Data space testing

Abstract

A complete software testing process must concentrate on examination of the software characteristics as they may impact reliability. Software testing has largely been concerned with structural tests, that is, test of program logic flow. In this paper, a companion software test technique for the program data called data space testing is described. An approach to data space analysis is introduced with an associated notation. The concept is to identify the sensitivity of the software to a change in a specific data item. The collective information on the sensitivity of the program to all data items is used as a basis for test selection and generation of input values.