White Box Testing Vs. Black Box Testing

by Ruslan D. CEO and Founder QA Mentor Inc.

Software testing and Quality Assurance are inseparable parts of software development process these days. Software testing is a huge field. There are many jargons. People like project managers and c-level executives need to discuss the quality of the product with the best software testing company or professional on a regular basis in order to keep progress on track. The software testing expert can’t control using these jargons and the mangers find it difficult to understand. Thus, it is important to learn about the most commonly used software testing terminologies. In this article, we will talk about two commonly used testing jargons:

1. White Box Testing

2. Black Box Testing

At the end of the article, you will have a clear understanding of both terms as well as other details related to both of them.

1. White Box Testing

This type of software testing practice is performed to test all internal components for its functionality. The software testing professional is exposed to internal code to verify the functionality of each class and module. The white-box testing aims to find any possible errors in the code to see how the system or application performs. Thus, it can be only done when the system or a functional application is ready. The software testing company assures to test all internal components for possible failures.

To perform white box testing, the testing professional must have technical knowledge. The implementation knowledge is also required to carry out white box testing. Thus, white-box testing is performed either by software developers or the software testing experts with strong development knowledge.

The white box testing involves detailed testing. Thus, the basis of test cases is detail design. The most common types of software testing used in the white box testing are unit testing, integration testing, data flow testing, etc.

The most common defects identified by white box testing are listed below:

· Incorrect syntax

· Logical errors

· Design errors

2. Black Box Testing

As the name suggests, black box testing is performed in a scenario when the software testing expert is unaware of the internal structure of the software. Generally, it is used to test the functionality and performance of the software or application from the user perspective. The software testing company carries out this test to see if all modules and applications of the system are returning the expected value or not.

The software testing professional doesn’t need to have the technical knowledge to perform the black box testing. This type of software testing is performed by the individual software testing companies or professionals without any kind of involvement of the software developers.

The black box testing test cases are designed on the basis of requirement specifications. The software testing experts test the application at a higher level. Thus, it involves testing methods like system testing, acceptance testing etc.

The most common defects identified by the black box testing are listed below:

· Access errors

· Interface errors

· Data errors

· Missing Functions