Black Box Tests are not a type of test, but a testing strategy, and are performed by QA test engineers or the end users.

Contrary to White Box Tests, which can only be created once the code has been written, Black Box Tests can start to be designed immediately after the Requirements have been specified.

Some Black Box Tests that can be commissioned are:

• Black Box (Behavioral) Testing:
  • system testing, Usability testing,
• UserLess Tests:
  • Smoke Testing:
    • Also known as sanity testing, the application is checked to ensure it it as up and running, and is therefore ready for other testing.
  • Functional Testing:
    • The software is tested for the functional requirements. The tests are written in order to check if the application behaves as expected
  • Stress Testing: 
    • The application is tested against heavy load such as complex numerical values, large number of inputs, large number of queries etc. which checks for the stress/load the applications can withstand.
  • Load Testing:
    • The application is tested against heavy loads or inputs such as testing of web sites in order to find out at what point the web-site/application fails, or at what point its performance starts to degrades.
    • Should be done by QA staff in a staging environment where you can put load on the system without affecting production traffic. 
  • Volume Testing:
    • Volume testing is done against the efficiency of the application. Huge amount of data is processed through the application (which is being tested) in order to check the extreme limitations of the system.
  • Recovery Testing:
    • Recovery testing is basically done in order to check how fast and better the application can recover against any type of crash or hardware failure etc. Type or extent of recovery is specified in the requirement specifications.
  • Ad-hoc Testing:
    • This type of testing is done without any formal Test Plan or Test Case creation. Ad-hoc testing helps in deciding the scope and duration of the various other testing and it also helps testers in learning the application prior starting with any other testing.
  • Exploratory Testing:
    • This testing is similar to the ad-hoc testing and is done in order to learn/explore the application.
  • Usability Testing:
    • This testing is also called as ‘Testing for User-Friendliness’. This testing is done if User Interface of the application stands an important consideration and needs to be specific for the specific type of user.
• Testing where user plays a role/user is required:
  • Usability Testing:
    • This testing is also called as ‘Testing for User-Friendliness’. This testing is done if User Interface of the application stands an important consideration and needs to be specific for the specific type of user.
  • User Acceptance Testing (UAT):
    • In this type of testing, the software is handed over to the user in order to find out if the software meets the user expectations and works as it is expected to.
  • Alpha Testing:
    • In this type of testing, the users are invited at the development center where they use the application and the developers note every particular input or action carried out by the user. Any type of abnormal behavior of the system is noted and rectified by the developers.
  • Beta Testing:
    • In this type of testing, the software is distributed as a beta version to the users and users test the application at their sites. As the users explore the software, in case if any exception/defect occurs that is reported to the developers.