False-positive Result
A false-positive result occurs when a test incorrectly reports the presence of a defect, vulnerability, or condition that does not actually exist.
“A test result in which a defect is reported although no such defect actually exists in the test object.”
(Definition reproduced from the ISTQB Glossary. Copyright belongs to ISTQB.)
View the complete ISTQB GlossaryWhat is False-positive Result?
False positives waste time because teams investigate issues that are not genuine defects or security problems.
Incorrect detection: A problem is reported where none exists.
Efficiency impact: Investigation effort is spent unnecessarily.
Tool evaluation: High false-positive rates reduce trust in automated tools.
Real World Example
An automated regression suite reports a failure in the checkout total calculation every few runs, and each time a developer investigates, the application behaves correctly.
The discrepancy turns out to be the test comparing against a hardcoded date that occasionally doesn't match the environment's timezone. After the third or fourth "failure" that isn't real, developers start ignoring red results from this test entirely.
The tester investigates each reported failure and confirms it's a False-positive result — the defect the test claims exists isn't actually present in the checkout logic, only in the test's own faulty date comparison — and fixes the test rather than the application.
Eliminating the False-positive result restores the team's trust in the suite's red/green signal, which matters because a team that learns to shrug off false alarms will eventually shrug off a real one too.
Practice Questions
Question 1
An automated test intermittently reports a checkout total defect, but each time a developer checks, the application behaves correctly — the test itself is comparing against a hardcoded date that sometimes doesn't match the environment. What has occurred?
Question 2
What is the MOST significant long-term risk of repeated false-positive results in an automated regression suite?
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