Data Base Testing

· Types Of Testing (What to test)

· Phases Of Testing (When to test)

RDBMS:

RDBMS testing mainly concentrates on following:

1) Relationships :

Actions: Updation / Deletion / Fresh Insertion/Display of new Screen /Time bound actions.

1) Data Integrity test:

Once a value undergoes any of the above actions (update/Delete/Insert) the database should be verified for the changes performed on related entities I.e. Foreign key/Primary key and all dependent entities

2) Stored Procedure test:

Every Stored Procedure is to be tested separately for its functionality ( Based on Separate functions it performs ) Stored procedures need to be broken up into Action Items based on Functions and then Each action item needs to be tested separately as the results of Complete Stored procedure

Execution may differ from the results obtained by partial execution. This also helps in validating the modularity of Code(White Box).

3) Type test :

This test is performed to verify that the data types used by the DBA are same as expected by agreed upon by the developer. Often the data types chosen by developers are not the same as suggested by database administrators , especially for the fields like

A) Phone(Num./Text)

B) Description (Large Text)

These kind of mismatches often do not effect the functionality and normal execution of code , but prove to be very Costly during Updation of product or during addition of features to the existing modules

4) Data Size Test :

Performance of Data size testing is often done only at the front end during the unit testing , but it is essential to perform it at back end separately .

This ensures smooth transition while appending functionality and integrating modules as during these Phases , the data is passed to the system with direct user interaction and bypassing front end validation.

5) Event Driven Item Test :

Event Driven Actions (Triggers or Scheduled Actions) needs to be tested on two parameters.

A) Events that trigger these actions: Here QA needs to check the events on which any of the trigger can get fired/executed . This testing can be done with the help of DBA also .

B) Actions performed by the above stated events. Here the contents of such stored procedures or scheduled actions are verified for the functionality .

6) Input Item Verification :

This is the process of verification of the input items (Though this is not totally a part of database testing , but this has to be performed essentially during database testing of the Web based applications.

Often it is seen that the input items (Text Box/ RTB / Combination Box / Active-X controls )are tested for validation only at front end (Screen testing) but these are again to be tested with junk Character values to confirm that they do not push in such characters which the databases Often misrepresent or Replace with other characters (this testing can partially be performed during Unit testing also by the developer.