A dry run is a testing process where the effects of a possible failure are intentionally mitigated. For example, an aerospace company may conduct a "dry run" test of a jet's new pilot ejection seat while the jet is parked on the ground, rather than while it is in flight.
In computer programming, a dry run is a mental run of a computer program, where the computer programmer examines the source code one step at a time and determines what it will do when run. In theoretical computer science, a dry run is a mental run of an algorithm, sometimes expressed in pseudocode, where the computer scientist examines the algorithm's procedures one step at a time. In both uses, the dry run is frequently assisted by a table (on a computer screen or on paper) with the program or algorithm's variables on the top.
The usage of "dry run" in acceptance procedures (for example in the so called FAT = factory acceptance testing) is meant as following: the factory - which is a subcontractor - must perform a complete test of the system it has to deliver before the actual acceptance from the contractor side.
Famous quotes containing the words dry and/or run:
“The dry eucalyptus seeks god in the rainy cloud.
Professor Eucalyptus of New Haven seeks him
In New Haven with an eye that does not look
Beyond the object.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Time now to pack this humpty-dumpty
back the frightened way she came
and run alongnne, and run along now,
my stomach laced up like a football
for the game.”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)