Importance of Black Box Testing to Test Unexpected User Actions

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From the title, you must have got an idea of what are we going to talk about. Yes, it’s about Black Box Testing of software.

Our blog is about the basic understanding of what actually is software black-box testing, why does it require, an example of testing, and techniques.

Software testing is something relevant for your enterprise-level software, mobile app, or website. On it relies, the speed, performance, effectiveness, security, and efficiency of the system to meet business requirements.

What is Black Box Testing?

Black box testing is a software testing technique in which professional testing agents check the system with no prior internal knowledge. A team of experts test software without knowing its code, architecture, and other structure.

They provide input to the software with no information of the expected output. Like the mobile users who input something with having no such details of the internal architecture of the system and get a dynamic result.

Similarly, black box testing is performed to check the end-to-end results of an application to identify expected and unexpected issues.

Difference Between Black Box Testing & White Box Testing

When discussing black box testing, it is relevant to talk about white box testing as well. This form of testing involves checking the software functionalities as per the detailed information of its source code, configuration, and architecture.

For performing this type of software testing, professional testing agents gather all the information first to acquire the expected output.

On the other side, nothing is exposed in black box testing which is completely dynamic as compared to white box.

Example of Black Box Testing

To understand the process, let’s take an example.

For suppose a simple login screen of a web application or software will be tested for seamless user login. In general, the login screen has two fields,

one is Username and the other is Password. These two fields act as inputs from the user’s side and a favorable output will be generated accordingly.

Now, as per the technique, it will not check the specification of the code. But rather test the valid username and password.

The testing technique will check the input and output in the following manner:

  • When a user enters the correct username and password.
  • When a user receives an error message after entering the username and password.

From this example, it is clear that black box testing checks the scenarios when the system can break. And, for this reason, specifically, it is also referred to as a closed box, functional-centric, and opaque testing.

Know the Different Types of Black Box Testing

 There are different types of testing, some of which are mentioned below:

  1. Functional Testing

 This Functional testing deals with checking the functional efficiency of software. It checks the main functions, operations, or installation of software.

It is one of the crucial testing tests to see whether users get the relevant functionalities out of software or not.

  1. Non-Functional Testing

 Non-functional testing refers to checking the behavior and usability pattern of an application. It ensures that software is reliable enough to perform to an expected level.

  1. Regression Testing

This form of testing is performed after code fixes, upgrades, and all the changes. The main purpose is to check whether the new changes done on software has not affected the existing functionalities. 

Important Techniques

 Another important thing to know about software black-box testing is the various techniques used by the testing experts. Here is the list of a few ones.

  1. Boundary Value Analysis:

    It tests the software based on extreme value inputs. BVA analysis the flaws or errors that arise due to the input values.

    For example, taking input of a test case based on age section should be between 1-100. It exceeds 101 or comes as a reducing value as -1 or less than that, it will be an effort in software.

Also Read : Top 10 Software Testing Companies in India You Must Consider in 2024

  1. Error Guessing Technique:

    As the name itself implies, this form of testing guesses the output and input based on the testing agent’s experienced judgement.

  2. Equivalence Partitioning:

    This form of black-box testing technique checks the input and output by dividing the input into equivalent classes. It is to make sure that this would be tested only once.

  3. State Transition Testing:

    This form of testing technique uses inputs, outputs, and the system. It checks the application against the sequential elements of transitions or events.

  4. Decision Table Testing:

    This particular technique of  this is based on various possibilities. Under this, multiple test cases are created to take particular decisions based on different conditions that are checked & fulfilled.

    It is necessary for the test cases to pass the test and provide a required output.

  5. Graph-Based Testing:

    Much similar to the decision-based block box testing technique, graph-based checks the relationship between links and input cases.

Final Thoughts

Now, you must have got the idea of black-box testing and what this is all about. The next step is getting in touch with a reliable software testing company to implement end-to-end testing and enhance operational efficiency. For this, connect with a pioneer Testing Agency.

Frequently Asked Questions

  1. What are the Steps Followed to Perform This Testing Type?

  • At the initial stage, the requirements and specifications of software testing are examined.
  • Professional testers choose both positive test scenarios and negative test scenarios.
  • Tester determines the expected output of all the inputs.
  • Several test cases are constructed for all the inputs.
  • Finally, test cases are executed at this stage.
  • Software testing agents compare the actual outputs with expected ones.
  • All the defects and errors are fixed.

  1. What are the Benefits of Black Box Testing?

Here, we have the following benefits:

  • It is an independent form of software testing that includes testing after the development.
  • Multiple test cases can be generated before software development and right after specification as well.
  • This form of software testing is close to agile.

  1. What are Top-Rated Black Box Testing Tools?

Some of the popular and highly used Black Box Testing Tools are as follows:

  • Appium
  • Selenium
  • Applitools
  • Microsoft Coded UI
  • HP QTP