Application Testing is an activity that every software tester performs daily in his career. These two words are extremely broad in practical aspect. However, only the core and most important areas will be discussed here. The purpose of this article is to touch all the primary areas so that the readers will get all the basic briefing at a single place.

Categories of Applications

Whether it is small calculator software with only the basic arithmetic operations, or an online enterprise solution; there are two categories of applications.
a. Desktop
b. Web

For desktop applications, testing should take into account the UI, business logic, database, reports, roles and rights, integrity, usability and data flow. For web applications, along with all these major areas; testers should give sufficient importance to performance, load and security of the application. So AUT is either desktop software or a website.

Application Testing Methodologies

This is a well-known and well discussed aspect; there are only 3 universally accepted methodologies;

a. Black Box: In black-box testing, the AUT is validated against its requirements considering the inputs and expected outputs, regardless of how the inputs are transformed into outputs. Testers are least concerned with internal structure or code that implements the business logic of the application. There are four primary techniques to design test cases for black box testing;

i. BVA (Boundary value Analysis)
ii. EP (Equivalence Partitioning)
iii. Decision Tables
iv. State Transition Tables (and diagrams)

a. White Box: Primary focus of this methodology is to validate, how the business logic of application is implemented by code. Internal structure of the application is tested and the techniques available to do so are;

i. Code Coverage
ii. Path Coverage

Both the above listed techniques contain several other strategies that may be discussed in some other article. Some techniques are discussed in ‘Test Case Design Techniques’ topic.

a. Grey Box: Practically speaking, this is a mixture of black box and white box. In this methodology, mainly the tester tests the application as in black box. But, for some business critical or vulnerable modules of application; testing is done as white box.

Application Testing Tools

According to the best of my knowledge, there are at least 50 testing tools available in market today. These include both paid and open source tools. Moreover, some tools are purpose specific e.g. UI testing, Functional Testing, DB Testing, Load Testing, Performance, Security Testing and Link validation testing etc. However, some tools are strong and provide the facility of testing several major aspects of an application. The general concept of ‘Application Testing’ is its functional testing. So, our focus will be on functional testing tools.

Here is the list of some most important and fundamental features that are provided by almost all of the ‘Functional Testing’ tools.

a. Record and Play
b. Parametrize the Values
c. Script Editor
d. Run (the test or script, with debug and update modes)
c. Report of Run session

Different vendors provide some specific features that make their product unique to other competitor products. But the five features listed above are the most common and can be found in almost all the functional testing tools.

Following is the list of few widely used Functional Testing tools.

1) HP QTP (Quick Test Professional)
2) Selenium
3) IBM Rational Robot
4) Test Complete
5) Push to Test
6) Telerik

Software Test Plan (STP)

For any activity, some planning is always required and same is true for software testing. Without proper plan there is always high risk of getting distracted during the testing. If this risk becomes a fact, the results could be horrible.

Following are the 5 main parts of a good Test Plan:
a. Scope
i. Overview of AUT
ii. Features (or areas) to be tested
iii. Exclusions (features or areas not to be tested) with reason
iv. Dependencies (of testing activities on each other, if any)

b. Objectives: This section describes the goals of testing activity e.g. validation of bug fixes, new features added or revamp of AUT etc.

c. Focus: This section describes what aspect of application will be included in the testing e.g. security, functionality, usability, reliability, performance or efficiency etc.

d. Approach: This section describes what testing methodology will be adopted for which areas of AUT. For example, in the STP of an ERP application; the approach section may contain the information that black box testing will be approach for payroll. On the other hand, for reports the approach will be grey box testing.

e. Schedule: This sections describes that who will be doing what and where on the AUT, when and how. Schedule section is, in fact, a ’4Ws and H’ of the STP. Normally it is a simple table, but every organization may have its own customized format according to their own needs. Once the test plan is ready and application is under development; testers design and document the test cases. In the “Application Testing – Methodologies” section above, I have listed the TC design techniques.

Application Testing Cycles

Once the AUT is ready for testing, the practical phase of testing cycle starts in which testers actually execute the test cases on AUT. Keep in mind that here the testing cycle is discussed regardless of Testing Levels (Unit, Module, Integration, System and User Acceptance) and Testing Environments (Dev, QA, Client’s Replica, Live).

a. Smoke Testing: The very first testing cycle that is wide and shallow in approach. The purpose of smoke testing is to verify that there are no crashes in the application and it is suitable for further testing.

b. Sanity Testing: The second testing cycle that is narrow and deep in its approach. Its purpose is to verify that a specific module is working properly and is suitable for complete testing.

Tip: Usually there is not ample amount of time available to run these two cycles separately. So, a mixture of both these cycles is adopted in practical.

c. Functional Testing: The proper and full fledged testing of application is performed in this cycle. The primary focus of this activity is to verify the business logic of the application.

d. Regression Testing: This is the final cycle of testing in which the bug-fixes and/or updates are verified. Moreover, regression testing also ensures that there is no malfunctioning in other areas of AUT due to fixes and changes.

Bugs are logged in every testing cycle. There is no distinct border line between the testing cycles. For example, in Regression the Functionality is also verified and it may also require smoke, sanity or their merger first.

Application Testing – Best Practices

I think, hundreds of articles are available about this on internet. Every article suggests different number of best practices ranging from 7 to 30 (that I have seen so far). However, I have just 5 tips for readers.

1. Plan Properly
2. Test Keenly
3. Log the bugs Clearly
4. Do Regression Test Efficiently
5. Improve above four skills Continuously

Conclusion: Application Testing is a vast subject and the primary activity of any software tester. In this article, I have provided the overview of some most fundamental and necessary areas that fall under this topic. Application Testing involves strategies, phenomena, approaches, tools, technologies and guidelines. However, I have addressed the conceptual and practical insight of its salient concerns.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Application Testing – Into the Basics of Software Testing!

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Basically we have four different trump suits for you, namely:
Diamonds: For Yourself
Clubs: For Co-Tester you work with
Hearts: For New Tester
Spades: For QA Manager

(Each of the four suits is a different theme, and the software testing ideas get harder as you get towards the Ace)

You can select any trump suit applicable to you. Then read software testing tips from each card and ask yourself if you posses that skill or do you follow that software testing practice. If you have acquired that skill or follow the mentioned testing process then it’s your trump card. Count the number of trump cards from each suit you select. The more number of trump cards you have, the more advance you are in software testing field. You should have at least 10 trump cards from the suit you select to be considered advanced level tester.

You are free to select other trump suits as well. If you are a new tester, obviously you will select suit named “Hearts: For New Tester”. But go on exploring other suits as well and you will get idea what other software testing skills you have, which software testing practices you follow and which skills you have to learn yet.

From each suit you will get 13 valuable software testing tips that you should apply in your daily testing activities.

Here is the ranking of the cards
2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 J Q K A

Starting of the cards will have obviously simple testing skills/practices which gets harder as you get towards the Ace.

Click on your trump suit to get started:
Diamonds: For Yourself
Clubs: For Co-Tester you work with
Hearts: For New Tester
Spades: For QA Manager

So, what’s your score?

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Software Testing Tips from the Game of Cards

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

As I mention in my earlier post, in general, understanding about software testing documentation is “It can be done only by the person who has free time”.  We need to change this mindset, and then only we can leverage documentation power on our projects.

It’s not that we don’t know how to do the documentation right. We just don’t think it’s important.

Everyone must have standard templates for all the kinds of documentation starting from Test strategy, test Plan, Test cases, and Test data to Bug report. These are just to follow some standards (CMMI, ISO etc.) but, when it comes to actual implementation how many of these documents are really used by us? We just need to synchronize our quality process with documentation standards and other process in an organization.

The simplest thing to follow all kind of documentation is to involve a person in project from kick off phase who understands the project dynamics, domain, objective, and technology. And who else better than a QA person for this (of course there are technical writers present to do this – but considering a general scenario of small companies where technical writers are not present).

To achieve this goal of testing and documentation I feel we need to focus on some points.

Here are the top 10 tips to help you achieve your software testing documentation goal:

1. QA should involve at the very first phase of project so that QA and Documentation work hand in hand.

2. Process defined by QA should follow by technical people, this helps remove most of the defects at very initial stage.

3. Only creating and maintaining software testing templates is not enough, force people to use them.

4. Don’t only create and leave document, Update as and when required.

5. Change requirement is important phase of project don’t forget to add them in the list.

6. Use version controlling for everything. This will help you manage and track your documents easily.

7. Make defect remediation process easier by documenting all defects. Make sure to include clear description of defect, reproduce steps, affected area and details about author while documenting any defect.

8. Try to document what is required for you to understand your work and what you will need to produce to your stakeholders whenever required.

9. Use standard template for documentation. Like any excel sheet template or doc file template and stick to it for all your document needs.

10. Share all project related documents at single location, accessible to every team member for reference as well to update whenever required.

I am not saying that by applying above steps you will get sudden results. I know this change won’t happen in a day or two, but at least we can start so that these changes start happening slowly.

After all “the documentation needs documentation”.  Isn’t it?

Share your tips. How you maintain software testing documents related to your project?

This is a guest article by ‘Tejaswini patil’. She is working with an E-learning organization as an Associate Manager QA.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
10 Tips to Help You Achieve Your Software Testing Documentation Goal

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

In my Software Testing career, I never heard people talking much about software testing documentation. The general opinion about testing documentation is that, anyone who has free time can do the documentation like Test case, Test plan, status report, Bug report, project proposal etc.

Even I did not stress more on the documentation, but I can say it’s my habit to place all the data in black and white and to update others about that as well.

Just want to share my experience with you:
We had delivered a project (with an unknown issue in that) to one of our client (angry client). And they found issue at Client side, which was very bad situation for us, and as usual all blame was on QA’s. The issue was something regarding compatibility of one website. When it came to me, I was having proof that I didn’t get such requirement document which state I have to check compatibility of the website also. Thank god I was safe. That was the lesson for me, I realized importance of documentation and from that day I started to work on documents and created testing documents like Test plan, Test cases, sanity testing checklist, bug report and many.

“Ink is better than the best memory” – Chinese proverb

Software Testing Documentation: What’s that?

We all read various articles on testing technologies and methods, but how many of us have seen articles on documentation? No doubt there are few, Is it that documents are not important? No, but its’ because we have not yet realized importance of documents.

But, if we observe then the fact is, projects that have all the documents have high level of maturity. Most companies do not give even a little importance to the documentation as much they give to software development process. If we search on web then we can find various templates on how to create various types of documents. But how many of them are really used by organizations or individuals?

Fact is that, careful documentation can save an organization’s time, efforts and money. While going for any type of certification, why there is stress given on documentation, it’s just because it shows importance of client and processes to individual and organization. Unless you are able to produce document that is comfortable to user no matter how good your product is, no one is going to accept it.

It’s my experience, we own one product, which is having a bit confusing functionality. When I started working on that I asked for some help documents to Manager and I got answer “No, we don’t have any documents” Then I made an issue of that, because as a QA I knew, no one can understand how to use the product without documents or training. And if user is not satisfied, how we are going to make money out of that product?

“Lack of documentation is becoming a problem for acceptance” – Wietse Venema

Even same thing is applicable for User manuals. Take an example of Microsoft, they launch every product with proper documents, even for Office 2007 we have such documents, which are very explanatory and easy to understand for any user. That’s one of the reasons that all their products are successful.

In small companies, we always heard “project rejects in proposal or kickoff phase” it’s just because proposal documentation lacks concise and expressive language, and to show the capability of the organization. It’s not that small companies can’t deliver good quality projects but it’s their inability to express their capability. (Me also working with a small organization of 80 employees, and I heard this many time)

I personally feel Quality is the only department that can make it possible. We are the only department, which can argue on this and can provide successful future to our organizations.

Let’s organize all discussion in few points in quality perspective:
- Clarify quality objective and methods
- Ensure clarity about tasks and consistency of performance
- Ensure internal co-ordination in client work
- Provide feedback for preventive actions
- Provide feedback for your planning cycle
- Create objective evidence of your quality management system’s performance

There are hundreds of documents used in software development and testing life cycle. Here I am listing few important software testing documents that we need to use/maintain regularly:

1) Test plan
2) Test design and Test case specification
3) Test Strategy
4) Test summary reports
5) Weekly Status Report
6) User Documents/ manuals
7) User Acceptance Report
8 ) Risk Assessment
9) Test Log
10) Bug reports
11) Test data
12) Test analysis

Also Software testers regularly need refer following documents:
1) Software requirement specifications
2) Functional documents

Summary:
Software Testing Documents always play an important role in Project development/testing phase. So always keep things documented whenever possible. Don’t rely on verbal communication. Be always on safe side. Documentation will not only save you but also help organization in long run saving thousands of dollars on training and more importantly on fixing issues caused due to lack of development and testing documents. Don’t document just to avoid finger pointing on you, but habit of documentation will certainly bring a systematic approach in your testing process, leaving the ad hoc testing behind.

I will soon post “Why doing it is Important” second part of this post.

About Author: Tejaswini patil
I am working with an E-learning organization as an Associate Manager QA.  I think I got very huge responsibility in very short span of my career due to my dedication towards work. I love my job and my team says I am very strict, but I feel if you want good quality you have to be. 

Over to you:
What other documents do you maintain in your daily testing activities?

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Why Documentation is Important in Software Testing

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Know Your Application
Don’t start testing without understanding the requirements.  If you test without knowledge of the requirements, you will not be able to determine if a program is functioning as designed and you will not be able to tell if required functionality is missing.  Clear knowledge of requirements, before starting testing, is a must for any tester.

Know Your Domain
As I have said many times, you should acquire a thorough knowledge of the domain on which you are working.  Knowing the domain will help you suggest good bug solutions.  Your test manager will appreciate your suggestions, if you have valid points to make.  Don’t stop by only logging the bug.  Provide solutions as well.  Good domain knowledge will also help you to design better test cases with maximum test coverage.  For more guidance on acquiring domain knowledge, read this post.

No Assumptions In Testing
Don’t start testing with the assumption that there will be no errors.  As a tester, you should always be looking for errors.

Learn New Technologies
No doubt, old testing techniques still play a vital role in day-to-day testing, but try to introduce new testing procedures that work for you.  Don’t rely on book knowledge.  Be practical. Your new testing ideas may work amazingly for you.

You Can’t Guarantee a Bug Free Application
No matter how much testing you perform, you can’t guarantee a 100% bug free application.  There are some constraints that may force your team to advance a product to the next level, knowing some common or low priority issues remain. Try to explore as many bugs as you can, but prioritize your efforts on basic and crucial functions.  Put your best efforts doing good work.

Think Like An End User
This is my top piece of advice.  Don’t think only like a technical guy.  Think like customers or end users.  Also, always think beyond your end users.  Test your application as an end user.  Think how an end user will be using your application.  Technical plus end user thinking will assure that your application is user friendly and will pass acceptance tests easily.  This was the first advice to me from my test manager when I was a novice tester.

100% Test Coverage Is Not Possible
Don’t obsess about 100% test coverage.  There are millions of inputs and test combinations that are simply impossible to cover.  Use techniques like boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning testing to limit your test cases to manageable sizes.

Build Good Relations With Developers
As a tester, you communicate with many other team members, especially developers. There are many situations where tester and developer may not agree on certain points.  It will take your skill to handle such situations without harming a good relationship with the developer.  If you are wrong, admit it.  If you are right, be diplomatic.  Don’t take it personally.  After all, it is a profession, and you both want a good product.

Learn From Mistakes
As a novice, you will make mistakes.  If you don’t make mistakes, you are not testing hard enough!  You will learn things as you get experience.  Use these mistakes as your learning experience.  Try not to repeat the same mistakes.  It hurts when the client files any bug in an application tested by you.  It is definitely an embracing situation for you and cannot be avoided.  However, don’t beat yourself up.  Find the root cause of the failure. Try to find out why you didn’t find that bug, and avoid the same mistake in the future.  If required, change some testing procedures you are following.

Don’t Underestimate Yourself if Some of Your bugs Are Not Fixed
Some testers have assumptions that all bugs logged by them should get fixed.  It is a good point to a certain level but you must be flexible according to the situation.  All bugs may or may not be fixed.  Management can defer bugs to fix later as some bugs have low priority, low severity or no time to fix.  Over time you will also learn which bugs can be deferred until the next release.  Read article on ‘How to get all your bugs resolved‘.

Over To You:
If you are an experienced tester, what advice do you like to give to novice testers?

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Software Testing Advice for Novice Testers

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

Here are some of the best testing practices I learned by experience:

1) Learn to analyze your test results thoroughly. Do not ignore the test result. The final test result may be ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ but troubleshooting the root cause of ‘fail’ will lead you to the solution of the problem. Testers will be respected if they not only log the bugs but also provide solutions.

2) Learn to maximize the test coverage every time you test any application. Though 100 percent test coverage might not be possible still you can always try to reach near it.

3) To ensure maximum test coverage break your application under test (AUT) into smaller functional modules. Write test cases on such individual unit modules. Also if possible break these modules into smaller parts.
E.g: Lets assume you have divided your website application in modules and ‘accepting user information’ is one of the modules. You can break this ‘User information’ screen into smaller parts for writing test cases: Parts like UI testing, security testing, functional testing of the ‘User information’ form etc. Apply all form field type and size tests, negative and validation tests on input fields and write all such test cases for maximum coverage.

4) While writing test cases, write test cases for intended functionality first i.e. for valid conditions according to requirements. Then write test cases for invalid conditions. This will cover expected as well unexpected behavior of application under test.

5) Think positive. Start testing the application by intend of finding bugs/errors. Don’t think beforehand that there will not be any bugs in the application. If you test the application by intention of finding bugs you will definitely succeed to find those subtle bugs also.

6) Write your test cases in requirement analysis and design phase itself. This way you can ensure all the requirements are testable.

7) Make your test cases available to developers prior to coding. Don’t keep your test cases with you waiting to get final application release for testing, thinking that you can log more bugs. Let developers analyze your test cases thoroughly to develop quality application. This will also save the re-work time.

8 ) If possible identify and group your test cases for regression testing. This will ensure quick and effective manual regression testing.

9) Applications requiring critical response time should be thoroughly tested for performance. Performance testing is the critical part of many applications. In manual testing this is mostly ignored part by testers due to lack of required performance testing large data volume. Find out ways to test your application for performance. If not possible to create test data manually then write some basic scripts to create test data for performance test or ask developers to write one for you.

10) Programmers should not test their own code. As discussed in our previous post, basic unit testing of developed application should be enough for developers to release the application for testers. But you (testers) should not force developers to release the product for testing. Let them take their own time. Everyone from lead to manger know when the module/update is released for testing and they can estimate the testing time accordingly. This is a typical situation in agile project environment.

11) Go beyond requirement testing. Test application for what it is not supposed to do.

12) While doing regression testing use previous bug graph (Bug graph – number of bugs found against time for different modules). This module-wise bug graph can be useful to predict the most probable bug part of the application.

13) Note down the new terms, concepts you learn while testing. Keep a text file open while testing an application. Note down the testing progress, observations in it. Use these notepad observations while preparing final test release report. This good habit will help you to provide the complete unambiguous test report and release details.

14) Many times testers or developers make changes in code base for application under test. This is required step in development or testing environment to avoid execution of live transaction processing like in banking projects. Note down all such code changes done for testing purpose and at the time of final release make sure you have removed all these changes from final client side deployment file resources.

15) Keep developers away from test environment. This is required step to detect any configuration changes missing in release or deployment document. Some times developers do some system or application configuration changes but forget to mention those in deployment steps. If developers don’t have access to testing environment they will not do any such changes accidentally on test environment and these missing things can be captured at the right place.

16) It’s a good practice to involve testers right from software requirement and design phase. These way testers can get knowledge of application dependability resulting in detailed test coverage. If you are not being asked to be part of this development cycle then make request to your lead or manager to involve your testing team in all decision making processes or meetings.

17) Testing teams should share best testing practices, experience with other teams in their organization.

18) Increase your conversation with developers to know more about the product. Whenever possible make face-to-face communication for resolving disputes quickly and to avoid any misunderstandings. But also when you understand the requirement or resolve any dispute – make sure to communicate the same over written communication ways like emails. Do not keep any thing verbal.

19) Don’t run out of time to do high priority testing tasks. Prioritize your testing work from high to low priority and plan your work accordingly. Analyze all associated risks to prioritize your work.

20) Write clear, descriptive, unambiguous bug report. Do not only provide the bug symptoms but also provide the effect of the bug and all possible solutions.

Don’t forget testing is a creative and challenging task. Finally it depends on your skill and experience, how you handle this challenge.

Over to you:

Sharing your own testing experience, tips or testing secrets in comments below will definitely make this article more interesting and helpful!!

If you are not regular reader of this website then highly recommend you to sign up for our free email newsletter! Sign up just providing your email address below:

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Top 20 practical software testing tips you should read before testing any application.

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

The main concern of developer testing is – misunderstanding of requirements. If requirements are misunderstood by developer then no matter at what depth developer test the application, he will never find the error. The first place where the bug gets introduced will remain till end, as developer will see it as functionality.

Optimistic developers – Yes, I wrote the code and I am confident it’s working properly. No need to test this path, no need to test that path, as I know it’s working properly. And right here developers skip the bugs.

Developer vs Tester: Developer always wants to see his code working properly. So he will test it to check if it’s working correctly. But you know why tester will test the application? To make it fail in any way, and tester surely will test how application is not working correctly. This is the main difference in developer testing and tester testing.

Should developers test their own work?

I personally don’t mind developers testing their own code. After all it’s there baby They know their code very well. They know what are the traps in their codes. Where it can fail, where to concentrate more, which is important path of the application. Developer can do unit testing very well and can effectively identify boundary cases. (Image credit)

This is all applicable to a developer who is a good tester! But most of the developers consider testing as painful job, even they know the system well, due to their negligence they tend to skip many testing  paths, as it’s a very painful experience for them. If developers find any errors in their code in unit testing then it’s comparatively easier to fix, as the code is fresh to them, rather than getting the bug from testers after two-three days. But this only possible if the developer is interested in doing that much testing.

It’s testers responsibility to make sure each and every path is tested or not. Testers should ideally give importance to all small possible details to verify application is not breaking anywhere.

Developers, please don’t review your own code. Generally you will overlook the issues in your code. So give it to others for review.

Everyone is having specialization in particular subject. Developers generally think how to develop the application on the other hand testers think how the end user is going to use the application.

Conclusion

So in short there is no problem if developers are doing the basic unit testing and basic verification testing. Developers can test few exceptional conditions they know are critical and should not be missed. But there are some great testers out there. Through the build to test team. Don’t waste your time as well. For success of any project there should be independent testing team validating your applications. After all it’s our (testers) responsibility to make the ‘baby’ smarter!!

What you say? 

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Developers are not good testers. What you say?

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.

What do I mean by test data?

If you are writing test case then you need input data for any kind of test. Tester may provide this input data at the time of executing the test cases or application may pick the required input data from the predefined data locations. The test data may be any kind of input to application, any kind of file that is loaded by the application or entries read from the database tables. It may be in any format like xml test data, system test data, SQL test data or stress test data.

Preparing proper test data is part of the test setup. Generally testers call it as testbed preparation. In testbed all software and hardware requirements are set using the predefined data values.

If you don’t have the systematic approach for building test data while writing and executing test cases then there are chances of missing some important test cases. Tester can’t justify any bug saying that test data was not available or was incomplete. It’s every testers responsibility to create his/her own test data according to testing needs. Don’t even rely on the test data created by other tester or standard production test data, which might not have been updated for months! Always create fresh set of your own test data according to your test needs.

Sometime it’s not possible to create complete new set of test data for each and every build. In such cases you can use standard production data. But remember to add/insert your own data sets in this available database. One good way to design test data is use the existing sample test data or testbed and append your new test case data each time you get same module for testing. This way you can build comprehensive data set.

How to keep your data intact for any test environment?

Many times more than one tester is responsible for testing some builds. In this case more than one tester will be having access to common test data and each tester will try to manipulate that common data according to his/her own needs. Best way to keep your valuable input data collection intact is to keep personal copies of the same data. It may be of any format like inputs to be provided to the application, input files such as word file, excel file or other photo files.

Check if your data is not corrupted:
Filing a bug without proper troubleshooting is bad a practice. Before executing any test case on existing data make sure that data is not corrupted and application can read the data source.

How to prepare data considering performance test cases?

Performance tests require very large data set. Particularly if application fetching or updating data from DB tables then large data volume play important role while testing such application for performance. Sometimes creating data manually will not detect some subtle bugs that may only be caught by actual data created by application under test. If you want real time data, which is impossible to create manually, then ask your manager to make it available from live environment.

I generally ask to my manager if he can make live environment data available for testing. This data will be useful to ensure smooth functioning of application for all valid inputs.

Take example of my search engine project ‘statistics testing’. To check history of user searches and clicks on advertiser campaigns large data was processed for several years which was practically impossible to manipulate manually for several dates spread over many years. So there is no other option than using live server data backup for testing. (But first make sure your client is allowing you to use this data)

What is the ideal test data?

Test data can be said to be ideal if for the minimum size of data set all the application errors get identified. Try to prepare test data that will incorporate all application functionality, but not exceeding cost and time constraint for preparing test data and running tests.

How to prepare test data that will ensure complete test coverage?

Design your test data considering following categories:
Test data set examples:
1) No data: Run your test cases on blank or default data. See if proper error messages are generated.

2) Valid data set: Create it to check if application is functioning as per requirements and valid input data is properly saved in database or files.

3) Invalid data set: Prepare invalid data set to check application behavior for negative values, alphanumeric string inputs.

4) Illegal data format: Make one data set of illegal data format. System should not accept data in invalid or illegal format. Also check proper error messages are generated.

5) Boundary Condition data set: Data set containing out of range data. Identify application boundary cases and prepare data set that will cover lower as well as upper boundary conditions.

6) Data set for performance, load and stress testing: This data set should be large in volume.

This way creating separate data sets for each test condition will ensure complete test coverage.

Conclusion:

Preparing proper test data is a core part of “project test environment setup”. Tester cannot pass the bug responsibility saying that complete data was not available for testing. Tester should create his/her own test data additional to the existing standard production data. Your test data set should be ideal in terms of cost and time. Use the tips provided in this article to categorize test data to ensure complete functional test cases coverage.

Be creative, use your own skill and judgments to create different data sets instead of relying on standard production data while testing.

What is your experience?

Have you faced problem of incomplete data for testing? How you managed to create your own data then? Share your simple tips and tricks to create or use test data.

Like This post? Get all article updates in your inbox. Click here to register just giving your email ID.

---------------------
I just wanted to thank you for subscribing to SoftwareTestingHelp.com. This blog is a success because of you and your support. Here's to your success!

As always, I appreciate your valuable comments. Visit below link to post your comment:
Tips to design test data before executing your test cases

Thank you so much! ---------------------
Recommended: TestLodge - Online test case management tool - Web based test case management software allowing you to manage your test plans, requirements, test cases and test runs with ease.