Structural Testing: When Quality Really Matters

Jamie Mitchell explores an underused and often forgotten test technique—white-box testing. Also known as structural testing, this technique requires some programming expertise and access to the code. Using only black-box testing, you could easily ship a system having tested only 50 percent or less of the code base. Are you comfortable with that? For mission-critical systems, such low test code coverage is clearly insufficient. Although you might believe that the developers have performed sufficient unit and integration testing, how do you know that they have achieved the level of coverage that your project requires? Jamie describes the levels of code coverage that the business and your customers may need—from statement coverage to modified condition/decision coverage. He explains when you should strive to achieve different code coverage target levels and leads you through examples of pseudocode. Even if you have no personal programming experience, understanding structural testing will make you a better tester. So, join Jamie in this code-diving session.