Commercial Component Testing

Definition

Commercial component testing is the testing of an individual commercial off the shelf (COTS) component.

The typical objectives of commercial component testing are to:

Identify defects in the commercial component that can cause the application to fail to meet its requirements.
Identify limitations (e.g., performance, security, scalability, and operational availability) in the component.

Commercial component testing can typically begin when the following preconditions hold:

The commercial component has been obtained (either bought or an evaluation copy) and installed on the chosen test environment.
The software development team is adequately staffed.

Commercial component testing is typically complete when:

Blackbox functional testing has been completed.
Blackbox testing of quality (e.g., performance, security, scalability, and operational availability) requirements.

Commercial component testing involves the software development team performing the following testing tasks:

Commercial component testing is typically performed on the following environments using the following tools:

Commercial component testing typically consists of the following tasks being performed during the following phases:

TASK \ PHASE	*Initiation ()**	Construction	Delivery	Usage	Retirement
Test Planning	Completed	Maintained	Maintained	Maintained	Archived
Test Reuse	Completed	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
Test Design	Completed	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
Test Implementation	Completed	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
Test Execution	Completed	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable
Test Reporting	Completed	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable	Not Applicable

(*) Potentially some commercial component testing of COTS software components may occur during vendor and product evaluation.

Even though a component is commercially available does not mean that it is defect free. Many such components are not nearly as high a quality as the vendor's marketing representatives claim.
Component testing is difficult because it is often very difficult to find an oracle to specify the expected behavior. Most components do not come with requirements specifications.
Most components do not come with adequate (or any!) test sets that can be executed as a regression test or used to determine the adequacy of vendor testing.
Tailor out if no COTS components are to be used.