Gray-box testing

Black box systems
System
Black box, Oracle machine
Methods and techniques
Black-box testing, Blackboxing
Related techniques
Feed forward, Obfuscation, Pattern recognition, White box, White-box testing, Gray-box testing, System identification
Fundamentals
A priori information, Control systems, Open systems, Operations research, Thermodynamic systems
v t e

Gray-box testing is a software testing method used to search for defects due to improper structure or application usage, where the tester has partial knowledge of the internal structure of the software. It is a combination of white-box testing, where the tester has broad access to the internal structure of the application, and black-box testing, where tester is unaware of the structure. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

The knowledge available to gray-box testers may comprise both high-level and detailed documentation, such as software architecture, Unified Modeling Language (UML) models, Web Services Description Language (WSDL) information and state models. Testing tools and techniques include exception handling, regression testing, functional testing, and orthogonal array testing. ^{[4] [5] [6]}

Gray-box testing is particularly used for testing web applications that have distributed networks and no source code or binaries that would allow for white box testing. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

See also

• Grey box model

References

1. "Microsoft Research – Emerging Technology, Computer, and Software Research" (PDF).
2. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
3. "Gray Box Testing". Software Testing Fundamentals. 4 November 2011. Archived from the original on 16 November 2021. Retrieved 19 January 2012.
4. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 April 2012. Retrieved 17 October 2011.
5. Patton, Ron (26 July 2005). Software Testing . Sams. ISBN   978-0-672-32798-8.
6. Nguyen, Hung Q (2001). Testing Applications on the Web: Test Planning for Internet-Based Systems. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN   9780471437642.
7. Bach, James (31 December 2001). Lessons Learned in Software Testing. Wiley Computer Publishing. ISBN   978-0-471-08112-8.
8. Falk, Jack (12 April 1999). Testing Computer Software, 2nd Edition. Wiley Computer Publishing. ISBN   978-0-471-35846-6.
9. Li, Z. J.; Tan, H. F.; Liu, H. H.; Zhu, J.; Mitsumori, N. M. (6 April 2010). "Business-process-driven gray-box SOA testing". IBM Systems Journal. 47 (3): 457–472. doi:10.1147/sj.473.0457.