In this post I will be talking about what static and dynamic testing is and how they differ.
Static testing’s objective is to find and prevent any errors in the early stages of a software’s development. This sort of testing is done without execution of the code. Some methods of static testing are manual and/or automated reviews of the code, requirement documents and document design. Some examples of the documents reviewed in this stage are test cases, source code, user documents and web page content. This is primarily verification.
Dynamic testing’s objective is to check the functional behavior of software, how it conforms to the business requirements and fix any errors that have been found. Its system, its usage and its performance are tested through execution of code. This sort of testing is done at any stage of the testing life cycle and can be white or black box testing. Most of the time it is validating the outcome is what is expected.
Some key differences between the two types of testing are that in static testing you do not execute the program, you analyze and review the documents and code. In dynamic, you execute the program and analyze the behavior. The goal of static testing is to prevent defects when developing the software while the goal of dynamic testing is to fix the defects. The costs of finding defects in static testing is less than of dynamic testing and the return on investment for static is greater than of dynamic. This is because of the development stage that each are executed in. Since static testing is done in the early stage before compilation it is preventing before it happens. Since dynamic is performed at the end of the development stage, you are only fixing technical debt.
Techniques for static testing include technical reviews, inspection, code reviews, and walkthroughs. Techniques for dynamic include unit testing, integration testing and system testing. Ultimately, static testing involves some sort of checklist and process and dynamic testing includes test cases and execution.
From the blog CS@Worcester – Austins CS Site by Austin Engel and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.