What is a characteristic of static testing?

A characteristic of static testing is that it requires access to source code for code analysis. Static testing is designed to examine code and related documentation without executing the program. This allows for an analysis of the code structure, style, and potential vulnerabilities before the code is run.

Access to the source code is essential in this context because static analysis tools scan the code and identify issues such as syntax errors, coding standard violations, and security vulnerabilities. By doing this, they can effectively identify flaws that might lead to failures or security issues when the code is eventually executed.

Static testing serves as an important step in the software development lifecycle, allowing teams to catch problems early and reduce the cost of fixing them later, ultimately enhancing software quality and security. This characteristic distinguishes it from dynamic testing, which involves executing the code and thereby does not analyze the code statically.