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Negative testing

Negative Testing definition and using

 

Software testing focuses on determining whether or not an application complies with the requirements. To finish the process, we might need to utilize a variety of software testing techniques, including functional testing, unit testing, integration system testing, system testing, smoke testing, regression testing, and sanity testing.

Writing lengthy and sophisticated programs, then testing them to ensure flawless and consistent operation, is what makes software development a difficult task to complete. Software testing is a crucial component of writing effective code, as we all know.

But each of these fell into one of the following two categories:

  • Positive Testing
  • Negative Testing

The following subject pertaining to the specific testing method known as negative testing.

What is Negative Testing?

Negative testing definition: It is a special kind of software testing method intended to assess the system for unexpected events. In the creation of high-performance software, it is crucial.

By providing the system with the incorrect data during this test, it is permitted. A negative test looked at how well an application performed given its unfavorable inputs.

 

Testing Results

Negative vs positive testing

Negative testing is mostly used to determine whether the performance of the software will be affected by such unforeseen circumstances.

Negative testing, in other words, is used to ensure that the software product being tested DOES NOT fail when an unexpected input is presented. It is often referred to as error path testing or failure testing.

Towards What Is Negative Testing Designed

  • Negative testing is carried out with the main goal of interrupting the system and verifying the application’s response to unexpected inputs.
  • Negative testing is carried out to ensure that software functions appropriately and optimally, even when the user behaves inconsistently by entering inaccurate data.
  • We will use negative testing to ensure the application’s resistance to the effects of many versions of an incorrect validation data set.
  • It aids in bug discovery and improves the functionality of the software program under test. However, the negative testing is carried out after the positive testing has been put into practice.

Attributes of Negative Testing

Here, we’ll talk about some of the crucial traits of negative testing, which include the following:

 

  • Negative testing can be used to assess potential security breaches and unique handling techniques.
  • Negative testing is performed to analysis the application against the failed circumstances.
  • By supplying malicious data, it is intended to undermine the system and cause a software product to malfunction.
  • It is done to find the flaws that could lead to crucial breakdowns.
  • Negative testing is carried out to reveal data loss or security breaches.
  • A test engineer typically has the task of achieving the negative testing.
  • We will do negative testing to identify the software vulnerability and potential for exploitation.
  • Negative testing is used to ensure the stability of an application or software product after being exposed to input values that are outside of the acceptable range or that contain erroneous data.
  • It is used to identify the major flaws, defects, and weak points that led to its failure.

Why is it necessary for us to conduct negative testing?

Negative testing software is used to carry out any kind of testing activity is an expensive and time-consuming task. Therefore, we must decide wisely whether to incorporate negative testing into our system or not.

Here, we discuss why negative testing is necessary for the specific application by taking into account the following customer and organizational safeguards:

Negative testing needs

Customer’s point of view

In order to satisfy the customer’s expectations, implementation of negation testing makes sure to produce a solution that is bug-free and vulnerable in no way.

  • When an application is essential, like e-commerce or online stock, negative testing is required.
  • The client’s sole focus during the negative testing is on the expense. However, it is up to the customer to decide whether to do negative testing or not when the effect is assessed.

Company’s point of view

  • The firm is accountable for providing its customers with high-quality products. Negative testing is necessary in order to achieve this.
  • The negative testing is necessary from a business’s perspective in order to validate against a failure.
  • Because we can’t always promise to create a bug-free system, negative testing is necessary to make sure that everything is being done to prevent a failure.
  • Due to the fact that there are several hackers out there waiting for an opportunity to compromise the system, by carrying out the negative testing, we can also cover the crucial cases of hacking.

Negative testing cases:

1. Enter characters into an input field that are not permitted.

Unacceptable characters being entered into an input area is likely the most popular negative test. When a user types in an unsupported character, an error message ought to appear. A username field, for instance, might not support the @ symbol.

A warning message appears when a user attempts to submit a registration with an incorrect character, alerting them of the need. Testing this case enables us to confirm:

  • The field requirements message is displayed.
  • No processing of the registration is done.
  • No other errors are shown.
  • There is no app crash.

2. Submiting without adding text in a required field.

Another straightforward example is the lack of any text input in a mandatory field. You can do a negative test by leaving a necessary field blank and attempting to submit the form. In this scenario, we check the same three things:

  • The notice about field requirements appears.
  • The registration was not completed.
  • Other unanticipated errors are not displayed.

 

3. Make a button link with an incorrect URL.

Assume you’re testing a new feature that contains a button that redirects the visitor to another site or page. When you provide a valid URL for the selected button in the CMS (Content Management System), the user clicks the button, which opens the desired page. What if the URL contains an error? This is a textbook case of a negative test case. To test, enter an incorrect URL for that button in the CMS and save it. We can then learn a variety of things:

 

  •  Does the CMS save the update with the incorrect URL?

  • What happens when you click the button if the CMS saves the incorrect URL?

  • Is the app crashing?

  • There are a few places where we might find an error in this situation. When we click the button, we may notice an error in the CMS or a 404 error message.

4. Make an attempt to leave a remark without first logging in.

We’ll test a number of positive situations after logging in to validate the functionality of a comment area. One negative test would be to try to leave a remark before logging in. If a user posts a remark and then clicks submit before authenticating, an error notice should appear advising them of the issue. While testing, we must ensure that the comment was not lost by validating the following:

 

  • An appropriate authentication error message appears.
  • The comment wording stays.
  • Any other unusual error is not displayed.
  • The application does not crash.

5. Check for the presence of a 404 message after removing a page.

When a user attempts to view a web page that has been purposely removed, a specific behavior should occur. In some circumstances, a redirect manages the expectations that the missing page has established. Alternatively, the anticipated behavior may be the display of a 404 error message beneath the website’s navigation bar. We must inform the user that the page has been removed on purpose, and we also want them to use the navbar to reach other pages on the site. The user may have attempted to reach this lost page by following an old link posted on social media or by bookmarking the URL. In any scenario, the expected behavior must be validated:

 

  • There are no unexpected errors displayed.
  • The expected 404 error message with the regular page layout, including the site menu, must be present.

The Benefits of Negative Testing

The following are some of the key advantages of negative testing:

 

  • It will boost the client’s confidence before going live.
  • It increases the likelihood of covering all bases and detecting all types of errors that can occur as a result of inconsistent human behavior.
  • As we all know, negative testing is highly important for ensuring a product’s quality because a good quality product or application is termed a zero-vulnerability product.
  • It also assures that all conceivable situations are covered during the execution of negative testing because, intentionally or unintentionally, negative test cases are possible. To guarantee that all test cases are covered, we must run one round of negative testing followed by positive testing.

Negative Testing’s Drawbacks

However, while negative testing is beneficial for application enhancement, there are some drawbacks to negative testing, which are discussed below:

 

  • Negative testing necessitates a waste of time, money, and effort.
  • It creates significant delays in the launching of a software product or an application for the customer.
  • Negative testing requires the development of negative test cases by a professional and experienced test engineer.
  • Negative testing can be a time-consuming process in software testing. Furthermore, there is no need to perform unnecessary negative testing in a variety of conditions.
  • If the software is just designed for single-person use, we don’t have to consider the possibility of 50-100 end users using the application at the same time. As a result, in critical circumstances, negative test cases are extremely important. There will be situations when we do not need to conduct negative testing on a certain software product.

All in all

After reviewing all of the relevant negative testing issues, we can conclude that negative testing ensures that the provided product is free of flaws and that the customer may use it responsibly.

A creative, skilled, perceptive, and clever test engineer is required to build extensive and powerful negative test scenarios.

As we all know, every software development firm wants to have capable and durable software that can withstand harsh negative testing.

People frequently believe that negative testing is just another way to increase costs without providing any benefits. This is an important consideration because it may jeopardize the quality of the final software product.

Finally, we can say that by utilizing Negative Testing, we can improve quality of the software and make it stronger.