Software Test Design

4

Test Types, Cases, and Environments

A tourist asks a local, “Which way is it to Dublin?”

The local answers, “Well, if I were going to Dublin, I wouldn’t start from here.”

– An old joke

Before we can start detailed considerations of test cases and plans, we must be clear about what each test case should include and evaluate the different approaches to writing them. Should they explicitly prescribe every action to take or merely describe the intended test, leaving individual testers to implement the details?

You have to choose your test environment. You could test on developer’s machines, where new code has been written seconds before, on your live running instance available to your users, or in various locations in between, such ...