Thoughts on Designing Software Test Cases

Software testing, as a key link to ensure the quality of software project products, has gradually developed into an independent professional in the software development field, and is increasingly concerned and recognized by the industry. As a standard for testing project quality, test cases must be rigorously and scientifically analyzed and designed in terms of test environment, test data, test methods, and test results, to ensure testing coverage and efficiency. Testing is not a simple dubeg process for developers, nor should it be a simple screen click confirmation process. It is a defect search process independent of coding thinking under the guidance of test cases.
When designing a test case, it usually involves the following aspects.
1. runtime environment. The operating environment includes the external environment and internal environment of the system. The external environment usually refers to the operating system, network, and other related collaborative systems. The external environment is generally designed as the basic prerequisite for testing, it not only needs to meet the test requirements of different functions of the entire system, but also needs to simulate the user's final use environment. The internal environment usually refers to the collaborative operation environment between functional modules of the system, when testing module functions, you need to consider whether the collaboration between dependent modules is available.
2. Data environment. If a software system is compared to a factory, data is the various raw materials and production products required for the operation of the factory. The data is consumed and generated during the operation of the software. Data can be classified into static data and dynamic data. Static data usually does not follow the changes of data entities. That is to say, this part of data will not change once determined at different times and environments. During data design testing, the consideration for this part of data is relatively simple, mainly to check its integrity and correctness. Dynamic Data is used to describe the specific States of data entities in different time periods and environments. It may have one or more states at the same time. In the test data design, each State should be fully considered, as well as the running results that each State may bring to the system, the design of test data with a composite state is very complicated.
Iii. performance requirements. Performance Tests of software projects are usually arranged at the end. This arrangement is feasible, but the performance indicators must be determined at the beginning of the project, and the performance indicators must be constantly corrected during the development process. Performance problems cannot be solved at the end. If this happens, it will often lead to disastrous results. The advantage of determining performance indicators in the initial stage of the project is that the current energy problems are discovered during the development process, and countermeasures can be promptly sought to solve them. The duration of a project cannot be used as an excuse to solve performance problems. If it is not solved in time, it will cause serious efficiency problems for our subsequent development and testing.
4. user interface ). The UI interface is usually a direct object for the user to use the system. We must follow the simple and easy-to-understand principle while respecting the user's operation habits, design test cases based on full communication with users and developers.
5. Functional Module Interface. Functional Module interfaces are usually functional boundary points, and feature alternation is often accompanied by changes in data and execution environments. In this case, the test case should not only focus on whether the system can run correctly during module alternation, at the same time, we should also check whether the static data remains correct and complete during the data flow process, and whether the status changes of dynamic data are consistent with the expected results. In the test case design of complex interfaces, it is often difficult to imagine the design of test cases. This difficulty mainly comes from the application of complex data structures in interfaces, therefore, when designing test cases, you must fully understand the data structure in the interface.
As mentioned above, software testing is a defect search process independent of coding thinking, but it cannot be independent from the development process. It should not only be an important part of the development process, at the same time, it is best to use test-driven development throughout the development process.