Software Testing

Unit II
Boundary Value Analysis

Functional testing is a type of software testing in which the system is tested against the
functional requirements of the system. It is conducted to ensure that the requirements
are properly satisfied by the application. Functional testing verifies that each function of
the software application works in conformance with the requirement and specification.
Boundary Value Analysis (BVA) is one of the functional testings.

Boundary Value Analysis

Boundary Value Analysis is based on testing the boundary values of valid and invalid
partitions.
The behavior at the edge of the equivalence partition is more likely to be incorrect
than the behavior within the partition, so boundaries are an area where testing is
likely to yield defects.
It checks for the input values near the boundary that have a higher chance of error.
Every partition has its maximum and minimum values, and these maximum and
minimum values are the boundary values of a partition.

 A boundary value for a valid partition is a valid boundary value.

 A boundary value for an invalid partition is an invalid boundary value.
 For each variable we check-
  Minimum value.
 Just above the minimum.
 Nominal Value.
 Just below Max value.
 Max value.
Example: Consider a system that accepts ages from 18 to 56.

Boundary Value Analysis (Age accepts 18 to 56)

Invalid Valid
Invalid
(min- (min, min + 1, nominal, max – 1,
(max + 1)
1) max)

17 18, 19, 37, 55, 56 57

Valid Test cases: Valid test cases for the above can be any value entered greater than
17 and less than 57.
 Enter the value- 18.
 Enter the value- 19.
 Enter the value- 37.
 Enter the value- 55.
 Enter the value- 56.
Invalid Testcases: When any value less than 18 and greater than 56 is entered.
 Enter the value- 17.
 Enter the value- 57.


Single Fault Assumption: When more than one variable for the same application is
checked then one can use a single fault assumption. Holding all but one variable to the
extreme value and allowing the remaining variable to take the extreme value. For n
variable to be checked:
Maximum of 4n+1 test cases

Problem: Consider a Program for determining the Previous Data.

Input: Day, Month, Year with valid ranges as-
1 ≤ Month≤12
1 ≤ Day ≤31
1900 ≤ Year ≤ 2000

Design Boundary Value Test Cases.

0 seconds of 0 seconds Volume 0%

Solution: Taking the year as a Single Fault Assumption i.e. year will be having values
varying from 1900 to 2000 and others will have nominal values.

Test
Cases Month Day Year Output

1 6 15 1990 14 June 1990

2 6 15 1901 14 June 1901

3 6 15 1960 14 June 1960

4 6 15 1999 14 June 1999

5 6 15 2000 14 June 2000

Taking Day as Single Fault Assumption i.e. Day will be having values varying from 1
to 31 and others will have nominal values.

Test
Case Month Day Year Output

6 6 1 1960 31 May 1960

7 6 2 1960 1 June 1960

8 6 30 1960 29 June 1960

9 6 31 1960 Invalid day

Taking Month as Single Fault Assumption i.e. Month will be having values varying
from 1 to 12 and others will have nominal values.

Mont
Test Case h Day Year Output

10 1 15 1960 14 Jan 1960

11 2 15 1960 14 Feb 1960

12 11 15 1960 14 Nov 1960

13 12 15 1960 14 Dec 1960

For the n variable to be checked Maximum of 4n + 1 test case will be required.
Therefore, for n = 3, the maximum test cases are-

4 × 3 + 1 =13

The focus of BVA: BVA focuses on the input variable of the function. Let’s define two
variables X1 and X2, where X1 lies between a and b and X2 lies between c and d.

Showing legitimate domain

The idea and motivation behind BVA are that errors tend to occur near the extremes of
the variables. The defect on the boundary value can be the result of countless
possibilities.

Typing of Languages: BVA is not suitable for free-form languages such as COBOL
and FORTRAN, These languages are known as weakly typed languages. This can be
useful and can cause bugs also.
PASCAL, ADA is the strongly typed language that requires all constants or variables
defined with an associated data type.

Limitation of Boundary Value Analysis:

 It works well when the product is under test.
 It cannot consider the nature of the functional dependencies of variables.
 BVA is quite rudimentary.

Equivalence Partitioning
It is a type of black-box testing that can be applied to all levels of software testing. In
this technique, input data are divided into the equivalent partitions that can be used to
derive test cases-
 In this input data are divided into different equivalence data classes.
 It is applied when there is a range of input values.
Example: Below is the example to combine Equivalence Partitioning and Boundary
Value.
Consider a field that accepts a minimum of 6 characters and a maximum of 10
characters. Then the partition of the test cases ranges 0 – 5, 6 – 10, 11 – 14.

Test Scenario Test Description Expected Outcome

Enter value 0 to 5
1 Not accepted
character

2 Enter 6 to 10 character Accepted

3 Enter 11 to 14 character Not Accepted

Why Combine Equivalence Partitioning and Boundary Analysis

Testing: Following are some of the reasons why to combine the two approaches:
 In this test cases are reduced into manageable chunks.
 The effectiveness of the testing is not compromised on test cases.
 Works well with a large number of variables.