QW2002 Tutorial G2 Cem Kaner (Florida Institute of Technology) Paradigms Of Black Box Software Testing

Key Points

• There are several different, effective styles of black box testing
• You can probably improve testing in your company by introducing one new style

Presentation Abstract

There are several substantially different approaches to black box testing. We'll look at nine of these approaches. In my experience as a consultant and teacher, moving through many different companies, many test groups rely heavily on only one or two of them and are virtually unaware of some of the alternatives.

The tutorial will consider each of the approaches in turn. For some of the approaches (the limiting factor will be time), we'll look at examples of the types of tests that someone would design when working within a given paradigm (or approach), the types of problems most easily found, and some types of problems that are more likely missed.

About the Author

Cem Kaner is Professor of Computer Sciences at the Florida Institute of Technology. Prior to joining Florida Tech, Kaner worked in Silicon Valley for 17 years, doing and managing programming, user interface design, testing, and user documentation. He is the senior author (with Jack Falk and Hung Quoc Nguyen) of TESTING COMPUTER SOFTWARE (2nd Edition) and (with David Pels) of BAD SOFTWARE: WHAT TO DO WHEN SOFTWARE FAILS.

Through his consulting firm, KANER.COM, he teaches courses on black box software testing and consults to software publishers on software testing, documentation, and development management. Kaner is also the co-founder and co-host of the Los Altos Workshop on Software Testing, the Software Test Managers' RoundTable, the Workshop on Heuristic & Exploratory Techniques, and the Florida Workshops on Model-Based Testing.

Kaner is also attorney whose practice is focused on the law of software quality. He is active (as an advocate for customers, authors, and small development shops) in several legislative drafting efforts involving software licensing, software quality regulation, and electronic commerce. Kaner holds a B.A. in Arts & Sciences (Math, Philosophy), a Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology (Human Perception & Performance: Psychophysics), and a J.D. (law degree). He is Certified in Quality Engineering by the American Society for Quality.