Error Guessing

Error Guessing is not in itself a testing technique but rather a skill that can be applied to all of the other testing techniques to produce more effective tests (i.e, tests that find defects).

Error Guessing is the ability to find errors or defects in the AUT by what appears to be intuition. In fact, testers who are effective at error guessing actually use a range of techniques, including:

* Knowledge about the AUT, such as the design method or implementation technology
* Knowledge of the results of any earlier testing phases (particularly important in Regression Testing)
* Experience of testing similar or related systems (and knowing where defects have arisen previously in those systems)
* Knowledge of typical implementation errors (such as division by zero errors)
* General testing rules of thumb of heuristics.

Error guessing is a skill that is well worth cultivating since it can make testing much more effective and efficient - two extremely important goals in the testing process. Typically, the skill of Error Guessing comes with experience with the technology and the project. Error Guessing is the art of guessing where errors can be hidden. There are no specific tools and techniques for this, but you can write test cases depending on the situation: Either when reading the functional documents or when you are testing and find an error that you have not documented.