Field Validation Table (FVT): A Test Design Technique for Field Validation

Introduction to Field Validation Table (FVT) test design technique:

In this digital world, “QUALITY” is the term that is more widely used in any industry.

Any organization for that matter always thinks and works on how quality can be ensured with their product or how a quality product can be delivered or how the quality of the product can be improvised? No matter whether it’s a customer or an end-user or common people, everyone expects quality in whatever they buy.

The prime goal of any organization is to serve the business with good quality. 

How can quality be ensured? The only answer to this is testing. Testing is the only key factor with which we can ensure quality.

Overview

The success of testing is spread across different phases of Software Test Life Cycle (STLC). But, the most important thing is how effectively test cases are designed to test an application or software?

Basically, a test case design or a writing test case itself is an art. Hence, a tester should write the test cases in such a way that, it should be easily understandable by others and also they have to ensure complete or maximum test coverage through their test cases.

Test cases are the ones using which the testers will interact with the application or software to test it. In a broader sense, test cases are the gateway or medium using which an application or software is tested. A better or good test case helps to find the defects lying in the system or software or application. Hence writing a good or quality test case plays a vital or most prominent role in testing.

This article addresses one of the important test design techniques for validating the fields in an application, which in turn helps to design test cases for various scenarios which are the most common ones across all the applications.

The underlying principle or main idea behind this technique is to showcase how it can be used to design or write optimal test cases with maximum test coverage.

Introduction to FVT

Nowadays, delivering quality software is a major challenge and it cannot be compromised at any cost. Dependency on the software is increasing like anything day by day. At the same time quality, functional correctness, and reliability of the software are also becoming a matter of concern.

Can the quality of software be measured?

Yes, testing plays a major role to ensure the quality of a project or application.

How to ensure that test cases provide 100% test coverage?

Before testing an application, a tester should write detailed test cases which should be easily understandable & readable by others. This means, that test cases are the basis of testing, which in turn would help to find the defects lying in the application or system.

This article mainly emphasizes how effectively we can create the test cases using the field validation test design technique that too in a short span of time with maximum test coverage. This, in turn, will add value to the project by identifying all the issues during testing.

A technique is a procedure that is used to accomplish specific activity or task. This article describes the field validation test design technique which in turn would help to capture the test cases in an effective manner with less or minimal documentation.

What is Field Validation Table (FVT)

• This is one of the test design techniques for validating fields in an application.
• This technique is mainly used for all kinds of applications wherever there is a field validation required.

Generally, each and every field in the application needs to be validated thoroughly to ensure or identify defects that may get unnoticed in the fields. This technique is very much useful in identifying those underlying flaws in the fields.

Sometimes, it may go unnoticed, or due to a lack of concentration or awareness of the testers, some fields in the application may not be completely validated.

It is a natural tendency of any tester that they just validate only the most commonly or frequently used combinations while checking fields in any given application. If they are provided with this FVT then it will easily help them to find out the defects which are present in the fields as well.

The field validation table technique also helps to ensure that, there are no defects present in any field of the application.

Role of a Tester

As a tester, one has to test each and every corner of an application. From the development or developer perspective the defect identified during field validation could be of less severity and a less priority one, but its the primary duty and responsibility of a tester to report it. After all, for a tester defect means the defect, nothing else.

As field validations are directly related to the usability of the application, in case something is unidentified during System Testing and if it is found during User Acceptance Testing (UAT) then straight away the blame goes to the tester who has tested and provided sign off.

An end-user or a customer expects the user-friendliness of an application along with its functionality. Even a small usability issue or cosmetic issue in the application or software may dissatisfy or irritate them.

So, a tester should give prime importance to testing each and every field in an application. By making use of Field Validation Table, a tester can test each and every field in the application very well.

Implementation of FVT

#1) Firstly, the standard or generic table needs to be created for different data types as shown below. This is a one-time activity. Consider all valid and invalid inputs.

Table 1: Standard or generic table for field validation

So, the tester should keep this Field Validation Table or the list of items mentioned in the table in front of them before they proceed to test fields in the application.

This table generally helps when there are several fields present in the page or an application. We are not robots to remember each and everything on top of our minds, so as humans it’s better to keep this table or checklist ready and handy before we start proceeding with the validation of fields in an application.

#2) Application-specific table should also be created with the application-specific fields and the other columns. This mainly helps to validate each and every field in the application and clearly specifies where the defect lies and on which test data.

Table 2: Application-specific table for field validation           

Benefits of FVT

• Productivity will be increased.
• Automation will become easy using this table.
• Defect leakage can be avoided or prevented by creating this table during the early stages of the project.
• It is easy to understand.
• This, in turn, helps both manual and automation testers.
• The maximum percentage of test coverage can be ensured using this table.
• As it acts as an input or reference table, using these test cases can be created to verify and validate the fields in an application.

Conclusion

Field Validation Table (FVT) is a test design technique, which mainly helps for validating fields present in the application. This technique adds value to an application or project and gives very good test coverage for field validation. And this technique easily helps to find defects lying in the system or application.

Using this field validation table, a tester can add value to their work and contribute to the delivery of quality software by identifying even a small defect in any field of an application.

About the Author:

This article is written by STH team member Mahesh J. He is proficient in software testing and has over 10.5 years of experience in the field of software testing.

Let us know if you have any questions.

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