Strategic benefits of software test management: a case study

In some sections of the IT community, the principal form of software testing undertaken is functional testing, whereby, the functions that the software is supposed to perform are identified purely from the statement of requirements and these functions are then tested by means of representative test cases. It is argued in this case study that, whilst this provides a good foundation for testing, it can potentially leave many structural aspects of a program untested. What is advocated here is that test tools should be used to monitor structural coverage during functional testing and that additional test cases should then be devised to ensure that coverage is maximized. Although functional testing and structural testing might be seen as competitive techniques, in combination together they complement each other, forming a software testing strategy more powerful than either technique on its own. (c) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.