Is static code analysis a testing method or not?
Well, yes and no. Among testing professionals [http://www.istqb.org], static testing techniques are treated as first class citizens just as any other (dynamic) technique. Moreover, there are a lot of benefits with static techniques which make them important alternatives or, in fact, superior approaches in certain situations. A static technique is a testing technique that verifies a certain testing condition without the need for actually executing the system under test. This can include different kinds of activities within the development/testing process and can be applied at different testing levels, for instance reviewing requirements documents, checking designs against certain design flaws, code inspection or even manual verification of test case descriptions. A very important implication of static techniques is that they can indeed be used to verify the absence of defects in the system of a specific kind! We know of course that this is impossible in a general case with testing, but
