Post date: Jun 02, 2010 5:1:14 PM
White box testing (a.k.a. clear box testing, glass box testing, transparent box testing, or structural testing) uses an internal perspective of the system to design test cases based on internal structure. It requires programming skills to identify all paths through the software. The tester chooses test case inputs to exercise paths through the code and determines the appropriate outputs. In electrical hardware testing, every node in a circuit may be probed and measured; an example is in-circuit testing (ICT).
Since the tests are based on the actual implementation, if the implementation changes, the tests will probably need to change, too. For example ICT needs updates if component values change, and needs modified/new fixture if the circuit changes. This adds financial resistance to the change process, thus buggy products may stay buggy. Automated optical inspection (AOI) offers similar component level correctness checking without the cost of ICT fixtures, however changes still require test updates.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_box_testing