Requirements Analysis

The following test activities should be performed during this stage:

1.1 Invest in analysis at the beginning of the project - Having a clear, concise and formal statement of the requirements facilitates programming, communication, error analysis and test data generation.

The requirements statement should record the following information and decisions:

a. Program function - What the program must do?

b. The form, format, data types and units for input.

c. The form, format, data types and units for output.

d. How exceptions, errors and deviations are to be handled.

e. For scientific computations, the numerical method or at least the required accuracy of the solution.

f. The hardware/software environment required or assumed (e.g. the machine, the operating system, and the implementation language).

Deciding the above issues is one of the activities related to testing that should be performed during this stage.

1.2 Start developing the test set at the requirements analysis phase - Data should be generated that can be used to determine whether the requirements have been met. To do this, the input domain should be partitioned into classes of values that the program will treat in a similar manner and for each class a representative element should be included in the test data.

In addition, following should also be included in the data set:

(1) boundary values

(2) any non-extreme input values that would require special handling.

The output domain should be treated similarly.

Invalid input requires the same analysis as valid input.

1.3 The correctness, consistency and completeness of the requirements should also be analyzed - Consider whether the correct problem is being solved, check for conflicts and inconsistencies among the requirements and consider the possibility of missing cases.