Chapter 8. Configuration Testing


IN THIS CHAPTER

  • An Overview of Configuration Testing

  • Approaching the Task

  • Obtaining the Hardware

  • Identifying Hardware Standards

  • Configuration Testing Other Hardware

Life could be so simple. All computer hardware could be identical. All software could be written by the same company. There wouldn't be confusing option buttons to click or check boxes to check. Everything would interface perfectly the first time, every time. How boring.

In the real world, 50,000-square-foot computer superstores are offering PCs, printers, monitors, network cards, modems, scanners, digital cameras, peripherals, net-cams, and hundreds of other computer doodads from thousands of companiesall able to connect to your PC!

If you're just getting started at software testing, one of your first tasks may be configuration testing. You'll be making sure that your software works with as many different hardware combinations as possible. If you're not testing software for a popular hardware platform such as a PC or a Macthat is, if you're testing some specialized proprietary systemyou will still need to consider configuration issues. You can easily tailor what you learn in this chapter to your situation.

The first part of this chapter deals with the generalities of PC configuration testing and then moves into the specifics of testing printers, display adapters (video cards), and sound cards for a PC. Although the examples are based on desktop computers, you can extrapolate the methods to just about any type of configuration test problem. New and different devices are released every day, and it will be your job to figure out how to test them.

Highlights of this chapter include

  • Why configuration testing is necessary

  • Why configuration testing can be a huge job

  • A basic approach to configuration testing

  • How to find the hardware you need to test with

  • What to do if you're not testing software for a desktop computer



    Software Testing
    Lessons Learned in Software Testing
    ISBN: 0471081124
    EAN: 2147483647
    Year: 2005
    Pages: 233

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