MT - 64 - What is Test Coverage !

Test coverage is the measure of the amount or percentage of testing which is covered by a test set. Its gives information about the part of the system which has been covered in testing while running a test suite. Test coverage is defined as a technique which determines whether our test cases are actually covering the application code and how much code is exercised when we run those test cases.

Note : 100% percent test coverage doesn't means that 100% is tested and system is defect free.

Formula of test coverage :
                     

Test Coverage measurement

Test coverage can be best measured with the following  3 things:

-By mapping the requirements to the test cases.
-By seeing the test case status.
-By code coverage analysis.

Benefit of code coverage measurement:

-We can find the gaps easily in requirements, test cases and defects at an early level and code level.

-Time, scope and cost can be kept under control

-Defect prevention is possible at an early stage of project life cycle

-It can assure the quality of test

-It can help identify what portions of the code were actually touched for the release or fix

-We can create additional test cases for complete coverage

-It helps in finding areas of a program not exercised by a set of test cases

-The test coverage analysis can determine the decision points and important path made in the application which helps us to increase the test coverage.


Drawback of code coverage measurement:

- Drawback of code coverage measurement is that it measures coverage of what has been written, i.e. the code itself; it cannot say anything about the software that has not been written.

- If a specified function has not been implemented or a function was omitted from the specification, then structure-based techniques cannot say anything about them it only looks at a structure which is already there.