4.2.4 State Transition Testing

Components or systems may respond differently to an event depending on current conditions or previous history (e.g., the events that have occurred since the system was initialized). The previous history can be summarized using the concept of states. A state transition diagram shows the possible software states, as well as how the software enters, exits, and transitions between states. A transition is initiated by an event (e.g., user input of a value into a field). The event results in a transition. The same event can result in two or more different transitions from the same state. The state change may result in the software taking an action (e.g., outputting a calculation or error message).

A state transition table shows all valid transitions and potentially invalid transitions between states, as well as the events, and resulting actions for valid transitions. State transition diagrams normally show only the valid transitions and exclude the invalid transitions.

Tests can be designed to cover a typical sequence of states, to exercise all states, to exercise every transition, to exercise specific sequences of transitions, or to test invalid transitions.

State transition testing is used for menu-based applications and is widely used within the embedded software industry. The technique is also suitable for modeling a business scenario having specific states or for testing screen navigation. The concept of a state is abstract – it may represent a few lines of code or an entire business process.

Coverage is commonly measured as the number of identified states or transitions tested, divided by the total number of identified states or transitions in the test object, normally expressed as a percentage. For more information on coverage criteria for state transition testing, (see ISTQB-CTAL-AT).