Static Software Testing: Making the Code Clean As Early As Possible

Static testing is also called as dry run testing. This is a form of software testing where the actual program or application is not used and analysis of a program is carried out without executing the program. In this testing method the programmers manually read their own code to find any errors in the software. This is not a detailed test and it checks only for the sanity of the code, document and algorithm.

This type of testing warrants checking of the code by physically going through the syntax of the code line by line to find errors; hence the best person to check is the software programmer who has written the code. By running through the requirements specifications of the software the Static software testing can be done as part of black box testing; however, in practice, it is done as white box testing.

Static code analysis is the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs built from that software. The analysis is performed either on the source code or on the object code. The term is usually applied to the analysis performed by an automated tool. The degree of sophistication of the analysis performed by tools varies from those that only consider the behavior of individual statements and declarations, to those that include the complete source code of a program in their analysis. The analysis highlights possible coding errors to formal methods that mathematically prove properties about a given program. Some of the static analysis tools are lint-like tools and metric tools and these are used for static testing of software. These tools are effective in checking the static within the system. The main advantage in finding bugs while doing a static software test is that they are inexpensive to fix than if they were discovered later in the development

Software testing can also be categorized based on how it is executed. Execution could be in the form of verification or static analysis or it could be validation or dynamic analysis. Verification is the human examination or review of the work product. There are many forms of verification which ranges from informal verification to formal verification. Verification can be used for various phases in SDLC and can be in the form of formal inspection, walkthrough or buddy-checking. Static software testing is part of the verification process. The verification process indicates to the software testers and developers that the system and software met the requirements and qualifications for quality. This is a signal for moving on to the next phase of software testing.

Static software quality analysis techniques are useful in debugging at the code level and helps in a clean software development. Such testing at the code level as it is being written ensures that problems are kept to a minimum for the future. If the static software testing is kept as a normal part of the development process, you will reduce the number of errors to a minimum.