Software Testing is process of Verification and Validation to check whether software application under test is working as expected. The intent is to find the defects in the code and to improve the quality of software application. To test the application we need to give some input and check if the results are as per mentioned in the requirements or not. Testing of application can be carried out in two different ways, Positive testing and Negative testing.

Positive Testing

Positive Testing is testing process where the system is validated against the valid input data. In this testing, tester always check for only valid set of values and check if a application behaves as expected with its expected inputs. The main intention of this testing is to check whether software application does that what it is supposed to do. Positive Testing always tries to prove that a given product and project always meets the requirements and specifications. Positive testing is testing of the normal day to day life scenarios and to check the expected behavior of application.

Example of Positive Testing:

Consider a scenario where you want to test an application which contains a simple text box to enter age and requirements say that it should take only numerical values. So here provide only positive numerical values to check whether it is working as expected or not is the Positive Testing.  

Most of the applications developers implement Positive scenarios where testers get less defects count around positive testing.

Negative Testing

Negative Testing, commonly referred to as error path testing or failure testing is done to ensure the stability of the application. Negative testing is the process of applying as much creativity as possible and validating the application against invalid data In Negative Testing the system is validated by providing invalid data as input. A negative test checks if an application behaves as expected with its negative inputs. This is to test the application that does not do anything that it is not supposed to do so. Such testing is to be carried out keeping negative point of view & only execute the test cases for only invalid set of input data.

The main reason behind Negative testing is to check the stability of the software application against the influences of different variety of incorrect validation data set. Negative testing helps to find more defects & improve the quality of the software application under test but it should be done once the positive testing is complete.

Example of Negative Testing :

Considering example as we know phone no field accepts only numbers and does not accept the alphabets and special characters but if we type alphabets and special characters on phone number field to check it accepts the alphabets and special characters or not than it is negative testing.

Here, expectation is that the text box will not accept invalid values and will display an error message for the wrong entry.

Difference Between Positive and Negative Testing