Glossary of Terms beginning Alphabet-A
Acceptance Criteria:
Acceptance Criteria is the exit criteria which a component or system is expected to satisfy in order to be accepted by the end user, customer or any other authorized agency.
Acceptance Testing:
Acceptance Testing is the best industry practice & its is the final testing conducted to enable a user / customer to determine whether to accept a software product. It is normally performed to validate the software meets a set of agreed acceptance criteria based on specifications provided by the end-user or customer. In theory when all the acceptance tests pass, it can be said that the project is done.
Accessibility Testing:
Verifying a product is accessible to the people having disabilities (deaf, blind, mentally disabled etc.).
Accuracy:
Accuracy
is the capability of the software product to provide the right or agreed results or effects with the needed degree of precision.
Actual Result:
Actual Result is the byproduct of unit or component testing. It is the behavior as a result of the testing.
Adaptability:
Adaptability is the capability of any software product by which it gets adapted to different specified environments without applying actions or means other than those provided for this purpose for the software in consideration.
Ad-hoc Testing:
Ad-hoc Testing is a testing phase where the tester tries to ‘break’ the system by randomly trying the system’s functionality. Ad-hoc Testing is a commonly used term for software testing performed without planning and documentation. It involves test design and simultaneous test execution. It is a part of exploratory testing, being the least formal of test methods. It is generally criticized because it isn’t structured & the tester seeks to find bugs quickly with any means that seem appropriate. For Ad-hoc testing the testers possess significant understanding of the software before testing it. Ad-hoc Testing can include negative testing as well.
Affinity Diagram:
Affinity Diagram is a group process, mainly developed through the process of brainstorming in which the entire data gets bifurcated into various categories. This consumes a large amount of language data.
Agile Testing:
Testing practice for projects using agile methodologies, treating development as the customer of testing and emphasizing a test-first design paradigm.
Alpha Testing:
Alpha Testing is simulated or actual operational testing by potential users / customers or an independent test team at the developers’ site. Alpha testing is often employed for off-the-shelf software as a form of internal acceptance testing, before the software goes to beta testing. It is usually done when the development of the software product is nearing completion; minor design changes may still be made as a result of such testing.
Analyzability:
Analyzability is the capability of a software product to be diagnosed for deficiencies or causes of failures in the software, or for the parts to be modified to be identified.
Anomaly:
Anomaly refers to a condition which deviates from expectation based on requirements specifications, design documents, user documents, standards, etc. or from someone�s perception or experience. Anomalies may be found during, but not limited to, reviewing, testing, analysis, compilation, or use of software products or applicable documentation.
Application Binary Interface (ABI):
A specification defining requirements for portability of applications in binary forms across different system platforms and environments.
Application Programming Interface (API):
A formalized set of software calls and routines that can be referenced by an application program in order to access supporting system or network services.
Assertion Testing:
Assertion Testing is a dynamic analysis technique which inserts assertions about the relationship between program variables into the program code. The truth of the assertions is determined as the program executes.
Attractiveness:
Attractiveness is the capability of the software product to be attractive to the user.
Audit:
Audit is an activity related to inspection / assessment which verifies the compliance of the end results with the plans, policies and procedures and is aimed at conservation of resources.
Audit Trail:
Audit Trail is a path by which the original input to a process or (e.g. data) can be traced back through the process, taking the process output as the starting point. This facilitates defect analysis and allows a process audit to be carried out.
Authentication Testing:
Authentication Testing is a type of testing in which the test engineer feeds different combinations of user names and passwords in order to check whether only the authorized persons are accessing the application or not.
Automated Software Quality (ASQ):
The use of software tools, such as automated testing tools, to improve software quality.
Automated Testing:
Testing employing software tools which execute tests without manual intervention. Can be applied in GUI, performance, API, etc. testing. It involves the use of software to control the execution of tests, the comparison of actual outcomes to predicted outcomes, the setting up of test preconditions, and other test control and test reporting functions.
Automated Testware:
Automated Testware are the testware employed during automated testing, such as tool scripts.
Availability:
Availability is the degree to which a component or system is operational and accessible when required for use. Often expressed as a percentage.
Explanation to All Alphabets in the Glossary of Terms