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Methods of Software Testing:

There are three methods of software testing available namely Black Box Testing, White Box Testing and Grey Box Testing.

Black Box Testing:

Black Box Testing is a method of Software Testing also called Behavioral Testing. The main function of black box testing is to test the interior design/implementation of an item which cannot be known to the tester. The name itself says that the tester who is going to test the product will give input and examine the output results without having the prior knowledge of source code.

Black Box Testing helps to determine the following aspects:

• Finding errors at the initial and final stage
• Optimizing the interface errors
• Checking errors or missing functions
• To check and verify the errors in the external database

Advantages of Black Box Testing:

• More Efficient and Suitable for large code segments
• No need for any Coding or Programming knowledge
• A large number of testers can test the software application without prior knowledge on programming or operating system
• Design of Test Cases

Disadvantages of Black Box Testing:

• Only limited coverage of application as the tester cannot target specific code segment
• Test cases are difficult to design as the tester doesn’t have prior knowledge on specifications and coding
• Some possible inputs will only be tested

White Box Testing:

White Box Testing is one of the methods of software testing also known as Open Box Testing, Transparent Box Testing or Glass Box Testing. It is defined as a testing method in which the tester can able to test the internal functions of a product with prior programming knowledge under specific conditions. The major role of this testing is to study the whole internal structure of a software product and need to find out the inappropriate unit code.

Advantages of White Box Testing:

• It helps to optimize the whole internal source code as the tester is having programming knowledge
• Almost all paths of a software product will be covered
• As the tester is having programming knowledge it will be easy to find out the inappropriate unit code

Disadvantages of White Box Testing:

• Requires highly skilled testers and debugging tools
• Results will be more efficient but according to resources it may become expensive
• Even though all paths of the source code will be covered there may be a chance of missing to find out hidden errors

Grey Box Testing:

It comes from the combination of the black box and white box testing. Grey Box Testing is also one of the methods of software testing. It helps to test the partial or limited paths of the internal structure of a software application. It is known as Gray Box or semi-transparent box testing. The name itself says that the tester can access limited paths of an application

Advantages of Grey Box Testing:

• The main advantage is that the tester can perform either black box technique or white box technique even both
• Testers don’t need to rely on the source code
• As there is a limitation of software testing, the tester can able to design perfect test cases or scenarios

Disadvantages of Grey Box Testing:

• As there is no full access of source code, the tester can able to cover a limited area of the software application
• There may be a chance of occurring redundant if the designer already starts the test case
• The major disadvantage is that software product cannot be tested fully as there are limitations