. software that does what it needs to do, but internally has problems?

2. software that is supposed to work if you look at the sources, but doesn't?

My answer: Neither is totally acceptable, but software cannot be proven to be 100% bugfree. So you're going to have to make some trade-offs. Option two is more directly noticable to clients, so you're going to get problems with that sooner. On the long run, option one is going to be problematic.

Answer 3

What constitutes, "internal knowledge?" Does knowing that such-and-such algorithm was used to solve a problem qualify or does the tester have to see every line of code for it to be "internal?"

I think in any test case, there should be expected results given by the specification used and not determined by how the tester decides to interpret the specification as this can lead to issues where each thinks they are right and blaming the other for the problem.

Answer 4

In my experience most developers naturally migrate towards white box testing. Since we need to ensure that the underlying algorithm is "correct", we tend to focus more on the internals. But, as has been pointed out, both white and black box testing is important.

Therefore, I prefer to have testers focus more on the Black Box tests, to cover for the fact that most developers don't really do it, and frequently aren't very good at it.

That isn't to say that testers should be kept in the dark about how the system works, just that I prefer them to focus more on the problem domain and how actual users interact with the system, not whether the function SomeMethod(int x) will correctly throw an exception if x is equal to 5.

Answer 5

• Black box testing should be the emphasis for testers/QA.
• White box testing should be the emphasis for developers (i.e. unit tests).
• The other folks who answered this question seemed to have interpreted the question as Which is more important, white box testing or black box testing. I, too, believe that they are both important but you might want to check out this IEEE article which claims that white box testing is more important.

Answer 6

"Both" has been stated above, and is the obvious answer...but IMO, white box testing goes far beyond developer unit testing (althoughI suppose it could depend on where you draw the line between white and black). For example, code coverage analysis is a common white box approach - i.e. run some scenarios or tests, and examine the results looking for holes in testing. Even if unit tests have 100% cc, measuring cc on common user scenarios can reveal code that may potentially need even more testing.

Another place where white box testing helps is examining data types, constants and other information to look for boundaries, special values, etc. For example, if an application has an input that takes a numeric input, a bb only approach could require the tester to "guess" at what values would be good for testing, whereas a wb approach may reveal that all values between 1-256 are treated one way, while larger values are treated another way...and perhaps the number 42 has yet another code path.

So, to answer the original question - both bb and wb are essential for good testing.

Answer 7

• *Black box testing: Is the test at system level to check the functionality of the system, to ensure that the system performs all the functions that it was designed for, Its mainly to uncover defects found at the user point. Its better to hire a professional tester to black box your system, 'coz the developer usually tests with a perspective that the codes he had written is good and meets the functional requirements of the clients so he could miss out a lot of things (I don't mean to offend anybody)
• Whitebox is the first test that is done in the SDLC.This is to uncover bugs like runtime errors and compilation errrors It can be done either by testers or by Developer himself, But I think its always better that the person who wrote the code tests it.He understands them more than another person.*

Answer 8

Black Box Testing: Black Box testing is just observation no need Internal Knowledge or structure of software product. just putting valid and Invalid data input and expecting the correct result. here tester find the defect but unable to Find the Location of defect.black box testing done in all testing level.

Black box testing tecniques are: 1. Equivalance partition 2. Boundary Value Analysis 3. Decision table 4. State Transition Diagram 4. Use case diagram

White Box Testing: White box is testing it requires the knowledge of internal logic and structure of software product. here we will check the loop, condition and branch. here we find not only the defect but also and location of defect.

White box Testing Techniques: 1. Statement Coverage 2. Decision Coverage 3. Branch Coverage 4. Path Coverage.

Answer 9

Black Box

1 Focuses on the functionality of the system Focuses on the structure (Program) of the system

2 Techniques used are :

· Equivalence partitioning

· Boundary-value analysis

· Error guessing

· Race conditions

· Cause-effect graphing

· Syntax testing

· State transition testing

· Graph matrix

Tester can be non technical

Helps to identify the vagueness and contradiction in functional specifications

White Box

Techniques used are:

· Basis Path Testing

· Flow Graph Notation

· Control Structure Testing

1. Condition Testing

2. Data Flow testing

· Loop Testing

1. Simple Loops

2. Nested Loops

3. Concatenated Loops

4. Unstructured Loops

   Tester should be technical

   Helps to identify the logical and coding issues.