Salient Tips for Writing Effective Test Cases

• Test cases plays an important role for any project as this is the basic step in any testing cycle. If anything goes wrong at this step the impression get deduce as you move forward in the testing cycle.

• A test case is a state under which a tester will decide whether an application/software system is working as it is originally established for it to do. It will decide whether a software program has passed or failed.

• It may take many test cases to decide that a software program is considered successful to be released. Test case writing plays an important role and makes a test case an important part of the test execution process.

Steps for writing Test caseStep 1: Naming Test Case Convention• Mentioning the test case convention name is necessary because it will

make sense to anyone who will refer the test case in future. This will help your team mates to find out which test case is one you needed.

• You can name the test whichever the way you want but should be sensible in comparison to test cases ID and test cases name. Although this is the simplest step to follow but many of us don't follow it.

Step 2: Description• Description will contain all the details about what you are going to

test , particular behavior being verified by test ,what needs to be verified and in which test data it is to be used.

Step 3: Assumptions and Preconditions• You should communicate all assumptions while writing test case,

beside with any preconditions that must be met before the test can be executed.

Step 4: Input Test Data• Identification of test data is time consuming task. It may

sometime need you to create a test data afresh as creating a new data will take lesser time with respect to identification.

• To make it easier you should you can give test data to be used for test case within description or test case step. If you know that the test data can be reused you can mention that data .

• You could also decide to mention the type of data which is required to run the test and not the real test data value.

• This applies for projects where the test data keeps on changing as multiple teams use it and may not be in the same state when I use it the next time.

Step 5: Covering Verification Points• Test case steps should be properly designed and must

be covering all the verifications for the behavior under test.

• Test case steps given for your projects through that you can make sure that the Test Case optimally covers all the verification points.

Step 6: Expected Results• Test case should mention the expected result of the

applications under test. All the steps should mention that what you expect the output of those steps.

• So, it is necessary to mention all the details of those steps whose outcome you expect after the test.

Step 7: Reusable• Before writing the test case you should be confirmed

that it could be re-used in future for other projects. It will be helpful if you will get the test case written earlier for the same module you can update those instead of writing new.

• So you can re-use the previous test case in future and will save time.

Step 8: Post Conditions• In the post conditions you have to specify the various

things that need to verify after the test was carried out. They are used to give guiding instruction to restore the system.

Conclusion:

At last, writing effective test cases is an important aspect of Software Testing process with all proper details, prepare it according to end user's perspective and cover all the important points.