Getting started with Software Testing

Before or during the testing of the software involves the documentation of the artifacts which is called as Testing documentation.

Commonly used documented artifacts of software testing are:

• Test Plan
• Test Scenario
• Test Case
• Requirement Traceability Matrix(RTM)

Test Plan

It is a dynamic document which is prepared by leads/manager before starting the testing process. It consists of all the testing activities which need to be followed by testers for future references.

Reasons to write the test plans:

• Writing a test plan it guides test engineer thinking. Writing a test plan enforces test engineer to focus on important topics.
• Project testers team, managers, peers are involved in the test planning process.
• Test plan are used to manage project changes. When project starts and requirements etc. changes, the test plan are updated accordingly.

Test Scenario

Test scenario is a high level document prepared by test engineer, which consists of all the possible combination ways of testing the application. Generally scenarios are written to understand the flow of the application. A scenario has multiple test cases. Hence every time we have write test cases based on test scenario. So while starting testing test scenarios should be prepared then create multiple test cases for each scenario.

Test Case

Test case is a group of conditions to determine whether a system under test which works according to the requirements or not. Test case is an in-detail document which consists of step by step procedure to test an application.

The components of Test case document are:

• Test Suite ID
• Test Case ID
• Test Case Summary
• Related Requirement
• Prerequisites
• Test Procedure
• Test Data
• Expected Result
• Actual Result
• Status
• Remarks
• Created By
• Date of Creation
• Executed By
• Date of Execution
• Test Environment

Traceability Matrix

It is prepared before test execution to make sure that every requirement is covered in the form of Test Case. In RTM document we map the entire requirement and the corresponding Test Case so that we do not miss out testing any requirement. RTM is prepared only after the creation of Test cases. The RTM is mainly used to record the relationship of the requirements to the design, development, testing and release of the software. It is useful document to track Time, Change Management and Risk Management in the application development (SDLC).