Problems That Occur While Testing Software Components

Bangalore: Component Based Testing is a much talked about testing in software engineering. It is very akin to the Traditional Unit Based Testing. With time and money being of utmost importance, the concept of component testing originated. Testing a software component is done to verify if it meets the specifications apart from being functional. There is no specific time in testing the component. However, if the result of the component is not as expected, the tester would need to work out plans to test that component for any errors.

The components that usually need to be tested are:
1.The Reusable Components: If the tester intent to re use the components, then he would need to test the component for various specification to ensure that it still can be used.
2.The Commercial Components: Components that are intended to be sold as individual products needs to be tested as a product which could hinder future performance.
3.Domain Components: Domain components should be tested for its reliability and functionality.

Ajevans.com cited some problems in testing software components. They are

1.Constructing testable components
Components should not only be executable and deplorable, however they should also be testable. Designing such components is difficult as they require a clearly delineated architecture model and good interfaces to facilitate the relationship between various sub-components.

2.Building a generic and re-useable test bed
Having components that involve more than one language and technology, it will be difficult to build test bed which has the capacity to tests the system.

3.Construct component test drivers and stubs
The era of the component world ushered in reusable component. Most of the components that were built using the traditional way rendered obsolete as they were designed specifically for a project.

4.The great divide
Testers while trying to identify different issues usually divide the component domain into component producer and component user/consumer. The more reusable the component is, the more complex testing becomes.