Standards for Testing › Types of Testing › Program Testing › Black Box and White Box Testing

Black Box and White Box Testing

Most testing methodologies distinguish between black box and white box approaches to testing.

Black box testing assumes no knowledge of the internal mechanism of a program but merely considers the inputs and outputs.

White box testing uses knowledge of a component’s internal working to focus upon critical paths. White box testing can be used to simplify the test procedures and to also ensure testing covers conditions arising from any limitations of the implementation, for example, array maxima.

Generally speaking, white box testing is most effective at a program stage; black box testing is more appropriate at a system stage.