Topic: Gray Box Testing

Message

   Grey box testing is the combination of black box and white box testing.
Intention of this testing is to find out defects related to bad design
or bad implementation of the system. 

In gray box testing, test engineer is equipped
with the knowledge of system and designs test cases or test data based
on system knowledge.  

For example, consider a hypothetical case
wherein you have to test a web application. Functionality of this web
application is very simple, you just need to enter your personal
details like email and field of interest on the web form and submit
this form. Server will get this details, and based on the field of
interest pick some articles and mail it to the given email. Email
validation is happening at the client side using Java Scripts. 

In this case, in the absence of implementation
detail, you might test web form with valid/invalid mail IDs and
different field of interests to make sure that functionality is intact.

But, if you know the implementation detail, you know that system is making following assumptions
													Server will never get invalid mail ID
Server will never send mail to invalid ID
Server will never receive failure notification for this mail.

So
as part of gray box testing, in the above example you will have a test
case on clients where Java Scripts are disabled. It could happen due to
any reason and if it happens, validation can not happen at the client
site. In this case, assumptions made by the system are violated and  Server will get invalid mail ID
Server will send mail to invalid mail ID
Server will receive failure notification

Hope you understood the concept of gray box testing and how it can be
used to create different test cases or data points based on the
implementation details of the system.

Author	Message
poli Senior Member Joined: 03Apr2007 Online Status: Offline Posts: 462	Topic: Gray Box Testing Posted: 05Jun2007 at 3:20am
	Grey box testing is the combination of black box and white box testing. Intention of this testing is to find out defects related to bad design or bad implementation of the system. In gray box testing, test engineer is equipped with the knowledge of system and designs test cases or test data based on system knowledge. For example, consider a hypothetical case wherein you have to test a web application. Functionality of this web application is very simple, you just need to enter your personal details like email and field of interest on the web form and submit this form. Server will get this details, and based on the field of interest pick some articles and mail it to the given email. Email validation is happening at the client side using Java Scripts. In this case, in the absence of implementation detail, you might test web form with valid/invalid mail IDs and different field of interests to make sure that functionality is intact. But, if you know the implementation detail, you know that system is making following assumptions Server will never get invalid mail ID Server will never send mail to invalid ID Server will never receive failure notification for this mail. So as part of gray box testing, in the above example you will have a test case on clients where Java Scripts are disabled. It could happen due to any reason and if it happens, validation can not happen at the client site. In this case, assumptions made by the system are violated and Server will get invalid mail ID Server will send mail to invalid mail ID Server will receive failure notification Hope you understood the concept of gray box testing and how it can be used to create different test cases or data points based on the implementation details of the system. Post Resume: Click here to Upload your Resume & Apply for Jobs

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