1 – A
3D printing
Additive manufacturing, more commonly known as 3D printing, is the process in which products are “printed” layer by layer through a nozzle with a specific filament of printing material.
Alternative term: Additive manufacturing
A/B-testing
The reaction of users on two variants (A and B) of a system are compared to determine which variant best fits the expectations of the users and other stakeholders. Variant A might be the existing version and B a new version. Or A and B can be two different new versions that are compared.
B
BDD
See: Behavior driven development.
BDTM
See: Business Driven Test Management
C
Central starting point
See Starting point.
Chain test
See End-to-end test.
D
Data (coverage group)
This is one of the coverage groups of coverage-based test design techniques that relate to testing data.
Data analytics
Data analytics is the isolation, aggregation and analysis of data based on different criteria relating to specific use cases.
E
Effectiveness
The accuracy and completeness with which users achieve specified goals. This is a characteristic of quality in use of the ISO25010 standard.
Efficiency
The resources expended in relation to the accuracy and completeness with which users achieve goals. It is the relationship between the performance level of the system (expressed in the transaction volume and overall speed) and the amount of resources (CPU cycles, I/O time, memory and network capacity, etc.) that are used. This is a characteristic of quality in use of the ISO25010 standard.
F
Fail-over possibilities
The ease with which (part of) the information system can continue elsewhere. This is a quality sub-characteristic from the TMap NEXT list. It is covered by the quality characteristic Reliability of the ISO25010 and its sub-characteristics.
Failure
A deviation of the system from its expected delivery or service. The result or manifestation of one or more faults. A failure may be detected by dynamic testing.
G
Generic test agreements
The overall approach for the setup and organization of test processes that applies to more than one project or release. General agreements on e.g. the test process, standard strategy, estimating method, procedures, organization, communication, documentation, etc.
Glassbox testing
Testing with knowledge of and insight into the internal operation of a system or program. This is the opposite of Blackbox Testing.
(The term whitebox testing is often used but glassbox better signifies the true meaning of being able to see what is happening)
H
Heuristic
A strategy derived from previous experiences with similar problems, that employs a practical method, not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational, but instead sufficient for reaching an immediate goal. It can involve using a rule of thumb, an educated guess, an intuitive judgment, a guesstimate, profiling, or common sense.
High-performance IT Delivery
An approach that enables cross-functional teams to continuously improve the products, processes and people that are required to deliver value to the end users. Examples are Scrum and DevOps.
I
IIoT
See: Industrial Internet of Things
Improvisation
Improvisation is the power of the intelligent system to make right decisions in new situations. This is a subcharacteristic of the quality characteristic Intelligent Behavior for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics that we added to the ISO25010 standard.
K
Known error
See: Known fault
Known fault
An anomaly that has been classified as an actual fault but has not been solved (yet).
L
Load model
A description of the various expected levels of load on an IT-system, which is the basis for specifying and executing performance tests.
Logical test case
Describes, in logical terms, the circumstances in which the system behavior is examined by indicating which test situations are covered by the test case.
M
Machine intelligence
Machine intelligence (MI) is a unifying term for what others call machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). We found that when we called it AI, too many people were distracted by whether certain companies were “true AI”, and when we called it ML, many thought we weren’t doing justice to the more “AI-esque”-like aspects, such as the various flavors of deep learning. So, machine intelligence is a term that combines “artificial intelligence”, “machine learning” and other related terms.
Machine learning
Machine learning is one of the ways to achieve artificial intelligence. It contains different algorithms – each with its own strengths and weaknesses. These algorithms are often grouped into three categories: supervised learning, unsupervised learning, reinforcement learning.
N
Natural interaction
Natural interaction refers to the level of natural dynamics in communication between between an intelligent machine and a person. It is important both in verbal and non-verbal communication between humans and machines. This is a new sub quality characteristic for artificial intelligence and robotics.
Non-functional testing
Testing aimed at one or more quality characteristics other than functionality.
O
Object part
An object part is a logically coherent part of the test object from the perspective of the characteristic to be tested.
Online
Function mode directly connected to an information system in which the information system immediately processes the commands and directly shows the answer (output) on the screen (or other user interface).
P
Pairwise testing
Test design technique that results in testing all possibilities of any combination of 2 factors.
People
People is one of the five elements of TMap HD. It aims at having the right people with the right skills, the right knowledge and the appropriate mindset to wisely apply the agreed methods and way of working in a team and organization. Hence the name TMap HD: Human Driven.
Q
Quality
The totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
Quality assurance
All planned and systematic activities needed to provide adequate confidence that a product or service meets the requirements for quality.
R
Recoverability
The ease and speed with which the information system can be restored after an interruption. This is a quality sub-characteristic of the quality characteristic Reliability of the ISO25010 standard
Red teaming
An approach in security testing where the security of entire the organization is assessed by attacks. The red team is the attacking team and the blue team is the defending team.
S
SAP
Software company founded in 1972 in Germany, focused on developing and selling Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Company name is an acronym for “System and Analysis Program development” (in original German: “SystemAnalyse und Programmentwicklung”).
Satisfaction
The degree to which user needs are satisfied when a product or system is used in a specified context of use. This is a characteristic of quality in use of the ISO25010 standard.B116
T
Technical review
A static testing technique where a product (that’s about 60-80% complete) is submitted to a number of reviewers with the question to assess it from a certain perspective.
Test approach
A way of working for designing and executing tests. There are two groups of test approaches: experience-based testing and coverage-based testing.
U
UAT
see: User Acceptance Test
Unit integration test
A test carried out by the developer in the development environment, with the aim of demonstrating that a logical group of units works together as defined in the technical specifications.
V
Validation
Confirmation by examination and through provision of objective evidence that the demands for a specific intended use have been fulfilled. (“is the right system built”)
Also see: verification
Velocity
The average amount of work— often measured in story points — that the team can perform in one sprint.
W
Walkthrough
An static testing technique by which the author explains the contents of a product during a meeting. Several different objectives are possible: bringing all participants to the same level of understanding, transfer of information, asking the participants for additional information or choose from the alternatives proposed.
Whitebox testing
See: glassbox testing
Witnessing
Observing tests that are specified and/or executed by another party to give evidence about the level of confidence that these tests can give.
Z
Z-transaction code (in SAP)
A transaction code in an SAP system, that was created for a specific customer process. Often consists of ‘Z’ plus an abbreviation of the activity it needs to execute. For example, ZTEST.