Types of Testing Supported by STRIDE

Overview

One of the questions that should be asked is what is the value of the test? If the test does not discover any defects or does not provide ongoing regression, then the value is questionable. Also what is the effort in implementing the test? STRIDE has been uniquely designed to support maximizing the value of the test while minimizing the effort to implement it.

The STRIDE test system supports three general types of testing:

• Unit Testing
• API Testing
• Integration Testing

Unit Testing

Unit Testing is supported following the model found in typical xUnit-style testing frameworks. STRIDE also offers a number of additional features optimized for testing embedded software.

Traditional Unit Testing presents a number of challenges in testing embedded software:

• Testing functions/classes in isolation requires a lot of extra work, especially if your software was not designed upfront for testability
• The software is often not well suited for others to participate in the test implementation, since there is too much internal knowledge required to be productive
• It can be difficult to automate execution of the full set of tests on the real target device

Unit Testing legacy software may have limited value, particularly if the software is stable with respect to defects. The best return-of-effort is often experienced when focused on brand new software components.

API Testing

STRIDE supports API Testing by leveraging the same techniques available for Unit Testing.

API Testing differs from unit testing in that the tests focus on direct testing (calling) of a well-defined interface.

• The design of public interfaces often lends itself to testing in isolation without implementing special test logic (i.e. no stubbing required), which make the test implementation simpler.
• Public APIs are most likely documented and as a result, non domain experts can more easily participate in the test implementation

Although API Testing often represents a smaller percentage of the software being exercised, this kind of testing is typically well understood, easy to scope, and often has a better return-on-effort.

Integration Testing

STRIDE also supports Integration Testing, which is different than Unit Testing or API Testing in that it does not focus simply on calling functions and validating return values. To learn more about some of the unique testing techniques well suited for this type of testing read here.

Integration Testing focuses on validating a larger scope of the software while executing under normal operating conditions.

• Tests are performed typically with fully functional software build
• There are minimal code isolation challenges
• Test results provide a sanity check on the health the software

We believe that Integration Testing has a very high return-on-effort and is more applicable to legacy software systems.