Grey box testing

Grey box testing

Grey box testing include knowledge of internal data structure and algorithms for purposes of designing tests while executing those tests at the user or black box level.

The tester is not requires to have full source code access during testing.

 Tests that require modifying a back end data repository such as a database or a log file does qualifying as grey box, as the user would not normally be capable to change the data repository in normal producing operations. Grey box testing may also comprise reverse engineering to determine, e.g. boundary values or error messages.

A grey box tester will be permitted to set up an isolated testing environment with activities such as seeding a database. A tester can observe the state of the product being tested after performing certain actions such as executing SQL statements against the database.

Grey box testing implements intelligent test scenarios, based on less information. This will particularly apply to data type handling, exception handling and many more.