State transition testing
Testing how the system moves between states, like Locked, Active and Suspended.
Definition
State transition testing models the system as states and the events that move it between them, then tests valid and invalid transitions. It suits features where the same action has different results depending on the current state.
In practice
After three wrong PINs a banking app goes from "Active" to "Locked". You test that a fourth attempt stays locked, and that resetting the PIN moves it back to "Active".
Learn it in context
Lessons that use this term.