Guidelines for Successful Network Product Testing

A few guidelines that will enhance the chances of successful network product/software testing (i.e, find errors) and evaluations are outlined below. These concepts can be useful to both end-users evaluating products and developers striving for qualilty products.

Know the expected results of all tests to be run. (our ITF and SDTF tests indicate the expected results)
Validate the tests to be used (or use our tests for SNA and TCP/IP that have been tested and validated with specifications and multiple real-world products). Review test case and test case library functions and select tests that are more effective than others for current testing objectives.
The following types of tests should be available:
- - Protocol and Functional Verification
  - Functionality
  - Performance
  - Stress
Have tests developed and run by someone other than the person (team) who wrote the implementation being tested.
Keep a log of the types of errors found during past testing. Particular types of errors tend to occur repeatedly. Keeping track of these errors will help find them faster.
Errors are not uniformly distributed through out an implementation. The more errors found in a module or program, the more errors that remain.
Verify that products/programs do what they are supposed to do and be sure they do not do what they are not supposed to do (our SNA and TCP/IP tests do lots of both sunny day and rainy day tests).
Testing probably requires even more creativity than writing the original products/programs.
Effective testing requires lots of skill and is not a task for rookies or new-hires.