Features: Quality Assurance Testing Option

High quality applications can be delivered only when thorough quality assurance testing is part of the application development process.

Organizations that are serious about reliability try to develop detailed test plans that identify every feature to test. However, even the most carefully designed test plans inevitably have some gaps in their coverage.

SoftSpy allows a new approach to testing. It can precisely identify which statements have been tested and which statements have not been tested. This allows you to test your application, and determine afterward if test coverage was complete.

You can then adjust your test plans based upon this feedback. The result is your ability to test applications more rigorously in less time.

QA Test Coverage Profile

SoftSpy can produce a detailed quality assurance test coverage profile. A message summarizes how thoroughly the current request has been tested.

The column labeled "U" contains the letter "U" for each line with an untested executable statement. If an executable statement has been tested then the column labeled "TIMES TESTED" indicates the number of times it was executed.

Function keys are provided to allow you to move forward and backward among untested statements. You can also print the test coverage profile for review at a later time.

Unreachable statements

It is possible to have "dead" or unreachable code in requests. For example, code that is unconditionally branched around is unreachable. Similarly, code in a subroutine that can never be called is also unreachable.

SoftSpy can perform a complete flow analysis of your request in order to identify unreachable code. This allows statements to be classified as either tested, untested and unreachable, or untested and reachable. The presence of untested statements that are reachable indicates further testing is required.

The column labeled "R" indicates whether an executable statement is reachable or unreachable.

Option Features

The quality assurance testing option provides a number of features that augment the basic SoftSpy environment to provide a robust quality assurance testing environment.

Commands

  • Establish the quality assurance testing environment.
  • Scroll forward and backward among untested statements.
  • Scroll forward and backward among unreachable statements.
  • Initiate or terminate the collecting of quality assurance data.
  • Add or remove columns from the source program display showing quality assurance data.

SoftSpy Data

The following information is provided.

  • Whether a statement is reachable or unreachable.
  • Whether a statement has or has not been tested.
  • The number of times a statement has been tested.

Other SoftSpy Features: Interactive Debugging Option | Interactive Performance Tuning Option | Error Audit Option