Scenario Testing
Scenario testing is one of the example of Test Patterns
Context
- The objective of scenario testing is to prove that the program will fail when asked to do real work ( significant tasks) by an experienced user. A failure at this level is a validation failure ( a failure to meet the stated or implicit program requirements.)
- “All” of the features have been tested in isolation. More precisely, all of the features that will be called within this scenario have been tested on their own and as fas we can tell, none of them has an error that will block this scenario test.)
- The tester must have sufficient knowledge of the domain( eg: accounting, if this is an accounting application) and many of the ways in which skilled users will use the program.
Forces
- Time trade off
- There is often much time pressure to develop “realistic” tests quickly.
- Because complex tests are expensive. You can not develop many of them. What level of coverage will you get from these tets? What level should you expect.
Solution
Ideally scenario test has four attributes
- The test is realistic
- It is complex
- It is easy to tell whether the program passed of failed the test
- Serious failure if the program will not pass a given scenario
The key message of this pattern is that you should keep this four attributes in mind when you design a scenario test and try hard to achieve them.
Next we will cover another example of test pattern.