White Box Testing Techniques,Tools and Advantages

What is White Box Testing?

It is a testing technique that mainly examines program structure and derives test data based on program logic or code. It also referred to names like precise box testing, open box, logic-driven, the path is driven, or structural Testing.

How does it Work?

The steps to perform this Testing is mentioned as follows in a specific order -

Firstly all features, components, and programs are to be tested and identified first.
Create a flow graph and identify /plot all possible paths in the flow graph.
Identification of all possible paths from the flow graph.
Write test cases for every single path of the flow path.
Execute, rinse and repeat test cases.

Load testing can be defined as putting a demand on a system and measuring for performance. Click to explore about, Continuous Load Testing

What are the types of White Box Testing?

Three types of white box testing are :

Unit Testing

Unit testing is a software development process in which units, which are small testable parts of an application, are individually and independently checked for proper operation.

Integration Testing

Integration testing is the second stage of the software testing process after unit testing. Integration testing is conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified functional requirements.

System Testing

System testing is the level of testing that verifies a fully integrated software product. The purpose of system testing is to evaluate end-to-end system specifications. During this process, the Quality Assurance (QA) team evaluates how the various components of the application work together in a complete integrated system or application.

What is Software testing in White box testing?

White-box Testing is an approach that allows testers to examine and verify the inner workings of software systems (code, infrastructure, and integration with external systems). White box testing can uncover bugs that black box testing and other software testing methods cannot. Today, it's a vital part of the automated build process of modern CI/CD pipelines.

What are the benefits of White Box Testing?

The benefits of this are explained in the following manner -

Required knowledge of the internals of the software under test to be tested.
It allows finding hidden errors to find internal errors because it checks and works by internal functionality.
It helps to find issues and optimize code to adopt different techniques to test a developed application or website.
It requires internal knowledge to do Testing, which helps in maximum code coverage.

Why is it important?

It is essential because it helps to test the following:

It is executed at different levels such as system, integration, and unit level of software development.
One primary goal of it is to verify the working of an application.
It involves the identification of the operational flow of an application.
It involves testing a series of predefined inputs against expected or desired outputs so that specific input does not result in the expected output. The bug was obtained, and work on those bugs.
The functionality of conditional loops.
Test each statement.
Testing of each object.
Test of function individually.
Detection of Internal Security holes.
Broken or poorly structured paths in a coding process.
The flow of specific inputs through a code.
It is executed in the early stages and does not wait for GUI(Graphical User Interface) availability.
Testing is done so that it covers most of the paths.

A process to check the system accepts the requirements of a user or not. Click to explore about, User Acceptance Testing

How to adopt White Box Testing?

This process is executed based on the different types of coverage explained as follows. We need to adopt one type of coverage depending on our requirements. Different paths tested with White Box Testing are mentioned as follows:

Statement Coverage - It is a type of testing technique that tests all the defined programming statements.
Branch Coverage - This type of testing technique ensures that all branches are tested at least once.
Path Coverage - This testing technique tests all possible paths, covering each statement and branch.
Statement Testing = (Number of Statements Exercised / Total Number of Statements) x 100 %
Branch Testing = (Number of decisions outcomes tested / Total Number of decision Outcomes) x 100 %
Path Coverage = (Number paths exercised / Total Number of paths in the program) x 100 %

The formula above determines the number of test plans and cases executed for testing components or applications.

What are the best practices?

Executing this Testing in a good way requires execution at different levels. It is considered one main benefit because this feature is missing in Black Box Testing. Different levels at which this is executed are explained as follows -

Unit Testing - It is executed to test paths within a unit.
Integration Testing - It is the Testing of paths between units.
System Testing - It tests paths within an application.

The quality assurance and software testing process of software development is as necessary as the actual code had written. Click to explore about, Software Testing Best Practices

What are the best Tools?

Tools for automation of White Box Testing -

Concluding White Box Testing

This helps test the application at unit, integration, and system levels. It also helps to verify logical conditions and their values as correct/false result values. It also helps to verify all independent paths within a module by using different techniques available under these testing techniques. It helps to detect loops are optimum, and there are no extra looping works under a specified area or functionality. The main benefit of this is that it helps to find the bugs at different levels and errors named code syntax errors, logical errors in code, Data flow errors, and conditional errors. It works on an internal level and also helps to find bugs at a profound level. For more information, you are advised to go through the below steps: