Negative testing is used to test how the software performs when incorrect or invalid information is received. Conversely, the purpose of positive testing is to ensure that the software works correctly when it receives valid input.

What Is Negative Testing?

To deliver a quality software product to a customer, you need to make sure that you have checked all possible input parameters. The software you provide works as expected.

This means that when you perform an action or input information, the software must do the right thing. One also needs to give the correct response if someone is given the wrong information.

For this reason, it is important to consider negative testing.

Negative testing takes a different app Negative testing helps ensure that you consider all scenarios. It is highly unlikely that the software will receive only valid input. This is because it is very easy to make a mistake, do something wrong or fill the wrong area due to human error.

It is also important to test what happens when incorrect data is inputted. It is important for security reasons and to prevent any malicious and costly data breaches. In other words, when it is important to ensure that a software program runs effectively, you need to think about all the parameters and consider what might go wrong.

Thus, the negative test seeks to test all the various data inputs that may be entered incorrectly. The developers then use this process to design sufficient responses to this invalid information.

Examples of Negative Testing

For a better understanding to show what a negative test is, we can use the example of entering a mandatory name value in the online entry field.

If you enter invalid data, like a string of numbers instead of letters, the program needs to provide an appropriate response. This will alert the user in a certain way. For example, it may show a warning message in red text and cannot proceed to the next function.

Another example is to test the wrong data input in a field that requires a specific form of data entry. This may include placing a non-existent date in the data entry field or putting the age of 200 years as an entry.

Thus, the negative test seeks to think about what can be wrongly recorded. This helps ensure that the software can properly respond to any invalid information.

As we touched on above, it is important to understand what parameters can be considered negative before testing negative.

To make things easier, negative test parameters may include a series of grouped negative inputs. This makes testing faster and more efficient. Given the example of name entry, incorrect data can therefore include data such as numbers, an empty field, special characters, and many characters.

Negative Test Case Parameters

1. Boundary Value Analysis

2. Equivalence Partitioning

How To Do Negative Testing?

All the above information gives a fair indication of how to start thinking about writing negative test cases. However, it is important to take time to sit down and think about all the possible scenarios that may negatively affect your application before doing so.

Undoubtedly, negative tests should also be factors in budget consideration. Therefore, when you can explore infinite possibilities, you need to prioritize certain test standards. This will ensure that you do not waste any time or money.

Thus, designing an adequate test case involves testing any type of data input that could potentially crash your application. This is exactly what happens when a customer uses your finished product. You want to cover all possible safety pitfalls that occur when setting your test case priorities.

It is also useful to think about all the unexpected data that can enter a program. These include simple mistakes that can be ignored, but they can be frustrating to users.

Conclusion

Negative testing plays a very important role while we are preparing our test cases, you should consider negative test cases as well so that we can cover more scenarios and edge cases we can cover if we include negative test cases in our test cases document.

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