Software Quality Assurance Questions Medium
Branch coverage is a metric used in software quality assurance to measure the extent to which all possible branches or decision points in a program have been executed during testing. It is a measure of the thoroughness of testing and indicates how well the code has been exercised. Branch coverage is typically expressed as a percentage, representing the ratio of executed branches to the total number of branches in the code.
Branches in a program occur when there are multiple possible paths or outcomes based on conditional statements, such as if-else statements or switch statements. By achieving high branch coverage, it ensures that all possible decision outcomes have been tested, reducing the risk of undetected errors or bugs in the code.
To calculate branch coverage, the testing process involves executing test cases that exercise different branches and decision points in the code. The goal is to ensure that each branch is executed at least once during testing. This can be achieved through various techniques such as boundary value analysis, equivalence partitioning, and decision table testing.
Branch coverage is an important aspect of software testing as it helps identify areas of the code that have not been adequately tested. It provides insights into the effectiveness of the test suite and helps in improving the overall quality of the software. By achieving high branch coverage, software developers and testers can have more confidence in the reliability and correctness of the code.