The writing and planning of test cases.
I’m quite a fan of Gherkin’s Given-When-Then syntax for test cases, so I was pleased to discover Specflow. Specflow is a .NET implementation of Gherkin, with complete integration with Visual Studio. Steve Sanderson’s blog post describes it most excellently, and is essential reading if you plan on using Specflow. I recommend that you have a […]
This is a story about my experience in using a wiki to manage test cases. Over the past few years, I have been evaluating different test case management approaches and tools. At first I was looking for a one-fits-all solution, but it quickly became apparent that such a dream was impossible to achieve. At Campaign […]
Earlier this year, I started work testing a system that had been developed over about 5 years and there were no documented test cases. There was a huge suite of automated tests, but no test cases whatsoever. I didn’t have time to write 5 years’ worth of test scripts for a system I knew nothing […]
I wish I had seen this post – Testing vs Checking by Michael Bolton – about a year ago when I was trying to explain this concept to my manager at the time. The manager’s opinion was that testing = checking, and as soon as checking was done, that meant that testing was done. The […]
I get a little irritated when I get asked to “just test everything” and developers don’t understand why. So here’s why. Let’s say we’re testing Twitter. To make it even simpler, we’re not testing all of it, just the web page where you type your thoughts into the box and click update. In fact, forget […]
I find that most test methodologies today don’t fit very well with agile development methodologies. Whenever requirements change, the developers adapt fairly easily but the testers are still gritting their teeth because they have to update a huge backlog of test cases for regression testing. Most test orgs do try to do similar tasks at […]
You know, I once came in partway through a project with test cases that were a little light on the details, like: Move team. It was a little perplexing to say the least. How do I move a team and what’s meant to happen once I do it? The other testers were just as confused […]
The search for the perfect test case format I mean. Ideally a test case document should be such that any n00b can just come along, never having seen your application before and test the bejeezus out of it. So ideally, each test case should somehow communicate: How to get to the area you are […]
Writing test cases is one of the most exciting parts of being a tester. Honestly, not a day goes by when I don’t think “Gee golly whillikers, if only I had more test cases to write!” Ha ha. Do you see what I did there? That’s sarcasm, or possibly irony. Maybe both. Anyway, I’m […]