A Hierarchical Approach to Software Testing

Abstract: To produce high quality software both software developers and testers need continuous improvement in their work methodologies and processes. So, far much work has been done in the effective ways of eliciting and documenting the requirements. However important aspect is to make sure that whatever is documented in specifications actually works correctly in the developed software. Software testing is done to ensure this phenomenon. Aim of this thesis is to develop a software test case work flow strategy that helps in identification and selection of suitable test paths that can be used as an input to acceptance testing and as a pre-requisite to start actual testing of the system. This thesis focuses on organizing system test artifacts by closely specifying them with system requirements and use cases. In this perspective focus of this thesis is on requirement writing by use cases, requirements traceability, test case prioritization and application acceptance criteria. A structured way to design test cases is proposed with the help of use cases. Some work is done to trace user needs to system requirements and use cases and benefits of using use case modeling approach in structuring the relationships among test cases is analyzed. As test cases are subject to changes in future so, challenges imposed due to traceability among requirements, use cases and test cases are main subjects of this work along with the challenges faced by software testers to perform application acceptance testing. A green path scheme is proposed to help testers define application acceptance criteria and weight assignment approach is used to prioritize the test cases and to determine the percentage of application running successfully.