A software application is composed of a number of software modules that are integrated together to form a software application. A module itself is a program written in a particular language that is composed of subroutines, subprograms, classes, procedures, and functions. Module testing definition: The testing of these module composition units can be done through Module testing.
Module testing can be classified largely into a white box orientation. Sometimes Module testing is also referred to as Program or Component Testing. The main objective of conducting Module testing is to ensure that the module is fully tested and functional in order to participate in Application testing. Module testing reduces the number of defects or errors which could be discovered during Application testing in the later stage of testing. It also introduces parallelism into the testing approach as it provides an opportunity to test multiple application modules at the same time.
What is Module Testing?
Module testing is primarily focused on testing software modules or sub-program instead of testing the entire software application at once. Module testing in software engineering is very beneficial and always recommended as it is very easy to identify, understand and fix the defects at the module level instead of fixing them at the Application level. Till now the first paragraph we learned module testing definition.
Also read => Difference between Unit Test vs Integration Test
Why Module testing is always recommended?
Module Testing is always recommended because of the following reasons.
- It is always easy to test a small chunk of program or subprogram than a large program or complete application. A small code unit can be tested with the required unit test cases and can ensure if the particular function, procedure, subroutine, etc. is working fine and all set to integrate with other programs or modules present within the software application.
- It supports the testing in parallel. Multiple modules that belong to a single application can be tested in parallel independent of each other. When these independently tested modules are integrated into software application then definitely the end product will be a quality product.
- Through module testing, the testers can easily handle the complexity of the software application as testing is conducted at the unit level or small part of the program.
Example Tips for Module testing
The following are the module testing example tips which are very often adopted to conduct module testing.
- It is very important to design a test case before Module Testing can be started. Also, the tester should take into consideration the following two things before designing a test case for module testing.
- The module specification.
- The module’s source code under test.
- It is important to analyze the code logic for the module under test. The tester can use one or more white-box methods, and can easily enhance these test cases through the application of black-box methods to the modules specification.
- After designing test cases has completed, the next step is to associate the module for testing. The tester can use either an Incremental or non-incremental method for the testing approach.
- In the incremental approach, each software module is first tested and then incremented gradually to get tested as a collection through step by step approach. Further, the incremental testing approach for module testing can be classified into two approaches. These approaches are the bottom-up testing approach and the top-down testing approach.
- In the non-incremental approach, all software modules are first tested independently and then later integrated and tested as a whole program.
- We should prepare the test data that should be supplied to the module through a driver in order to execute a test for that module, monitoring the execution of a test and capturing the test results.
Best practices for Module/Component Testing
Here are some of the best practices which are recommended to be considered before conducting Module Testing.
- Test Cases Review: We should be getting our test cases reviewed with the required team or peers in order to make sure that we have 100% test coverage.
- Automated test execution: We should identify the test scenarios or functionalities which could be automated through the testing tool. This will save us time in executing such test cases over and over.
- Avoid confusion: There should not be any confusion related to the data input and the expected output to be tested for any module.
- Examine variables: The variables which are supposed to be changed or to be kept constant all the time should be monitored thoroughly and examined at the time of recording test results.
- Re-use the test cases and avoid any test case duplication.
Difference between Module Testing vs Unit Testing
Given below are the comparison between the module testing and the unit testing.
| No. | Unit testing | Module testing |
| 1. | Unit tests are a set of tests which are written by a developer at the time of software development process. | Module tests are a set of tests which are written by a tester after coding has completed by a developer for the particular module. |
| 2. | Unit Testing involves the testing of units in isolation. | Module testing involves the combination of the units test. |
Challenges in Module Testing
The following are the challenges that are often faced by the tester while performing module testing.
- If the module testing approach is a non-incremental testing approach then the testing may require more work as each module has to be tested independently first and then collectively as one application.
- There could be a misunderstanding of the test doubles while performing module testing.
- There may need to debug tests very often which may incur lots of testing effort and time.
- Testers are required to understand the code and therefore, module testing cannot be simply done by the testers who have no programming language skills.
Conclusion
In this class, we learn module testing definition, example, differences, Module testing is the testing of subroutines, subprograms, classes, procedures, and functions associated with a particular module that can be performed through incremental and non-incremental module testing approach. The main benefit to conducting module testing before application testing is that the probability of identifying defects or errors on a smaller piece of the program becomes higher than identifying defects for a big program and further it minimizes the test effort required to perform application testing i.e. testing of the entire software application at a time.
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