Automation of Negative Testing

Abstract

Software testing primarily focuses on ensuring the right system behavior when the expected inputs are provided. As software becomes more complex it presents numerous use cases that are prone to failures. Testing must explore these use cases to ensure appropriate system behavior in the presence of faults, an endeavor often called Negative Testing. However the knowledge on Negative Testing is limited which hinders its application to testing. In this study, the existing knowledge and techniques for Negative Testing is explored resulting in a new perspective of Negative Testing. We call this Negation Testing since the previous term is broad and has been used in many different meanings. This new perspective is then implemented as an extension to a unit testing framework. The extension is evaluated and results show that the presented approach can reveal faults and unexpected behavior in software.