Istqb Foundation Level Vocabulary - Chapter 1

Front 1

Defect / Bug / Fault

Back 1

A flaw in a component or system that can cause the component or system to fail to perform its required function.

Front 2

Error / Mistake

Back 2

A human action that produces an incorrect result.

Front 3

Failure

Back 3

Deviation of the component or system from its expected delivery, service or result.

Front 4

Quality

Back 4

The degree to which a component, system or process meets specified requirements and/or user/customer needs and expectations.

Front 5

Risk

Back 5

A factor that could result in future negative consequences; usually expressed as impact and likelihood.

Front 6

Debugging

Back 6

The process of finding, analyzing and removing the causes of failures in software.

Front 7

Requirement

Back 7

A condition or capability needed by a user to solve a problem or achieve an objective that must be met or possessed by a system or system component to satisfy a contract, standard, specification, or other formally imposed document.

Front 8

Review

Back 8

An evaluation of a product or project status to ascertain discrepancies from planned results and to recommend improvements. Examples include management review, informal review, technical review, inspection, and walkthrough.

Front 9

Test Case

Back 9

A set of input values, execution preconditions, expected results and execution postconditions, developed for a particular objective or test condition, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific requirement.

Front 10

Testing

Back 10

The process consisting of all lifecycle activities, both static and dynamic, concerned with planning, preparation and evaluation of software products and related work products to determine that they satisfy specified requirements, to demonstrate that they are fit for purpose and to detect defects.

Front 11

Test Objective

Back 11

A reason or purpose for designing and executing a test.

Front 12

Exhaustive Testing

Back 12

A test approach in which the test suite comprises all combinations of input values and preconditions.

Front 13

Confirmation Testing / Re-testing

Back 13

Testing that runs test cases that failed the last time they were run, in order to verify the success of corrective actions.

Front 14

Exit Criteria

Back 14

The set of generic and specific conditions, agreed upon with the stakeholders for permitting a process to be officially completed. The purpose of exit criteria is to prevent a task from being considered completed when there are still outstanding parts of the task which have not been finished. Exit criteria are used to report against and to plan when to stop testing.

Front 15

Incident

Back 15

Any event occurring that requires investigation.

Front 16

Regression Testing

Back 16

Testing of a previously tested program following modification to ensure that defects have not been introduced or uncovered in unchanged areas of the software, as a result of the changes made. It is performed when the software or its environment is changed.

Front 17

Test Basis

Back 17

All documents from which the requirements of a component or system can be inferred. The documentation on which the test cases are based. If a document can be amended only by way of formal amendment procedure, then the test basis is called a frozen test basis.

Front 18

Test Condition

Back 18

An item or event of a component or system that could be verified by one or more test cases, e.g. a function, transaction, feature, quality attribute, or structural element.

Front 19

Test Coverage / Coverage

Back 19

The degree, expressed as a percentage, to which a specified coverage item has been exercised by a test suite.

Front 20

Test Data

Back 20

Data that exists (for example, in a database) before a test is executed, and that affects or is affected by the component or system under test.

Front 21

Test Execution

Back 21

The process of running a test on the component or system under test, producing actual result(s).

Front 22

Test Log

Back 22

A chronological record of relevant details about the execution of tests.

Front 23

Test Plan

Back 23

A document describing the scope, approach, resources and schedule of intended test activities. It identifies amongst others test items, the features to be tested, the testing tasks, who will do each task, degree of tester independence, the test environment, the test design techniques and entry and exit criteria to be used, and the rationale for their choice, and any risks requiring contingency planning. It is a record of the test planning process.

Front 24

Test Procedure / Test Procedure Specification

Back 24

A document specifying a sequence of actions for the execution of a test. Also known as test script or manual test script.

Front 25

Test Policy

Back 25

A high level document describing the principles, approach and major objectives of the organization regarding testing.

Front 26

Test Suite

Back 26

A set of several test cases for a component or system under test, where the post condition of one test is often used as the precondition for the next one.

Front 27

Test Summary Report

Back 27

A document summarizing testing activities and results. It also contains an evaluation of the corresponding test items against exit criteria.

Front 28

Testware

Back 28

Artifacts produced during the test process required to plan, design, and execute tests, such as documentation, scripts, inputs, expected results, set-up and clear-up procedures, files, databases, environment, and any additional software or utilities used in testing.

Front 29

Error Guessing

Back 29

A test design technique where the experience of the tester is used to anticipate what defects might be present in the component or system under test as a result of errors made, and to design tests specifically to expose them.

Front 30

Independence of Testing

Back 30

Separation of responsibilities, which encourages the accomplishment of objective testing.