Better test coverage using EP and BVA test techniques
What if you have less time and budget considerations in your testing lifecycle? Will it be
possible to do exhaustive testing for each set of test data? Fancy this with a large pool of
test cases?
We need an easy way that can select test cases from the pool of test-case, such that all test scenarios are covered.
Thankfully, we have two useful BlackBox testing technique – Equivalence Partitioning (EP) & Boundary Value Analysis (BVA) testing techniques. The objective of this blog is to introduce a beginner to EP and BVA.
Now lets discuss about both the techniques.
Equivalence Partitioning is when input domain data is divided into different equivalence (sameness) data classes to reduce the total number of test cases to a finite set of testable test cases, still covering maximum requirements.
Now take an example to understand more.
A savings account in a bank has a different rate of interest depending on the balance in the
account.
• 3% rate of interest is given if the balance in the account is in the range of Rs 0 to 100.
• 5% rate of interest is given if the balance in the account is in the range of Rs100 to 1000.
• 7% rate of interest is given if the balance in the account is Rs1000 and above
Solution:
Boundary Value analysis
It’s widely recognized that input values at the extreme ends of input domain cause more errors in system.
‘Boundary value analysis’ testing technique is used to identify errors at boundaries rather than finding those exist in centre of input domain.
Example:
Let’s consider the behaviour of tickets in the Flight reservation application, while booking a
new flight.
Only 10 tickets can be booked at a time.
Solution:
Test conditions :
• Any Number greater than 10 entered in the reservation column (let say 11) is
considered invalid.
• Any Number less than 1 that is 0 or below, then it is considered invalid.
• Numbers 1 to 10 are considered valid
• Any 3 Digit Number say -100 is invalid.
“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of intelligent effort (WE).”
“More than the act of testing, the act of designing tests is one of the best bug preventers known.”
By Avni Sharma
Engati – www.engati.com – A Coviam technologies platform
Coviam Technologies
www.coviam.com