Activity 5: Summary and next steps

Well done for getting this far, you’re doing brilliantly.

As we come to the end of Activity 5, take a moment to reflect on what you’ve learned. You focused in this activity on two pivotal testing techniques:

1. Boundary value analysis (BVA)
2. Equivalence partitioning (EP)

Remember, BVA and EP are not competing techniques; instead, they complement each other. BVA is all about focusing on the edge cases, the boundaries, where software often tends to fail. By ensuring our tests include these limits, we can catch many of the defects that might otherwise go unnoticed.

On the other hand, EP saves us time and resources by dividing the input into equivalent partitions. It allows us to select just a few test cases from each partition that should, theoretically, act as a reliable representation for the whole partition. This approach helps us ensure comprehensive coverage without needing to test every single input individually.

You learned that you can use these two techniques together. Think about using EP to divide your input data into logical partitions and then applying BVA to those partitions to identify any issues that may exist at the boundaries.

Moving forward, keep practising with these techniques. Test design is part science and part art, and the only way to master it is through practice. Don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t all click into place immediately – like any new skill, it takes time.

Next steps

While BVA and EP are essential tools in a tester’s toolkit, they are only part of the story. There’s a whole world of testing techniques and strategies out there and in Activity 6, you will explore the important concepts of software validation and quality assurance.

In Activity 6, you will learn about the relationship between testing, validation and verification in the software development process, and learn about best practices for software validation and quality assurance. You will also have the opportunity to create a validation plan and outline quality assurance activities for a simple software scenario.

As always, we encourage you to continue engaging in forum discussions and prepare for the upcoming topics in the course. Your active participation in the learning process is essential to your success.

Thank you for your hard work – keep learning. You are not far now from the end of the course and your certificate.