Configuration testing definition:
Configuration testing is the process of checking the operation of the software you are testing with all these various types of hardware.
Harware
PC; Components; Peripherals; Interfaces; Options and memory; Device Drivers.
Why: Standards are not always followed.
Isolating Configuration Bugs 分離配置缺陷
1. Who should fix the bug?
You discover a problem when you testing your software on a unique configuration.
Your team.
2. How to identify Configuration bugs?
The sure way to tell if a bug is a configuration problem and not just an ordinary bug is to perform the exact same operation that caused the problem, step by step, on another computer with a completely different configuration. If the bug does not occur, it is very likely a configuration problem. If the bug happens on more than one configuration, it is probably just a regular bug.
確定錯誤是否是配置問題而不僅僅是普通錯誤的確定方法是，在另一臺配置完全不同的計算機上，逐步執行導致問題的完全相同的操作。 如果沒有發生該錯誤，則很可能是配置問題。 如果該錯誤發生在多個配置上，則可能只是常規錯誤。
Sizing Up the Job
The job of configuration testing can be a huge undertaking. We need to figure out a way to reduce the huge set of possible configurations to the ones that matter the most.
The following general process that you should use when planning your configuration testing.
1.) Decide the types of hardware you will need.
Look closely a your software feature set to make sure that you cover everything.
2.) Decide what hardware brands, models, and device drivers are available.
Work with your sales and marketing people to create a list of hardware to test with. If they can not or won’t help, grab some recent editions and back issues of some information to get an idea of what hardware is available and what is popular.
Do some research to see if some of devices are clones of each other and therefore equivalent-falling under the same equivalence partition.
Approaching the Task
The following general process that you should use when planning your configuration testing.
1.) Decide the types of hardware you will need.
Look closely a your software feature set to make sure that you cover everything.
2.) Decide what hardware brands, models, and device drivers are available. 確定可用的硬件品牌，型號和設備驅動。
Work with your sales and marketing people to create a list of hardware to test with. If they can not or won’t help, grab some recent editions and back issues of some information to get an idea of what hardware is available and what is popular.
與您的銷售和營銷人員一起創建要測試的硬件列表。 如果他們不能或沒有幫助，請閱讀一些最新版本並返回一些信息，以瞭解可用的硬件和流行的硬件。
Do some research to see if some of devices are clones of each other and therefore equivalent-falling under the same equivalence partition.
3) Decide which hardware features, modes, and options are possible. 確定哪些硬件功能，模式和選項是可能的。
Every device has options, and your software may not need to support all of them. A good example of this is computer games.
4) Pare down the identified hardware configurations to a manageable set. 將已識別的硬件配置降至可管理的範圍。
Given that you do not have the time or budget to test everything, you need to reduce the thousands of potential configurations into the ones that matter—the ones you are going to test.
5.) Identify your software unique features that work with the hardware configurations.
The key word here is unique. You do not want to, nor do you need to, completely test your software on each configuration.
You need to test only those features that are different from each other that interact with the hardware.
6.) Design the test cases to run on each configuration.
- Select and set up the next test configuration from the list.
- Start the software.
- Load in the file test.doc
- Confirm that the displayed file is correct.
- Print the document.
- Confirm that there are no error messages and that the printed document matches the standard.
- Log any discrepancies as a bug.
In reality, the steps would be much more involved, including more detail and specifics on exactly what to do.
7.)Execute the tests on each configuration.
You need to run the test cases and carefully log and report your results to your team, and to the hardware manufacturers if necessary.
8.) Rerun the tests until the results satisfy your team.
It is not uncommon for configuration testing to run the entire course of a project. Initially a few configurations might be tried, then a full test pass, then smaller and smaller sets to confirm bug fixes. Eventually you will get to a point where there are no known bugs or to where the bugs that still exist are in uncommon or unlikely test configurations. At that point, you can call your configuration testing complete.
configuration item testing
–sci : software configuration item
software configuration management
version control, change chotrol, process support