Test Oracle Micro-Patterns

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A test oracle is a source of expected results for a test case. The following micro patterns for test oracles are presented in Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools.

Oracle Patterns (micro-pattern schema)
Approach	Pattern Name	Intent
Judging	Judging	The tester evaluates pass/no-pass by looking at the output on a screen, a listing, using a debugger, or another suitable human interface.
Pre-Specification	Solved Example	Develop expected results by hand or obtain from a reference work.
	Simulation	Generate exact expected results with a simpler implementation of the IUT (e.g., a spreadsheet.)
	Approximation	Develop approximate expected results by hand or with a simpler implementation of the IUT.
	Parametric	Characterize expected results for a large number of items by parameters
Gold Standard	Trusted System	Run new test case against a trusted system to generate results.
	Parallel Testing	Run the same live inputs into the IUT and a trusted system. Compare the output.
	Regression Testing	Run an old test suite against a partially new system.
	Voting	Compare the output of several versions of the IUT.
Organic	Smoke Test	Use the basic operability checks of the run time environment.
	Reversing	Reverse the IUT's transformation.
	Built-in Test	Don't develop expected results. Implement assertions that define valid and invalid results.
	Executable Specification	Actual input values and output values are used to instantiate the parameters of an executable specification. A specification checker will reject an instantiation which is inconsistent, indicating incorrect output.
	Built-in Check	Compare expected and actual total, checksum, or similar encoding.
	Generated Implementation	Generate a new implementation from a specification, compare output from the IUT and the generated IUT for the same test case.
	Different But Equivalent	Generate message sequences that are different but should have the result; run on separate objects and compare for equality.

 

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