TEST CASE

Here I am going to explain how to write the effective test cases. But before writing the test cases we should be able to answer following questions-

 What is the Test Case ?

What is importance of Test Case?

Does it really works in real time testing?

What content should be in Test Cases ?

What is difference in Test Case, Check List and Bug List ?

If you understand all these questions I bet you can write really effective Test Case.  Don’t worry if you are new about to write the test case or you are not able to answer the questions mentioned above I am here to help you and I will explain each question in detail. So lets start one by one-

What is the Test Case ?

Test case is the detail of a project or module or functionality of a project which contains each step that you follow to execute the project. It contains positive scenarios only so that any one can follow each step written in test case and understand the project or module of the project.

For example- Suppose there is project assigned to you and the functionality of the project is taking chat online like gtalk. But you are not aware how the project works. In this situation you can open the test case written for that functionality and can follow step by step process to understand the chat functionality. So here is the deal. If after following the test case if you will be able to understand the functionality of project that mean the test case is really good.

 What is importance of Test Case ?

As I explained Test Case is the documentation of each step of module or functionality or a project. So the importance is no need to explain again and again about the project functionality if someone is new to the project or got the project to test. As I follow,  if any fresher joins the company for testing I just ask them to follow the test cases and really it makes me easy to explain the project or to make them understand thoroughly. As I am testing 11 projects now so its easy for me also to recall the feature if I switch on any project to test. I just open Test Case and immediately recall everything that what the feature of the project is for.

 Does it really works in real time testing?

Yes but not always!!!  When developers develop any new functionality and gives for testing it really works. But one thing I would like to point out the test cases are really important if project is really big or vast. According to my experience where there are less testers and small projects are given for testing in that case writing the test cases are really waste of time however in those situation Check Lists are more effective than Test Cases.

What content should be in Test Cases ?

 This is important part to write the test cases. Here are few things that you should keep in mind during writing the test case-

•  Test ID
• Date
• Module
• Test Case ( Step of each process)
• Test Data
• Scenario if any
• Expected Result
• Actual Result
• Pass / Fail
• Comment If Any.

I will explain each step in later part of this blog.

What is difference in Test Case, Check List and Bug List ?

I have asked this question many of them gave me the same definition for test case and check list and according to them there is no any difference and both are same. Its funny. So here you have to understand the main difference in test case and check list.

The test case contains only the positive scenario however check list can have both positive and negative scenarios. Check List we execute for every regression testing not the test case. Check list could be updated on every test request not the test case. In check list we mention all possible scenario which could break the application not in test case. For example suppose you have to test email validation in email field. So the test case will contain only enter the valid email address, however the checklist will contain many scenarios as enter valid and invalid emails. Here are the contents that we should use during writing the check list-

•  Test ID
• Date
• Module
• Test Case
• Scenario to reproduce the bug. (If any bug found )
• Status of the bug (Blocker / Critical )
• Pass / Fail
• Status of the build (Approved / Rejected )
• Comment if any

I will explain how to write checklist during explaining all abut Check List.

Hope now you understand the basics of Test Case.

Here I am going to write  one test case so that you can understand easily-

You can use any documentation tool or its simple to use Google Doc Spread Sheet or Microsoft Office Excel.

Test Case to for the validation of email field on Login page-

This is just a model how to write test case for a module. However you can follow and write according to your requirement.