Testing & Quality

A test of a small unit of code

A fast, isolated check of one function, class or component.

A test of components working together

A check that connected modules, services or data stores interact as expected.

End-to-End Test

A test that exercises a complete user or system flow across its real boundaries.

Checking that existing behaviour still works

Re-running relevant tests after change to detect unintended breakage.

A broad check of essential functions

A small set of tests used to decide whether a build is stable enough for deeper testing.

A focused check after a small change

A narrow test that confirms a specific fix or area behaves plausibly before further work.

A test against agreed business expectations

A check that a product or feature satisfies its acceptance conditions.

A defined input, action and expected result

A repeatable description of what to test and how to judge the outcome.

A grouped collection of tests

A set of related test cases that can be run together.

A known setup used by tests

Prepared data, state or resources that put a system in a repeatable condition for testing.

A substitute for a real dependency in a test

A controlled replacement such as a mock, stub or fake used to isolate behaviour.

A test double that verifies interactions

A substitute programmed with expectations about how it should be called.

A test double that returns prepared answers

A simple substitute used to supply controlled data or behaviour during a test.

The scope exercised by testing

An indication of which requirements, risks or behaviours have been checked, not proof of quality by itself.

The proportion of code executed by tests

A measure such as statement or branch coverage that shows what code ran during a test suite.

Test-Driven Development

A development loop of writing a failing test, making it pass and then improving the design.

Behaviour-Driven Development

A collaborative approach that describes expected behaviour in examples understandable to technical and non-technical participants.

Examining code without running it

Automated or manual analysis that finds defects, security issues or style problems in source or binaries.

Examining software while it runs

Analysis of runtime behaviour such as memory use, data flow, performance or security.

Testing under expected or rising demand

A performance test that measures behaviour at realistic and planned levels of traffic.

Testing beyond normal operating limits

A performance test that explores failure modes and recovery under extreme demand or constrained resources.

Measuring speed, capacity and stability

Testing that evaluates response time, throughput, scalability and resource use.

Testing with generated or malformed inputs

An automated technique that feeds unexpected data into software to expose crashes and vulnerabilities.

Checking tests by deliberately changing code

A technique that introduces small code changes to see whether the test suite detects them.