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What is Grey Box Testing?
Grey Box is a method of software testing, which is a combination of Black Box Testing and White Box Testing methods. In Black Box testing method, the internal coding structure of the application is unknown to the testers. In White Box Testing, the internal coding structure is completely known to the testers. In Grey Box Testing method, the internal coding structure of the application is partially known to the testers.
In Grey Box Testing, as the tester has partial knowledge of the internal coding structure, he/she will design the better test cases for testing the visual functionality of the application. i.e. In Grey Box Testing, partial White Box testing knowledge is used for designing the better test cases and Black Box Testing knowledge is used for verifying the visual functionality of the application. Here the Grey box testers having partial knowledge on internal coding structure will design the better test cases using the UML diagrams, Architecture diagrams, state-based diagrams etc. of the required application, apart from using the Requirements and Specifications documents which are generally used by the Black Box Testers.
Grey Box Testing Techniques: The following are the different techniques which can be used for performing Grey Box Testing:
- > Matrix Testing defines all the variables that are available in the Application programs.
- > Regression Testing to verify whether the code changes have not introduced any side effects in the working areas of the Software Application.
- > Pattern Testing is performed based on the previously found defects to investigate the code and find the root cause of the failure.
- > Orthogonal Array Testing (OAT) is a technique which provides maximum code coverage with the minimum number of test cases
Notes:
- > Grey Box Testing is also spelled as Gray Box Testing. Hence both Grey Box Testing and Gray Box Testing are one and same.
- > Grey Box Testing is primarily useful for Integration Testing and Penetration Testing.
- > Apart from Functional and Business Domain testing, Grey Box Testing is also suitable for testing Web Services to find defects in the application following Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA).
- > Grey Box is most suitable for testing the Web Based applications.
- > Test cases for Grey Box Testing include GUI, Web Services, Security, and Database.
Next Steps:
- > To learn more about Software Testing, continue to the next post (Click on the Next Post link below)
- > Check complete Software Testing Tutorial Contents here (Click here)
Please leave your questions/comments/feedback below.
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Can you give examples on grey box testing related to web based testing for clarity??
Have to work on them. Will post them soon if I come across any.
Nice explanation Arun !! I came across this term first time!!
I want to know some examples as well!
Sure Riddhi. I will work on them soon.