Perspective is an important thing. Verifying functionality is really a small part (though important) of what a good test engineer does. For every test that verifies a function executes correctly (positive testing), there will be several tests that need to make sure that the function doesnâ t execute incorrectly (negative testing). â You find that for which youâ re lookingâ is especially true for the QA professional. Those who seek to make the application work successfully will do soâ and miss many, important defects. Itâ s the one who looks for failure that will most likely find it.
The brass ring in software testing has always been the crash, bringing the application to its knees. If you can take down the Operating System with it, so much the better. However, there are defects, though less severe, which are more important to catch, such as a typo in a menu item or data corruption. A systematic approach to testing, especially utilizing test cases and scripted steps, will help make sure you have adequate coverage beyond the Holy Goal of bringing everything to its knees.
The rise of requirements for testing is an important movement in all of this. But like all important movements, itâ s easy to lose other fundamentals when you focus on a different approach. Rarely are requirements written in a negative language. Most often, they are about what the software will do and not about what it should not do. Users rarely use an application exactly as a developer or designer had intended. The user wants it to work the way they want to use it, not the way it was designed to be used. Testing must account for this likelihood, and represent the end-user with its findings.
Itâ s important that all requirements receive coverage, and that each requirement have at least one test case attached to it. But those who preach that you donâ t need test cases that donâ t cover requirements forget the basic tenant of testing: weâ re paid to break things. We seek to make the application fail. Program Managers, like Developers, are creators. They seek to design something, and so when writing requirements, tend to emphasize positive outcomes and not the negatives. Therefore, â requirements coverageâ also tends toward the positive test cases, leaving out the negative ones. Until those who write the requirements can understand the testing mindset, itâ s best that we continue to think beyond â requirements coverageâ and include basic testing fundamentals.
In the end, as testers, we want the application to succeed.
So . . . make it Fail.
Read on. managedtesting.net - a great resource for anybody involved in software testing.
The managed testing website is full of articles and discussion forums for anybody interested in qa software testing.Autor: jasonkaytyyqn
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