Specification Based or Black Box Techniques

What are Specification-Based Techniques?

Specification-based (black box) techniques derive test cases from the requirements, specifications, or functional description of the software, without reference to its internal code structure.

Common Specification-Based Techniques

• Boundary Value Analysis (BVA): Testing at the edges of input ranges.
• Equivalence Class Partitioning (ECP): Grouping inputs into classes expected to behave similarly.
• Decision Table Testing: Testing combinations of conditions and their resulting actions.
• State Transition Testing: Testing how the system moves between different states.
• Orthogonal Array Testing: Efficiently testing combinations of multiple input parameters.
• Use Case Testing: Deriving tests from documented user interactions with the system.

Why Use Black Box Techniques?

These techniques ensure the software meets functional requirements from the end user's perspective and are especially useful when source code isn't available or relevant to the tester.