Advantages & Disadvantages

Black Box Testing

Advantages & Disadvantages

Advantages of Black Box Testing

More effective on larger units of code than glass box testing Tester needs no knowledge of implementation, including specific programming language Tester and programmer are independent of each other tests are done from a user's point of view will help to expose any ambiguities or inconsistencies in the specifications test cases can be designed as soon as the specifications are complete

Disadvantages of Black Box Testing

Only a small number of possible inputs can actually be tested, to test every possible input stream would take nearly forever Without clear and concise specifications, test cases are hard to design There may be unnecessary repetition of test inputs if the tester is not informed of test cases the programmer has already tried May leave many program paths untested Can't be directed toward specific segments of code which may be very complex (and therefore more error prone) Most testing related research has been directed toward glass box testing