Software Testing Tutorial #30 - What is a Test Case
Summary
TLDRThis software testing tutorial focuses on defining a test case, explaining its importance, and who is responsible for writing it. A test case is a set of steps to verify an application's functionality against requirements, including input actions and expected responses. Key sections include title, description, prerequisites, test data, steps, and expected results. Test cases ensure traceability, coverage, and reusability in testing, typically authored by test engineers for structured and organized quality assurance.
Takeaways
- 😀 A test case is a set of steps designed to verify the functionality of an application against customer requirements.
- 📝 Test cases contain input actions and expected responses to ensure the application behaves as intended.
- 🔑 Key sections of a test case include the title, description, prerequisites, test data, test steps, and expected results.
- 🛠️ Test cases are written by test engineers, including QA test engineers and test leads, as part of the testing team's responsibilities.
- 🔗 Test cases provide traceability, ensuring that all key functionalities of a requirement are covered through testing.
- 🔄 Reusability of test cases allows other team members to execute them in future iterations or releases, streamlining the testing process.
- 📈 Test case documentation helps in achieving comprehensive requirement coverage, identifying areas that may need additional testing.
- 📚 The importance of test cases lies in their structured approach to testing, preventing the omission of critical functionalities.
- 📋 Writing test cases is crucial for practical software testing, as it guides the tester through a systematic process of verification.
- 📈 The tutorial will progress to practical aspects, including writing test cases in Excel, importing them into test management tools, and executing them.
- 🔍 Further details on writing test cases, including additional information and sections, will be covered in upcoming tutorials.
Q & A
What is the main purpose of a test case in software testing?
-A test case serves as a set of steps to verify the functionality of an application, ensuring it meets the requirements specified by the customer.
Why is it important to understand what a test case is before writing and executing it?
-Understanding what a test case is ensures that the testing process is structured and organized, preventing the omission of any critical functionalities that need to be tested.
What are the key sections that a test case typically contains?
-A test case typically contains a title, description, prerequisites, test data, test steps, and expected results.
Can you provide an example of what a test case title might be for an e-commerce website's login functionality?
-An example of a test case title for an e-commerce website's login functionality could be 'Verify Successful Login with Valid Email and Password'.
What is the importance of the description section in a test case?
-The description section provides a detailed account of what the test case is intended to test within the application, offering clarity on the scope and purpose of the test.
Why is it necessary to define prerequisites in a test case?
-Defining prerequisites ensures that all necessary conditions are met before executing the test case, such as ensuring that a user is already registered for a login test case.
What is meant by test data in the context of a test case?
-Test data refers to the specific inputs required to execute a test case, such as a valid username and password for a login test case.
Who is typically responsible for writing test cases in a software testing project?
-Test cases are usually written by test engineers, which may include QA test engineers, test leads, and other members of the testing team.
What are the three main reasons why writing test cases is considered important in software testing?
-Writing test cases is important for achieving traceability, ensuring requirement coverage, and enabling reusability of test cases by other team members.
How does documenting test cases contribute to the traceability of requirements?
-Documenting test cases and mapping them to specific requirements allows for verification that all key functionalities of a requirement have been covered, thus achieving traceability.
What is the role of test cases in ensuring the quality of software?
-Test cases help ensure software quality by providing a structured approach to testing that covers all defined requirements, allowing for the identification and resolution of defects.
Outlines
📝 Understanding Test Cases in Software Testing
This paragraph introduces the concept of a test case in the context of software testing. It emphasizes the importance of comprehending what a test case is before proceeding with the practical aspects of writing and executing them. The paragraph outlines the practical approach that will be taken in future tutorials, which includes writing test cases in Excel, importing them into test management tools, and executing them to identify defects. It also provides a simple definition of a test case as a set of steps to verify an application's functionality against customer requirements. Key sections of a test case are briefly mentioned, including title, description, prerequisites, test data, and test steps with expected outcomes.
🔍 Key Components of a Test Case
The second paragraph delves deeper into the key components that make up a test case. It explains that a test case includes a title, description, prerequisites, test data, and detailed test steps along with expected results. The paragraph uses the example of testing a login feature on an e-commerce website to illustrate how these components work together. It also discusses the importance of documenting test cases for traceability, ensuring all functionalities of a requirement are covered, and for reusability, allowing other team members to execute the same test cases in the future.
🛠 The Significance of Writing Test Cases
The final paragraph of the script underscores the significance of writing test cases in a software testing project. It discusses the role of test engineers in creating test cases and the benefits of doing so, such as ensuring requirement coverage, facilitating traceability, and enabling reusability of test cases by other team members. The paragraph also touches on the importance of test cases in maintaining the quality of software by providing a structured approach to testing and ensuring that all aspects of a requirement are thoroughly tested.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Test Case
💡Software Testing
💡Test Management Tool
💡Traceability
💡Requirement
💡Test Data
💡Test Steps
💡Expected Result
💡Prerequisites
💡QA Test Engineer
💡Reusability
Highlights
Introduction to the concept of a test case in software testing.
Importance of understanding test cases before writing and executing them.
The practical approach of writing test cases in Excel and using test management tools.
Test cases as a set of steps to verify application functionality against requirements.
Key components of a test case: input, action, and expected response.
Explanation of the key sections within a test case: title, description, prerequisites, test data, test steps, and expected results.
The role of the test case title in defining the functionality being tested.
Description section's purpose in detailing what the test case will verify in the application.
Prerequisites section's importance for outlining conditions needed before test execution.
Test data section's necessity for specifying required user information for testing.
Test steps section's role in guiding the tester through the process of verifying functionality.
Expected results section's importance for defining the anticipated outcomes of test steps.
Additional information that may be included in a test case beyond the key sections.
The responsibility of test engineers in writing test cases for software testing projects.
The significance of test cases in ensuring traceability, coverage, and reusability in testing.
How documented test cases help avoid missing functionalities during testing.
The use of test cases by other team members for structured and consistent testing in future iterations.
Upcoming tutorial on detailed aspects of writing a test case with examples.
Transcripts
hello everyone welcome again in the
software testing tutorial
we are going to learn what is a test
case
so before we get into writing the test
case
and then executing the test case it is
very important to understand what
exactly a test case is
when we say write a test case and then
execute a test case right so that is why
i'm trying to explain here what exactly
is a test case
so till now we have seen all the
software testing related concepts in the
previous tutorial so if you haven't
watched those tutorial
please go back to the playlist and watch
all those concepts of software testing
for because from here on i'll be doing
more of a practical software testing
will be writing the test case for that
for the application or the functionality
then we'll be writing those test cases
in excel then importing those into
other test management tool and then
executing those
raising defects so it will be more of a
practical approach from here on
now but before we get into the practical
approach or actually doing the software
testing hands-on
we need to understand what exactly a
test case is and how you can write the
test case so let's first understand
what exactly is a test case now in very
simple terms
test case is nothing but a set of steps
that you write
to verify the functionality of the
application
whether the functionality is as per the
requirement that has been given by the
customer right
so it's nothing but a set of steps or
the procedure that you follow to verify
a particular functionality in the
application
now do not worry about much details of
you know
what exactly goes within the test case
i'll cover a brief of it
but in the next tutorial when we cover
how to write the test case
we will cover all those details in
detail so don't worry about
those details in this particular
tutorial focus more on
answering the question what exactly is a
test case so in simple term
it is the set of steps that you follow
to verify the functionality of the
application
meet the requirement right so that's
sort of definition
then the next thing you need to remember
about the test case is basically that it
contains the input action and expected
uh response so key information that is
there within the test case is that
you have you define the input or you
define the steps that need to be
followed
and the expected outcome so basically if
you if i do
this particular action on the
application this should be the response
so this sort of information goes within
the test case
all right now i'll also explain what all
key sections
are there within the test case so if you
talk about the key sections or
what exactly the test case contains the
first important thing the test case
contains
is title right so you write the
title of the test case what exactly
you're trying to test
second important thing is the
description description of the test case
so once you have the title then you
write
the description what exactly or in
detail you describe what exactly that
particular test case is going to
test in the application right so say for
example if i take an example of
e-commerce website so
um in the e-commerce website we take a
functionality of the login
right so in the title i can say um
you know title of the test case could be
verify
login
or verify successful login sorry so
we want to verify the successful login
so success
full login with
email account right so with valid email
i'll say valid email and password
okay so if there is already a registered
user and i want to verify that
the user will be able to successfully
log in with valid email and password if
provided
then that is one of the test case title
that could be one of the test case title
in the description i'll describe
this whole thing in more detail right so
all
uh whatever the title is i'll describe
that more in
the description uh the third important
thing is basically to describe or to
provide the prerequisites right so if
there are any prereqs
before you can execute this particular
test case the prerequisite could be
the user should be registered right so
prereq is
user should be
registered already okay because if you
user is not
registered how will you have that valid
email and password so user should be
registered
that's one of the prerequisites so if
there is any sort of prerequisites
let me write it full here so
requisites okay so any so any
prerequisites need to go into the
prerequisites section of the test case
then fourth important thing is about um
you know the test data so is is there
any
data requirement test data right so
usually
test data in this particular case will
be the username and password right so
any test data so valid
email so user username
and password right so usually what you
do is
which username and password needs to be
used when
a person is going to execute this
particular test case so the valid
username
a valid email and password needs to pro
needs to be provided in this particular
test case
as test data okay so this is
fourth piece of information that needs
to go there within the test case
the fifth very important information is
about the test steps
what steps a person needs to follow
right so step number one
you launch the website or you launch the
e-commerce portal
step number two you click on login link
on the ecommerce portal right step
number three
enter the username and password that is
present in the test data field
and press login button right
step number four verify you know step
number four you
verify that whether it's you know
redirected to the
um home page or you you perform the step
on the home page so
these are some of the steps that can be
uh that need to be there
in the particular test case and along
with the test steps you also
write the expected you know outcome or
expected result right so that's
another important expected result
so when somebody um performs a
particular step
what should be the expected result in
that particular case right
so that is another important information
that needs to go there
in the test case okay so these are
very important key information that
needs to go in the test case right so we
have understood what exactly is a test
case
and what all key information needs to be
there in the test case now
besides this information there is a lot
more information that
needs to be there in the test case right
so these this is the key information
that i am going to cover
in this particular tutorial but all
other information that needs to go into
the test case i'll cover
in the excel sheet in the next tutorial
when we understand
how to write the test case right so i'll
cover all the information that is
required
and um for writing the particular test
case
now this information is mostly mandatory
in all of the all the test cases that is
why i have covered
all this particular information but
other information
uh could be mandatory could be you know
optional depending on
the type of the particular test case and
the functionality that you are going to
test right so we'll understand all those
details in further tutorial
so this is the key information you need
to understand and remember from
interview point of view okay so
this uh after this who writes the test
case that's another
you know important thing you need to
remember so test case in software
testing will be written by
the test engineers okay so anybody
working within the test team
qa test engineer test lead all
the person or the people write the test
case so it's the responsibility of the
testing team members
to write the test cases for the
functionality that you are going to
test all right then we'll understand the
importance of the test cases okay so why
the test cases are
important so importance of
test cases so this is another
very important thing to remember about
the test cases so
we have understood what is test case now
why it is important
because say for example you have
functionality or you have requirement
one okay now this requirement has been
developed by
the developers it's available in the
build it's deployed
and it it came into the test environment
okay so it's available for you to
test in the test environment now you
launch the
particular application you directly
started testing all the scenarios that
are mentioned in this particular
requirement
based on the uh requirement document so
what happens is you
go ahead and start testing which is very
unorganized and not the structured
testing approach so in that particular
case if you are not
writing any of the test cases and
scenarios
to cover the requirement you might miss
one or two test cases or you might miss
one of the two
one or two you know couple of
functionalities that need to be covered
for that particular requirement but when
you have the test cases documented
and mapped to this particular
requirement you know that the test case
that you have written cover all the key
functionalities that is defined within
this particular requirement
so traceability right so traceability
is achieved so traceability i'll cover
requirement traceability matrix
in detail in another tutorial but
briefly
traceability what it does is you
verify whether the particular
requirement has been covered
by the test cases so say for example
this requirement could have you know
test case one two
three four depending on how complex the
requirement is there could be you know
like n number of test cases
and when you have written these test
cases these test cases will
in turn ensure that the requirement
overall has been covered with these
particular test case
so traceability is you know achieved
when you write the test case so that's
the first
important thing to understand why the
test cases are important
then um once you write the test case the
other very important thing to
note is you write the test case and
those test cases are available to other
team members right so for example
i have written i am the team member i'm
testing one of the functionality
and in the next
iteration next print or next release
somebody else is going to test that
functionality so what
they can do is they can directly go to
the test management tool
they can search for that functionality
and
for that functionality they can find
these are the linked test cases right so
one
two three four whatever number of test
cases have been linked to that
particular functionality they can pick
those up
and they can go through those test cases
because steps test data everything is
mentioned in the test case they can
directly pick those test cases
and start executing those test cases
because steps are mentioned
the screen names and all the steps are
mentioned how to navigate
with the application so all that detail
is mentioned in the test case
they can directly pick the test case and
start executing
right so reusability is another
important thing about
the importance of the test case so
traceability and reusability
that's the very important aspect of or
importance of the test case right the
third
thing is around the coverage which is
again you know the traceability that we
have covered so
if we have requirement one requirement
two
so if we have written test cases and we
have defined the traceability
of the test cases uh with the
requirements
right so we know that all the
requirements are being covered
with the testing right so if there is
another requirement
for which we don't have any test cases
linked to that particular requirement we
know that we need to basically
um you know link the test cases write
the test cases for the requirement
in order to ensure that particular
requirement has been
tested and quality is good okay so these
are some of the important
points that you need to remember why
writing the test cases
is very important okay so traceability
coverage requirement coverage um
and then reusability is one of the
key factors why test case writing
is very important okay so that's pretty
much all about
this particular tutorial so we have
understood what exactly is a test case
what are the key sections within the
test case
and why the test cases are writing the
test case is important and who writes
the test case in
software testing project so that's all
for this tutorial
in the upcoming tutorial i'll explain
how to write the test case
and cover all the detailed aspects of
writing a test case for a particular
functionality
with example so hope this was helpful
and clear for your learning and
interview purpose
please do share and subscribe and thank
you very much for watching
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