Best practices for how to write test cases: examples & tutorial
Most quality assurance professionals believe that writing test cases is an essential part of the job of any tester. But how to compose handy and advanced solutions for checking the digital product in detail? What are the clearest QA test cases examples? What does the process of test case development look like? Ubertesters is ready to give you all the answers.
Test Cases: Exploring the Basics
The first thing that requires description is the test case itself. It is a predesigned set of actions that should be executed to check a chosen feature, option, or the application’s functionality in general. As a rule, test cases in software testing contain a list of variables, conditions, and steps that a pro tester needs to complete during the QA process. The expert will also compare the expected results and results achieved during testing. This will allow the QA professional to check whether the digital product meets the requirements of both the developer and the customer.
Test Cases vs. Exploratory Testing
Many companies use only exploratory testing to check the functionality of their digital products. It helps to identify numerous flaws and improve the app’s design and functionality without using a predesigned testing approach.
Of course, this type of testing allows detecting many hidden bugs and errors. However, using only exploratory testing is not enough to conduct a top-notch quality assurance process. Indeed exploratory testing requires less time, effort and funds during the testing process, but If you want to check the entire app’s functionality and performance, it is important to take the best from using test cases, too.
In other words, a company should find a perfect balance between these two practices to examine the application from different aspects. It is not recommended to use only exploratory testing since this approach might make the QA team miss some serious bugs and crashes, or not follow the exact product flow. But how to write effective test cases? Let’s find out the basic types of test cases before diving deeper.
Types Of Test Cases
There is nothing new that different types of test cases are developed for checking different aspects and features of the digital product. Here are a few common types of test cases most experts perform to come up with the most detailed testing.
Functionality
First, functionality test cases are used to make sure all the app’s functions and options perform as expected. Second, these cases are used to make sure the product’s interface works smoothly with the entire system and its users. To put it short, these solutions are closely related to black-box testing. They can be performed with no need to get access to the app’s internal code. Mostly, these types of tests are created by the QA team.
Usability
The core concept of usability test cases is to check whether the app is convenient and understandable for the users. In most cases, these tests are performed manually. The reason is that the usability test is about the smooth interaction between the customer and the digital product. In case the user can move across all the stages of using the app in a handy and flawless way, the product is likely to be successful. However, if the testers detect any issues in this field, it is better to fix them without delay so as not to harm the user experience.
User Interface
This type of testing is crucial for the successful release of any digital product. It is important to check whether the solution has a perfect logic, clarity, and excellent design. Moreover, it should have top-notch compatibility and be easy to use for a target audience.
User Acceptance
As a rule, this is one of the final steps of the QA process. It is designed to make sure the digital product can perform the necessary tasks in the real-world environment. It is better to allow real users to test the solution to double-check the application’s performance on different devices, platforms, and carriers. Crowd testers might be a perfect solution to user acceptance testing.
Security
How to write good test cases? Don’t forget about security. Can the app stand out in case of cyber-attacks? Does the app have any serious security issues? It is crucial to run safety-based tests and perform profound penetration testing. These types of test cases are focused on checking serious flaws that might lead to losing confidential data of the customers or any other sensitive information. It is essential to resolve the app’s weaknesses in the security field as soon as they are detected.
Test Cases Example
Many test cases might be created using a standard schema. Here is a traditional scenario many QA teams put into practice:
Step 1: ID
Here is a place to point out the unique identification of a particular test case. This will help the team handle the entire QA process in a clear and comprehensive way.
Step 2: Description
This section should contain information about the unit, option, feature, or function that is going to be tested.
Step 3: Primary Conditions
It is necessary to specify the conditions that should be met before initiating the execution of test cases.
Step 4: Test Data
This section usually contains the variables with values used in a particular test case.
Step 5: Steps to be Performed
Here comes a list of steps to be executed. They should be understandable and repeatable.
Step 6: Expected Result
What is the desired result of performing a test case? The answer to these questions should be easily found in this section.
Step 7: Actual Result
Here comes the final result of performing the test case (e.g. “As expected”).
Step 8: Pass/Fail
This is the conclusion about whether the expected and achieved results coincide.
How to Write Test Cases: Tips and Practices
Keep everything concise and follow a pre-designed structure;
Make them reusable;
Foresee end-user requirements;
Make transparency the top priority
Keep everything minimal and avoid long descriptions;
Avoid describing repetitive steps;
Ensure top-notch coverage.
Once you are done writing the perfect test cases document, don’t forget to add important information such as the project or product name, the name of the person who created the test cases, and the date created.
Ubertesters Benefits
Our company is proud to offer various types of solutions to our customers. Not only are we focused on crowd testing, but we also offer test case writing services to our customers.
All our highly qualified project managers and engineers are attentive to details and can provide exemplary test cases development. We can choose a perfect expert for your needs, who will be familiar with your specific niche and, at the same time, represent your target audience. The solutions provided by our experts are written according to industry standards and format, so it’s easy for everyone to understand and execute.
Conclusion
The process of writing test cases is an inevitable part of advanced software testing. However, it is a complicated and exhausting process that requires long working hours and a great understanding of the products as well as industry standards. Creating test cases often appears to be a true challenge, even for experienced testers or QA leads.
Many companies fail to write test cases and rely heavily on exploratory testing. Still, this approach is not sufficient. If you are not sure that the in-house company’s team will cope with this task perfectly, it is better to trust writing test cases to Ubertesters professionals.
Want to know more? Contact us at sales@ubertesters.com for more details.
