Basis Path Testing - A white Box testing technique.

Basis Path Testing uses the algorithmic flow of the program to design tests. Test cases that are written to test the basis set execute every statement in the program at least once.

- A flow graph should be drawn only when the logical structure of a component is complex. The flow graph allows you to trace program paths more readily. When compound conditions are encountered in a procedural design, the generation of a flow graph becomes slightly more complicated.

- Independent program path is a path which has at least one new set of processing statements or a new condition. An independent path should move along one edge that has not been traversed before. To know how many paths to look for, cyclomatic complexity is a useful metric for predicting those modules that are likely to be error prone. It can be used for test planning as well as test case design. Cyclomatic complexity provides the upper bound on the number of test cases that will be required to guarantee that every statement in the program has been executed at least one time.

- There are few steps to derive test cases or the basis set.
A flow graph is drawn using the design or code.
The cyclomatic complexity of flow graph is evaluated.
A basis set of linear independent path is determined.
Test cases are prepared forcing the execution of each path in basis set.

- Graph matrix is a square matrix whose size is equal to the number of nodes on flow graph. It is a tabular representation of a flow graph. Adding link weight to the each matrix entry, graph matrix can become a powerful tool to evaluate program control structure during testing.