Learn what Test Data is and how to Prepare Test Data for Testing with the help of this article:
In the current times of information and technology revolutionary growth, testers commonly experience extensive consumption of test data in the software testing life cycle.
Testers not only collect/maintain data from the existing sources, but they also generate huge volumes of test data to ensure their quality booming contribution in the delivery of the product for real-world use.
Therefore, we as testers must continuously explore, learn and apply the most efficient approaches for data collection, generation, maintenance, automation and comprehensive data management for any type of functional and non-functional testing.
Table of Contents:
Designing Test Data

In this tutorial, I will provide effective tips on how to prepare test data so no important test cases will be missed due to improper data and incomplete test environment setup.
What is Test Data and Why is it Important
Referring to a study conducted by IBM in 2016, searching, managing, maintaining, and generating test data encompasses 30%-60% of the testers’ time. There is undeniable evidence that data preparation is a time-consuming phase of software testing.
Figure 1: Testers Average Time Spent on TDM
Nevertheless, it is a fact across many various disciplines that most data scientists spend 50%-80% of their model’s development time in data organization. We are now considering the legislation, as well as the Personally Identifiable Information (PII), which makes testers’ engagement overwhelmingly decent in the testing process.
Today, the credibility and reliability of the test data are considered an uncompromised element for the business owners. Product owners see ghost copies of the test data as the biggest challenge, which reduces the reliability of any application at this unique time of clients’ demand/requirements for quality assurance.
Considering the significance of test data, the vast majority of software owners don’t accept tested applications with fake data or less in security measures.
At this point, why don’t we see what Test Data is? When we start writing our test cases to verify and validate the given features and developed scenarios of the application under the test, we need information that is used as input to perform the tests for identifying and locating the defects.
We know that this information needs to be precise and complete in order to fix the bug. This is what we call test data. To make it accurate, it can be names, countries, etc…, are not sensitive, where data concerning Contact information, SSN, medical history, and credit card information are sensitive in nature.
The data may be in any form such as the following:
- System test data
- SQL test data
- Performance test data
- XML test data
If you are writing test cases then you need to input data for any kind of test. The tester may provide this input data at the time of executing the test cases or the application may pick the required input data from the predefined data locations.
The data may be any kind of input to the application, any kind of file that is loaded by the application or entries read from the database tables.
Preparing proper input data is part of a test setup. Generally, testers call it a testbed preparation. In the testbed, all software and hardware requirements are set using the predefined data values.
If you don’t have a systematic approach for building data while writing and executing test cases then there are chances of missing some important test cases. The testers can create their own data according to testing needs.
Don’t rely on the data created by other testers or standard production data. Always create a fresh set of data according to your requirements.
Sometimes it’s not possible to create a completely new set of data for each and every build. In such cases, you can use standard production data. But remember to add/insert your own data sets to this existing database. One of the best ways to create data is to use existing sample data or a testbed and append your new test case data each time you get the same module for testing. This way you can build a comprehensive data set over this period.
Test Data Sourcing Challenges
One of the areas of test data generation the testers consider is the data sourcing requirement for the sub-set. For instance, you have over one million customers, and you need one thousand of them for testing. The sample data should be consistent and statistically representative of the appropriate distribution of the targeted group. In other words, we need to find the right person to test. This is one of the most useful methods of testing use cases.
The sample data should be consistent and statistically representative of the appropriate distribution of the targeted group. In other words, we need to find the right person to test. This is one of the most useful methods of testing use cases.
Additionally, there are some environmental constraints in the process. One of them is mapping PII policies. As privacy is a significant obstacle, testers need to classify PII data.
Test Data Management Tools are designed to address the mentioned issue. These tools suggest policies based on the standards/catalog they have. Though, it is not very safe exercise. It still offers the opportunity to audit on what one is doing.
To keep up with addressing the current and even future challenges, we should always ask questions like when/where should we start the conduct of TDM? What should be automated? How much investment should companies allocate for testing in areas of human resources, on-going skills development and the use of newer TDM tools? Should we start testing functionally or with non-functional testing? And many are more likely to ask questions like these.
Some of the most common challenges of Test Data Sourcing are mentioned below:
- The team may not have adequate test data generator tools knowledge and skills
- Test data coverage is often incomplete
- Less clarity on data requirements covering volume specifications during the gathering phase
- Testing team does not have access to the data sources
- Delay in giving production data access to testers by developers
- Production environment data may not be fully usable for testing based on developed business scenarios
- Large volumes of data may be needed in a short period of time
- Data dependencies/combinations to test some of the business scenarios
- Testers spend more time than required to communicate with architects, database administrators and BAs to gather data
- Most of the data is created or prepared during the execution of the test
- Multiple applications and data versions
- Continuous release cycles across several applications
- Legislation to look after Personal Identification Information (PII)
On the white box side of data testing, the developers prepare the production data. This is where QA’s need to work touch base with the developers to further test coverage of the AUT. One of the biggest challenges is to incorporate all possible scenarios (100% test cases) with every single possible negative case.
In this section, we talked about test data challenges. You can add more challenges as we have resolved them accordingly. Subsequently, let’s explore different approaches to handling test data design and management.
Strategies for Test Data Preparation
We know through everyday practice that players in the industry of testing are continuously experiencing different ways and means to enhance testing efforts and most importantly their cost efficiency. In our short study of Information and Technology evolution, we have seen that when tools are incorporated into the production/testing environments the level of output substantially increases.
When we talk about the completeness and the full coverage of testing, it mainly depends on the quality of the data. As testing is the backbone for attaining the quality of the software, test data is the core element in the process of testing.
Figure 2: Strategies for Test Data Management (TDM)
Creation of flat files based on the mapping rules. It is often practical to create a subset of the data you need from the production environment where developers designed and coded the application. Indeed, this approach reduces the testers’ efforts of data preparation, and it maximizes the use of the existing resources to avoid further expenditures.
Typically, we need to create the data or at least identify it based on the type of the requirements each project has in the very beginning.
We can apply the following strategies in handling the process of TDM:
- Data from the production environment
- Retrieving SQL queries that extract data from Client’s existing databases
- Automated Data Generation Tools
The testers shall back up their testing with complete data by considering the elements as shown in the figure-3 here. The rest of the agile development team generates the necessary data for executing their test cases. When we talk about test cases, we mean cases for various types of testing like the white box, black box, performance, and security.
At this point, we know that data for performance testing should be able to determine how fast the system responds under a given workload to be very much close to real or live large volumes of data with significant coverage.
For white box testing, the developers prepare their required data to cover as many branches as possible, all paths in the program source code, and the negative Application Program Interface (API).
Figure 3: Test Data Generation Activities
Eventually, we can say that everybody working in the software development life cycle (SDLC) like BAs, Developers and product owners should be well engaged in the process of Test Data preparation. It can be a joint effort. Now let us take you to the issue of corrupted test data.
Corrupted Test Data
Before the execution of any test cases on our existing data, we should make sure that the data is not corrupted/outdated and the application under the test can read the data source. Typically, when more than one tester is working on different modules of an AUT in the testing environment at the same time, the chances of data getting corrupted are very high.
In the same environment, the testers modify the existing data as per their need/requirements of the test cases. Usually, when the testers are done with the data, they leave the data as it is. As soon as the next tester picks up the modified data, and he/she performs another execution of the test, there is a possibility that that particular test will fail, which is not a code error or defect.
In most cases, this is how data becomes corrupted and/or outdated, which leads to failure. To avoid and minimize the chances of data discrepancy, we can apply the solutions given below. And of course, you can add more solutions at the end of this tutorial in the comments section.
- Having a backup of your data
- Return your modified data to its original state
- Data division among testers
- Keep the data warehouse administrator updated for any data change/modification
How do you keep your data intact in any test environment?
Most of the time, many testers are responsible for testing the same build. In this case, more than one tester will have access to common data and they will try to manipulate the common data set according to their needs.
If you have prepared data for specific modules then the best way to keep your data set intact is to keep backup copies of the same.
Test Data for the Performance Test Case
Performance tests require a very large data set. Sometimes creating data manually will not detect any subtle bugs that may only be caught by actual data created by the application under test. If you want real-time data, which is impossible to create manually, then ask your lead/manager to make it available from the live environment.
This data will be useful to ensure the smooth functioning of the application for all valid inputs.
What is the ideal test data?
Data can be said to be ideal if for the minimum size of data set all the application errors get identified. Try to prepare data that will incorporate all application functionality, but not exceeding cost and time constraints for preparing data and running tests.
How to Prepare Data That Will Ensure Maximum Test Coverage
Design your data by considering the following categories:
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 the 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 and alphanumeric string inputs.
4) Illegal data format: Make a data set of illegal data formats. The system should not accept data in an invalid or illegal format. Also, check if proper error messages are generated.
5) Boundary Condition dataset: Dataset containing out of range data. Identify application boundary cases and prepare a data set that will cover lower as well as upper boundary conditions.
6) Dataset for performance, load and stress testing: This data set should be large in volume.
This way, creating separate datasets for each test condition will ensure complete test coverage.
Data for Black Box Testing
Quality Assurance Testers perform integration testing, system testing and acceptance testing, which is known as black box testing. In this method of testing, the testers do not have any work in the internal structure, design and the code of the application under the test.
The tester’s primary purpose is to identify and locate errors. By doing so, we apply either functional or non-functional testing using different techniques of black box testing.
Figure 4: Black Box Data Design Methods
At this point, the testers need the test data as input for executing and implementing the techniques of the black box testing. The testers should prepare data that will examine all application functionality without exceeding the given cost and time.
We can design the data for our test cases considering data set categories like no data, valid data, Invalid data, illegal data format, boundary condition data, equivalence partition, decision data table, state transition data, and use case data. Before going into the data set categories, the testers initiate data gathering and analyzing of the existing resources of the application under testing (AUT).
Based on the earlier points mentioned about keeping your data warehouse always up to date, you should document the data requirements at the test-case level and mark them as useable or non-reusable when you script your test cases. It helps that the data required for testing is well-cleared and documented from the very beginning that you can reference for your further use later.
Test Data Example for Open EMR AUT
For our current tutorial, we have the Open EMR as the Application Under Test (AUT).
=> Please find the link for Open EMR application here for your reference/practice.
The table below is pretty much a sample of the data requirements gathering that can be part of the test case documentation and is updated as you write the test cases for your test scenarios.
(NOTE: Click on any image for an enlarged view)
Creation of manual data for testing Open EMR application
Let’s move forward with the creation of manual data for testing the Open EMR application for the given data set categories.
1) No Data: The tester validates the Open EMR application URL and the “Search or Add Patient” functions with giving no data.
2) Valid Data: The tester validates the Open EMR application URL and the “Search or Add Patient” function with giving Valid data.
3) Invalid Data: The tester validates the Open EMR application URL and the “Search or Add Patient” function with giving invalid data.
4) Illegal Data Format: The tester validates the Open EMR application URL and the “Search or Add Patient” function with giving invalid data.
Test Data for 1-4 data set categories:
5) Boundary Condition Data Set: This is to determine input values for boundaries that are either inside or outside of the given values as data.
6) Equivalence Partition Data Set: It is the testing technique that divides your input data into the input values of valid and invalid.
Test Data for 5th and 6thdata set categories, which is for Open EMR username and password:
7) Decision Table Data Set: It is a technique for qualifying your data with a combination of inputs to produce various results. This method of black box testing helps you to reduce your testing efforts in verifying each and every combination of test data. Additionally, this technique will ensure you have complete test coverage.
Please see below the decision table data set for the Open EMR application’s username and password.
The calculation of the combinations done in the table above is described for your detailed information as below. You may need it when you do more than four combinations.
- Number of Combinations = Number of Conditions: 1 Values: Number of Conditions: 2 Values
- Number of combinations = 2 ^ Number of True/False Conditions
- For example: Number of combinations – 2^2 = 4
8) State Transition Test Data Set: It is a testing technique that helps you validate the state transition of the Application Under Test (AUT) by providing the system with the input conditions.
For example, you can log in to the Open EMR application by providing the correct username and password at the first attempt. The system gives us access, but if we enter the incorrect login data, the system denies access. State transition testing validates how many login attempts you can make before Open EMR closes.
The table below indicates how either the correct or the incorrect attempts of login respond
9) Use Case Test Date: This is the testing method that identifies our test cases capturing the end-to-end testing of a particular feature.
For example, Open EMR Login:
Also read => Data data management techniques.
Properties of Good Test Data
As a tester, you have to test the ‘Examination Results’ module of the website of a university. Consider that the whole application has been integrated and it is in the ‘Ready for Testing’ state. The ‘Examination Module’ is linked to the ‘Registration’, ‘Courses’ and ‘Finance’ modules.
Assuming that you have adequate information about the application, you have created a comprehensive list of test scenarios. Now you have to design, document and execute these test cases. In the ‘Actions/Steps’ or ‘Test Inputs’ section of the test cases, you will have to mention the acceptable data as input for the test.
The data mentioned in the test cases must be selected properly. The accuracy of the ‘Actual Results’ column in the Test Case Document is primarily dependent upon the test data. Therefore, steps to prepare the input test data are significantly important. So, here is my rundown on “DB Testing – Test Data Preparation Strategies”.
Test Data Properties:
The test data should be selected precisely and it must possess the following four qualities:
1) Realistic:
Realistically, it means the data should be accurate in the context of real-life scenarios. For example, in order to test the ‘Age’ field, all the values should be positive and 18 or above. It is quite obvious that the candidates for admission in the university are usually 18 years old (this might be defined differently in terms of business requirements).
If testing is done using realistic test data, then it will make the app more robust as most of the possible bugs can be captured using realistic data. Another advantage of realistic data is its reusability which saves our time & effort for creating new data again and again.
While we are talking about realistic data, I would like to introduce you to the concept of the golden data set. A golden data set is the one which covers almost all the possible scenarios that occur in the real project. By using GDS, we can provide maximum test coverage. I use GDS to do regression testing in my organization and this helps me to test all possible scenarios that can occur in case the code goes in the production box.
There are a lot of test data generator tools available in the market that analyze the column characteristics and user definitions in the database and based on these, they generate realistic test data for you. Few of the good examples of the tools that generate data for database testing are DTM Data Generator, SQL Data Generator and Mockaroo.
2. Practically valid:
This is similar to realistic but not the same. This property is more related to the business logic of AUT e.g. value 60 is realistic in the age field but practically invalid for a candidate to graduate or even Masters Programs. In this case, a valid range would be 18-25 years (this might be defined in requirements).
3. Versatile to cover scenarios:
There may be several subsequent conditions in a single scenario, so choose the data shrewdly to cover maximum aspects of a single scenario with the minimum set of data, e.g. while creating test data for the results module, do not only consider the case of regular students who are smoothly completing their program. Give attention to the students who are repeating the same course and belong to different semesters or even different programs. The dataset may look like this:
Sr# | Student_ID | Program_ID | Course_ID | Grade |
1 | BCS-Fall2011-Morning-01 | BCS-F11 | CS-401 | A |
2 | BCS-Spring2011-Evening-14 | BCS-S11 | CS-401 | B+ |
3 | MIT-Fall2010-Afternoon-09 | MIT-F10 | CS-401 | A- |
… | … | … | … | … |
There might be several other interesting and tricky sub-conditions. E.g. the limit of years to complete a degree program, passing a prerequisite course to register for a course, maximum no. of courses a student may enroll in a single semester etc. etc. Make sure to cover all these scenarios wisely with a finite set of data.
4. Exceptional data (if applicable/required):
There may be certain exceptional scenarios that occur less frequently but demand high attention when occurred, e.g. disabled
student related issues.
Another good explanation & example of the exceptional data set is seen in the image below:
Takeaway:
Test data is known as good test data if it is realistic, valid and versatile. It is an added advantage if the data provides coverage for exceptional scenarios as well.
Test Data Preparation Techniques
We have briefly discussed the important properties of test data and it has also elaborated how test data selection is important while doing the database testing. Now let’s discuss the techniques to prepare test data.
There are only two ways to prepare test data:
Method #1) Insert New Data
Get a clean DB and insert all the data as specified in your test cases. Once all your required and desired data has been entered, start executing your test cases and fill out the “Pass/Fail” columns by comparing the “Actual Output” with “Expected Output”. Sounds simple, right? But wait, it’s not that simple.
A few essential and critical concerns are as follows:
- An empty instance of the database may not be available
- Inserted test data may be insufficient for testing in some cases like performance and load testing.
- Inserting the required test data into a blank DB is not an easy job due to the database table dependencies. Because of this inevitable restriction, data insertion can become a difficult task for the tester.
- Insertion of limited test data (just according to the test case’s needs) may hide some issues that could be found only with the large data set.
- For data insertion, complex queries and/or procedures may be required, and for this sufficient assistance or help from the DB developer(s) would be necessary.
The above mentioned five issues are the most critical and the most obvious drawbacks of this technique for test data preparation. But, there are some advantages as well:
- Execution of TCs becomes more efficient as the DB contains only the required data.
- Bug isolation requires no time as only the data specified in test cases is present in the DB.
- Less time required for testing and results comparison.
- Clutter-free test process
Method #2) Choose sample data subset from actual DB data
This is a feasible and more practical technique for test data preparation. However, it requires sound technical skills and demands detailed knowledge of DB Schema and SQL. In this method, you need to copy and use production data by replacing some field values with dummy values. This is the best data subset for your testing as it represents the production data. However, this may not always be feasible due to data security and privacy issues.
Takeaway:
In the above section, we have discussed the above test data preparation techniques. In short, there are two techniques – either create fresh data or select a subset from already existing data. Both need to be done in the same way that the selected data provides coverage for various test scenarios, mainly valid & invalid test, performance test, and null tests.
In the last section, let us take a quick tour of data generation approaches as well. These approaches are helpful when we need to generate new data.
Test Data Generation Approaches
- Manual Test Data Generation: In this approach, the test data is manually entered by the testers as per the test case requirements. It takes time to complete the process and is also prone to errors.
- Automated Test Data Generation: This is done with the help of data generation tools. The main advantage of this approach is its speed and accuracy. However, it comes at a higher cost than manual test data generation.
- Back-end data injection: This is done through SQL queries. This approach can also update the existing data in the database. It is speedy & efficient but should be implemented very carefully so that the existing database does not get corrupted.
- Using Third Party Tools: There are tools available in the market that first understand your test scenarios and then generate or inject data accordingly to provide wide test coverage. These tools are accurate as they are customized as per the business needs. But, they are quite costly.
Takeaway:
There are 4 approaches to test data generation:
- Manual,
- Automation,
- Back-end data injection,
- and third-party tools.
Each approach has its own pros and cons. You should select the approach that satisfies your business and testing needs.
Conclusion
Creating complete software test data in compliance with the industry standards, legislation and the baseline documents of the undertaken project is amongst the core responsibilities of the testers. The more efficiently we manage our test data, the more we can deploy reasonably bug-free products for real-world users.
Test data management (TDM) is a process that is based on the analysis of challenges and introductions plus applying the best tools and methods to well address the identified issues without compromising the reliability and the full coverage of the end output (product).
We always need to come up with questions for searching innovative and more cost-effective methods for analyzing and selecting the methods of testing, including the use of tools for generating the data. It is widely proven that well-designed data allows us to identify defects of the application under the test in every phase of a multi-phase SDLC.
We need to be creative and participate with all the members within and outside our agile team. Please share your valuable feedback, experience, questions, and comments so that we can continue our technical discussions on-going to maximize our positive impact on AUT by managing data.
Preparing proper test data is a core part of the “project test environment setup”. We can’t simply miss the test case saying that complete data was not available for testing. The tester should create his/her own test data in addition to the existing standard production data. Your data set would be extremely ideal in terms of cost and time.
Be creative, use your own skills and judgments to create different data sets instead of relying on standard production data.
Did you face any problems with incomplete test data for testing? How did you manage it? Please share your tips, experiences, comments, and questions for further enriching this topic of discussion. We would love to hear from you.
This Article is perfect and should follow by every testing practice… But in my scenario… TIME is a major concerned.. What if time is not allowing you to create proper data…???? How we can make sure that app is working fine ??
Hi All Yes Test Data is very important while testing because some bugs are identified only when we use invalid or negative test data like for eg in my one of project crash error was appearing only when i was entering data in format “”
Very nice article.
Thanks !!
hi … i am new to software testing, Can any one help me for testing procedure from the begining……….
Hi Vijay,
Please tell me whether we have different test data for different test cases or we have one pool of test data. Like take an example of login screen.
The test cases can be:
1. Verify that user is able to login to the application using correct UserId and Password.
2. Verify that user is not able to login to the application using correct UserId and wrong Password.
3. Verify that user is not able to login to the application using wrong UserId and correct Password.
4. Verify that UserId field accepts only 11 characters.
5. Verify that Password field should display the password in asterisks.
Regards,
Piyush
QA Engineer
what could be a good technique to update the test data when there is a large set of test-data is present
Hi Vijay,
whether we need to write a procedure like test cases while preparing test data…???
Hello,
I want to prepare test data for my project. Can anyone give me sample format to follow?
Nice Tutorial man
Hello Guys,
The way Vijay suggested to append new data in existing Data each time… try out …Its really very Helpful.
Thanks….
Hey,
Don’t confuse about Test Bed and Data, its very simple.
Test Bed:
Preparation for test execution is called Test Bed, i.e., installing your application (including pre-requisites like IE 6.0, .Net 2.0, IIS, Oracle, creating Windows User with Administrator rights etc), preparing database/schema.
That means making sure that the application is READY for test execution.
Data:
On the otherhand, data is the data which is being used in the test execution (Eg, Input needs to be entered while creating a New User, First Name, Last Name, Age, Address, Sex, Phone Number etc comes under data).
Hope this helps.
Regards,
VijayD
Hai,
It’s all clear abt data and test bed-setup
In one of the new activity for PDF file verification we need to create data.
Can you please explain what are all the things possible to inclued in the data?
Also say whether test condition and data are refer same or different?
Thanks,
Radhika
Please do me needful
Very good information
Hi Vijay,
Very nice article and it helps to all testers and also for developers.
I need example for invalid and illegal data
hi I’m new for software testing please help me about preparing test case and test data in agile software
How about using a test management tool? That would save most of the trouble of keeping your data in order.
Hi All,
Apart from many problems people mentioned above there is one more which i feel is very common to testers, that is to reproduce the errors which are caused by server configuration like NULL pointer errors.
Also we get error which are reported by the client on LIVE but are not at all generatable on test envn.
Could anyone tell that how to tacle such issues ?
Regards,
Saurabh
hi george sir,
thank u 4 ur ans.but yeasturdy when i searched in the net i saw diferent ans now i forgot the site name.
any way thanku.
this artical contain useful information about test data
This has been a very informative article for a product manager like me who had never been exposed to large enterprise software development before his current job. Thank you for making things easier for us to grasp and understand what my testers go through
Hi,
please send me test data document and also SRS i want to see these documents.
hi,
explain me about Test data and test bed with suitable example and difference between them
thank you,
rahini
hi friends, this is srikanth from vizag.. now iam working in ITES department>>>>>
I AM HAVING interest in s/w testing field….compared to .net and java. testing field is easy na….
where i must join and how i must do>>> pls inform to my mail id:-baburao.srikanth@gmail.com
i hope all wil send mail to me>>>> bye friends
It’s interesting to know that according to a study, around 30 to 60% of the tester’s time is spent on searching, managing, maintaining, and generating test data, which shows that data preparation is very time-consuming. Perhaps when I start my own business, I should hire a test data management service. In that way, my workers would be more productive since they would have more time in their hands.
I guess my reply would support for some performanace , Load and stress kind of testing ,
In Reality most of the times above said testing are done once application is stable and reliable , so try to convey to configuration team and functional testing team in advance to go for incremental deployment so that the data used by functional team over the releases lies in DB and add some data by Bulk insert using Batch files(Java) so that the huge data upload problem can be reduced.
hai,
Shall i use datamining algorithm using optimization techniques for software testing. if possible, how to do that.
Thanks for answers
Hi all
Please I wonder if anyone has sample Test Data sheet for testing UAT or Integration Processes in SAP. I am trying to put one together for my project
Vijay, suggest me how should we verify larg size data? For example i am working on a project whose functional areas are dependant on its Configuration data. So to verify application’s functionality, we need to verify either the data is configured correctly or not. As data size is too large, currently we are writing generic test cases without test data and verifying it with those data files manually. What kind of test cases we should write for that? and what could be the best way to test it?
Data are data which have been specifically identified for use in executing test scripts, and are used to verify the expected results obtained.
Ex : Let us consider i have a login screen which i want to automate,parameterize
and run 10 iteration, so i have to prepare a set of data of all user id and password before
i go for automation to get the expected results. This is call preparation of data.
Test Bed or Test Environment is setting up of the both hardware and software requirements
Ex: Assume I have a PDA or handheld device or mobile, I have developed a software
which can change a format of a song from any format to mp4. After i converting the song, i will
get a list of mp4 files as a xml file. i can transfer this file from the computer to the handheld device
using USB cable.
Now for checking this entire scenario, i have to set up my software enviornment( data) and also
need to setup my hardware ( which is my PDA and my usb connected to my computer).
Hope its clear
Difference
Test Bed consist of data and other hardware components i.e its a bigger
picture than only software data
Data are data which have been specifically identified for use in executing
test scripts, ( They may form a subset of test bed)
Please correct me if i am wrong.
Hi,
This is shahid having two years of exp in testing with manual and regression testing(QTP). Can any one help me getting a testing job in a reputed company.
Hi everybody
iam new tester engineer plz help me about this problem how to write functional test case of any website and how to prepare test scenario of any website and also help me what test in any website
from
bhisham kumar
Hi ,
I want to move from Application support to testing career. Currently I am 2.7 years experience. Please suggest on this lateral movement.The project what i am working on is open source hence do lot of development or enhancements. what do u think about the opportunities for the same.
Hi, I am very new to testing field.just now i got job in testing.I want the testing sites to learn manual testing completely along with formats also with examples.
and how to write cases in simple way
Assume that we are independent testing team. We don’t know the design or development LOE.
We need to provide the Testing LOE. And also assume that the project and its requirements are new to our testing team.
On what basis do we provide the testing LOE?
Please give a real time solution.
Any buddy done performance testing using visual studio pls let me know
HI all,
I would like to jump to Banking Domain in my Tesing career.
Can any body help me in this regard,like what is to done and what should I learn to get in this domain.
If possible send the document for this.(i am in embedded domain now)
Hi All,
can anybody helpout in what is the difference between data generation and data creation.?
Thanks in advance.
Hi Team, Could you please tell me some sites for Load runner and Web test in visual studio or share me vedios for HP load runner or Visual studio Web test
nice article is anybody tried AnyAUT test automation and management tool
Hi ..Guys..anyone can u tell me how web testing is carried in an MNC what are the steps to be follow for the manual testing
hi,
can anyone please help me from the starting .how the testing will be done and how the process should be followed during the testing to the end of the testing.
Very nice article and impressed with the information posted here.
Hi all,
The way Vijay suggested to append new data in existing Data each time.. try out ..Its really very Helpful.
Thanks….
plz tell me wt is test bed n test data
my first imp ques -how to apply these data set to test cases…do we have to write one test case each for each input value in each data set or we can write one test case for each data set and repeatedly execute it for each input value in data set.
next imp ques-for boundry value analysis are valid and invalid data sets not enough as in boundry value analysis,equivalence partition test design techniques we have to test with valid and invalid value.or we have to make Separate data set for BVA also…pls tell me as im so much confuse about these two terms.
good information, very helpful, keep it up
we can get data from the given requirement specifications .start validating test cases with these test data
@ Chandu
I really appreciate my reader’s contribution. Though I double check the draft post before publishing, sometimes such mistakes get unnoticed 😉 Thanks anyway
Hi Vijay,
plz let me know how exactly we should prepare test data for a particular project with detailed eg
Regards
Pintu Kumar
Hi, I am very new to testing field.just now i got job in testing.I want the testing sites to learn manual testing completely along with formats also with examples.
Very good article! thanks a lot for all the useful and valuable information shared in this write up
Hi,
Am a s/w test team lead.
Has to prepare a document about the strategies to be followed in s/w testing starting from development testing and up to the final system/product level testing.
This document shall be useful for both the developers as well as the testing team. Please suggest a book to ref. in making this document
I recommend to change the title of subtopic “Test data preparation techniques” to ‘Test data implementation techniques’ for better clarity for beginner level testers, as there is another sub-topic discussed above “Strategies for Test Data Preparation”.
Both topics come as similar and hard to differentiate for the readers. Strategies and techniques are probably same things.
Hi,
I need to have some info regarding variuos types of Test Data. I have got some stuffs like valid data, invalid data,No data, Illegal data. I need more of them. please suggest me with them or any link for reference.
WHAT IS TEST condition expalin? give examples please
Hi Vijay,
As you have mentioned in your article how data is important, i too insist testers to prepare data while they prepare testcases and execute with the same while executing the testcases.
R.Prakash
SQA-Lead
Hi all,
Can anybody help me out regarding from where Tester can get data for Testing.I hope some body will share his/her knowledge wid me.
hi … i am new to software testing, Can any one help me for testing procedure from the begining……….
Good article
USE GURU99 for any type of information related o software testing.
I cant understand what is there in Guru99 website can u please explain it clearly
I likeyour way of bringing the articles to the readers. I love it.
A very good article, but I would like to elaborate more on Data design while load testing & stress testing. In this special test we need a huge Data which handle different conditions like Valid Data, Invalid Data etc. Loading an application with similar huge data wont make your load test successful. To design such data for load testing is difficult, need to take help of automation tool to generate such volume of data with variations. I have faced such issues when I wanted to stress test a web application where I need to send 1000000 requests to web server while I have to consider all those conditions where the application may fail. Sometime its time consuming to Design or generate such Data.
I need test data for Accounts General Ledger And Interfaces asap.
You guys need to read a lot instead of blindly asking things. Doing a bit of research before posting in forums would be appreciable.
@poorni
You might have forget the site name but you can recollect the stuff and share it with us, is it not?
One more thing, even i have years of experience, i’m not understanding the need for a “sir” salutation, same to vijay aslo…
comments will be appreciable
Hi All, I am very new to the testing .Plz can anybody give me the list of sites which give the full details of software testing along with all the tables for test cases bug repot tables etc. though i had learned some basics about testing i lack the real time exposure ,can anyone help me?????????
Vijay
I think this sentence is typed wrong..
“Filing a bug without improper troubleshooting is bad practice”
If I am not wrong, I think it should be
“Filing a bug without proper troubleshooting is bad practice”.
Hi
Can any one send me a sample of data doc or any data format…
Thanx in advance
Can any tell to create data for SUM (calculation), Scenario is 0 to 9 digits are available as we see in the calculator, I want to certify that the sum of the two numbers are working fine by providing test data.
@sheba
TEST condition –item that could varifyied by one or more test cases… OR…breaking the test into smallest unit…these defination by ISEB…
for further ping me rahulkumarbangalore@yahoo.co.in
Iam not able to understand what is this APACHE AND TOMCAT SERVER is all about..are they different ?
Some say they are not and they are called as webapplication servers.By the way do application server and web server reside on the same machine or in different machines.How they are configured.
How a application server contacts webserver or vice versa..again are they configured on differnet machines .I am totally confused please help me understand this.Respond me to this e mail with your answers norman_g40@yahoo.com
Hi Vijay,
I need information whether In QC tool we have to Import data to Test Plan or Test Lab and where will it get stored. i.e there are 2 options we parametrize In both Test Plan and Test Lab. So we have to enter test data in test plan itself or while executing in Test Lab which one is better.
thanks
While working in upgrade testing like oragcle 9i to 10g
what kind of frame work we have to consider.
Hi Vijay,
Iam currently working in a organization as software programmer for the past seven months , Iam decided change my carrer to software testing,can change it,is it possible or not .If possible means what are the areas i want to know for testing.
if possible , please forward me some sample test cases for a Text box field ,List box and Check box
chandu
hi everyone
i want to know which site gives better examples in testing, i mean coding(QTP,LOADRUNNER,WINRUNNER) point of view.
hi,
you mentioned Valid data set, Invalid data set, Boundary Condition data set. what exactly you do in boundary data condition data set? it’s a combination of valid and invalid data set, right? if not, please give your feedback.
@sheeba
It would be appreciable if you could ask your doubt in a sensible way. Your question is waiting for an answer. Anyhow let me try, The Test condition compares the values of two formulae. If the comparison yields true, then the condition is true and vice versa. Its just like If else conditional statement in programing languages. If i’m misleading, please let me know by strong comments.
you are right vijay. I too faced the same data problem while testing.
client reported one bug that was only reproducible on large data and could not find that bug at my side.
since then i always prepare my required data..
i useuslly take bakup of all required SQL tables on my machine and use it for testing..
@ Prashant
I agree with prashant. To load test any application you need data variation. Don’t just replicate existing small data set to make it big. Make some variations while replicating this data. You can’t exactly predict the load test output using such huge but false data.
hi sangameswar,
You said that u r in embeded systems testing now. Can you please give me more details about that. Again exactly it’s which domain and what kind of testing u r doing now ..pls explain with testsetup ex.,
Very good article! thanks a lot for all the useful and valuable information shared in this write up!
GenieLog has developped GEDIS Studio which is a workbench dedicated to the generation of realistic test data. GEDIS allows you to define constraints between fields and demographic control over the generated values. Check out our web site for some case study. There’s a community edition of GEDIS available for download.
Hi all,
I am preparing a presentation about usability data and data garbages for my company. pls help me about finding docs for this topic…
best regards
irem