System Test Verification and Code Coverage
System Testing, sometimes called Functional Testing, is the process
whereby organizations test an application to ensure that it is functionally correct.
That is, that it will perform properly when used by the end user. This type of testing
may be performed manually, or with the help of scripts. All organizations that develop
software perform system testing prior to release.
The challenge with system testing, is to ensure that the testing is complete. To this end,
organizations will develop test procedures that map to the written requirements for the
application (if available) or that map to the user documentation. Testing to this level
is not adequate. It will simply exercise nominal paths through the code, and is unlikely to
test boundary, or error conditions.
The only way to ensure that system testing is complete, is to collect and analyze the code
coverage that results from system testing. Code Coverage Analysis allows you to determine
which parts of the application source code have been executed by each system test, and more
importantly, which parts of the application have not been executed by any test.
The VectorCAST tool for automated code coverage collection and analysis is VectorCAST/Cover.
VectorCAST/Cover easily integrates with your existing build and test infrastructure. No special
actions are needed by the test team, as testing progresses, VectorCAST/Cover simply monitors the application execution and records the code coverage
achieved. The collected data, is then post-processed to build reports that summarize the coverage achieved.
