Why complete testing is not possible

Join For Free. What is Exhaustive Testing? Strategies for Exhaustive Testing We know that one of the 7 testing principles of software testing says that exhaustive testing is not possible. Here are basic and fundamental strategies that one can definitely include in their test plan: Impact on Business: This not the only one but is one of the most important parameters to understand the risk.

Testers should question that if a certain functionality of a module being tested fails, how much risk will it will bring to the entire module. Testers should constantly work with the business analyst of the module to understand the threat brought by the failure of each functionality so that it can be prioritized high up in the testing.

Probability of failure: This parameter also plays a major role in understanding the health of a functionality. Some functionalities can have a high probability of failure compared to other functionalities.

As a tester, we can identify that the second functionality has a higher probability of breaking because it contains a lot of business algorithms to be implemented compared to a login page which might have less probability of failure. Regression: Testers should look at this parameter by identifying functionalities which have to be regressed more often when there is a change or addition to certain areas of the AUT.

Correct impact analysis should be done to determine the areas correctly. Impact analysis should always involve developers, QA, and the Business Analyst team to get a correct understanding of the impacted areas.

Recovery: If a functionality breaks how fast can it be recovered or the recovery time taken. QA personnel can get the inputs from developers on the recovery time for each functionality of the application under test.

Why Exhaustive Testing Is Impractical and Impossible It is not possible to perform complete testing or exhaustive testing. For most systems, it is near impossible because of the following reasons: The domain of possible inputs of a program is too large to be completely used in testing a system. Scores Typical test types with depth in certain test types.

Scores High-risk areas. Complete coverage and in-depth testing for all test types. What are the differences between exhaustive testing and effective testing? Effective Testing Exhaustive Testing Effective testing emphasizes efficient techniques to test the software so that important features will be tested within the constrained resources Exhaustive or Complete testing means that every statement in the program and every possible path combination of data must be executed It is a practical method because: No bugs in the final product It tests the development cycle at each phase It uses constrained resources It is not possible to perform because: Achieving deadlines Various possible options Timing constraints Number of possible test environment It is cost-effective It is NOT cost-effective It is less time-consuming and less complex It is time-consuming and complex It is adopted such that critical test cases are covered best It covers all of the test cases To perform effective testing, we can use the equivalence class method, BVA, etc.

Hence, there are around xx input combinations which we have to test during exhaustive testing. Share this: Twitter Facebook. Like this: Like Loading Related Posts. December 30, at pm. Leave a Reply Cancel reply. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. Effective testing emphasizes efficient techniques to test the software so that important features will be tested within the constrained resources.

Exhaustive or Complete testing means that every statement in the program and every possible path combination of data must be executed.

It is a practical method because: No bugs in the final product It tests the development cycle at each phase It uses constrained resources. Branch coverage: In this, every branch should be covered at least once.

Decision coverage: In this decision coverage, all the conditions whether true or false should be executed. But at one, time condition can be true or false it cannot be true or false simultaneously.

These are the following reasons due to which complete testing is impossible:. Though, the company can not be blamed for it as they always strive to achieve complete testing. We have till now understood that barring a few cases, exhaustive testing is just not possible.

In fact, one of the seven software testing principles says, that exhaustive testing is impossible. But what we can focus on is- how to achieve a complete test coverage. We are listing some of the test strategies that one can use during an attempt at exhaustive testing. Despite seeming similar both the terms have distinguishable characteristics.

Let us look at them one by one. Despite being labeled as an impractical and impossible method, testers yet strive to achieve whatever is close to exhaustive testing. It leaves no straw for the user to pick and complain of.