Equivalence Partitioning/Boundary Value Analysis

There are various techniques in developing test cases for black box testing. I will be explaining two of the most common techniques, Equivalence Partitioning and BVA (Boundary Value Analysis)

Equivalence Partitioning
Equivalence partitioning is a black-box testing method that divides the input domain of a program into classes of data from which test cases can be derived. Test case design for equivalence partitioning is based on an evaluation of equivalence classes for an input condition. An equivalence class represents a set of valid or invalid states for input conditions. Typically, an input condition is either a specific numeric value, a range of values, a set of related values, or a boolean condition. Equivalence classes may be defined according to the following guidelines:

If an input condition specifies a range, one valid and two invalid equivalence classes are defined.
If an input condition requires a specific value, one valid and two invalid equivalence classes are defined.
If an input condition specifies a member of a set, one valid and one invalid equivalence class are defined.
If an input condition is boolean, one valid and one invalid class are defined.
As an example, consider data maintained as part of an automated banking application.

The user can access the bank using a personal computer, provide a six-digit password, and follow with a series of typed commands that trigger various banking functions. During the log-on sequence, the software supplied for the banking application accepts data in the form:

area code—blank or three-digit number
prefix—three-digit number not beginning with 0 or 1
suffix—four-digit number
password—six digit alphanumeric string
commands—check, deposit, bill pay, and the like
The input conditions associated with each data element for the banking application can be specified as area code:

Input condition, Boolean—the area code may or may not be present.
Input condition, range—values defined between 200 and 999, with specific exceptions.
prefix: Input condition, range—specified value >200
Input condition, value—four-digit length
password: Input condition, Boolean—a password may or may not be present.
Input condition, value—six-character string.
command: Input condition, set—containing commands noted previously.
Applying the guidelines for the derivation of equivalence classes, test cases for each input domain data item can be developed and executed. Test cases are selected so that the largest number of attributes of an equivalence class are exercised at once.

Boundary Value Analysis
BVA extends equivalence partitioning by focusing on data at the “edges” of an equivalence class.

For reasons that are not completely clear, a greater number of errors tends to occur at the boundaries of the input domain rather than in the "center". It is for this reason that boundary value analysis (BVA) has been developed as a testing technique. Boundary value analysis leads to a selection of test cases that exercise bounding values.

Boundary value analysis is a test case design technique that complements equivalence partitioning. Rather than selecting any element of an equivalence class, BVA leads to the selection of test cases at the "edges" of the class. Rather than focusing solely on input conditions, BVA derives test cases from the output domain as well.

Guidelines for BVA are similar in many respects to those provided for equivalence partitioning:

If an input condition specifies a range bounded by values a and b, test cases should be designed with values a and b and values just above and just below a and b.
If an input condition specifies a number of values, test cases should be developed that exercise the minimum and maximum numbers. Values just above and below minimum and maximum are also tested.
Apply guidelines 1 and 2 to output conditions. For example, assume that a temperature vs. pressure table is required as output from an engineering analysis program. Test cases should be designed to create an output report that produces the maximum (and minimum) allowable number of table entries.
If internal program data structures have prescribed boundaries (e.g., an array has a defined limit of 100 entries), be certain to design a test case to exercise the data structure at its boundary.
Most software engineers intuitively perform BVA to some degree. By applying these guidelines, boundary testing will be more complete, thereby having a higher likelihood for error detection.