Misunderstanding of software test cases

A software test case is a specific set of test purposes, test steps, and expected test results that are written to effectively identify a software defect. The correct understanding and design of software test cases can improve the effectiveness of software testing, facilitate the measurement of test quality and enhance the manageability of the test process.

In the actual software project testing process, because of the different understanding of the function and design method of the software test cases, the testers (especially the new ones who just engaged in the software testing) have a lot of misconceptions about the software test cases, which brings the negative influence to the actual software test, this article enumerates and analyzes these misunderstandings.

One of the misconceptions: test input data design method is equivalent to test case design method

Now some test books and articles on the design of software test cases, often have such a statement: test case design methods include: equivalence class, boundary value, causality diagram, error inference method, scene design method and so on. This statement is one-sided, and these methods are just how to determine the method of testing input data in software functional test case design, not the whole content of test case design.

The negative impact of this understanding may make many people think that test case design is how to determine the test input data, thus masking the test case design content and the richness of the technical complexity. If a test case designer takes this knowledge to his or her own, it harms them, and teaches them to harm others, and the Test team is harmed by the guidance of the test. It sounds like a "fuss", but it's not "alarmist".

Undoubtedly, for software functional testing and performance testing, it is important to determine the input data for the test, which determines the effectiveness of the test and the efficiency of the test. However, the method of determining the input data in a test case is only a subset of the test case design method, in addition to determining the test input data, the test case design includes how to determine the test case design strategy, the design use case representation method and the Organization management form according to the test requirement, the design specification and so on.

When designing test cases, it is necessary to take into account the functions, characteristics, components, development stages (milestones) of the tested software, and the organization method of test cases (whether the database management of test cases is used). Specific to the design of each test case, you can determine the test target based on the minimum target of the tested module, determine the test environment according to the user's use environment, and determine the test cases according to the complexity of the software being tested and the skills of the test case executor. Determine the desired test case execution results according to the software requirements documentation and design specifications.

Myth Two: Emphasize that the more detailed the test case design, the better.

When determining the test case design objectives, some project managers emphasize that the test case is "as detailed as possible". The specific performance in two aspects: as far as possible to design enough design use cases, the number of test cases to read the better; test cases, as much as possible, include detailed steps for test execution to achieve "anyone can perform a test against a test case", and the more detailed the test case is, the better.

The greatest danger of this approach and view is that it consumes a lot of test case design time and resources, and may wait until the test case design, the review is completed, leaving no time for actual execution of the test. Because the current software company's project team is in the planning testing phase, the time and human resources assigned to the test are limited, and the success of the software project is to adhere to the "quality, time, cost" of the best balance, do not have enough test execution time, you can not find more software defects, testing quality is more impossible to talk about.

The fundamental purpose of writing test cases is to effectively identify possible defects in the software, in order to achieve this goal, we need to analyze the characteristics of the software being tested, use the effective test case design method, try to utilize less test cases, and satisfy the reasonable test requirement coverage, so as to achieve the effect of "spend less time and more affairs".

The test steps in the test case need to be detailed to what extent, depending on the test case.