White-Box/ Black-Box Testing: static or dynamic?

unit-testing white-box-testing black-box-testing
KB7 picture KB7 · Apr 28, 2011 · Viewed 16.4k times · Source

Here is what I understand:

Dynamic testing is testing that is performed when the system is running. Static testing is performed when the system is not running.

Black-Box testing focuses on functionality and is performed without knowing the internal workings of the program. White-Box testing looks for problems within the code itself.

What I am wondering is, Is it fair to say that all Black-Box testing is static? Is it also fair to say that some White-Box testing is static (for example, inspection of source code) and some is dynamic (branch/path testing)?

Answer

Rap picture Rap · Jun 15, 2012

Is it fair to say that all Black-Box testing is static?

No. Black-box testing is usually dynamic. In fact, when we think of software testing we usually think of people running the code and recording problems they find. This is classic dynamic black-box testing.

However, there is black-box static testing. When you examine the spec or requirements looking for errors, this is static, black-box testing. Here are some techniques

  • Read the spec as if you're the customer - anything not make sense?

  • Compare the spec to industry or company guidelines - any violations?

Read the requirements to make sure each one is:

  • Correct

  • Feasible

  • Necessary

  • Prioritized

  • Unambiguous

  • Modifiable

  • Complete

  • Verifiable

If any of those are violated, you've found a requirements error and saved loads of time and money.

Related questions

How do I test a private function or a class that has private methods, fields or inner classes?

How do I unit test (using xUnit) a class that has internal private methods, fields or nested classes? Or a function that is made private by having internal linkage (static in C/C++) or is in a private (anonymous) namespace? …

Read More
How to mock void methods with Mockito

How to mock methods with void return type? I implemented an observer pattern but I can't mock it with Mockito because I don't know how. And I tried to find an example on the Internet but didn't succeed. My class …

Read More
Mocking static methods with Mockito

I've written a factory to produce java.sql.Connection objects: public class MySQLDatabaseConnectionFactory implements DatabaseConnectionFactory { @Override public Connection getConnection() { try { return DriverManager.getConnection(...); } catch (SQLException e) { throw new RuntimeException(e); } } } I'd like to validate the parameters passed to DriverManager.getConnection, …

Read More