QA Labs brings you practical tips and tools on testing, quality assurance (QA), and related topics through this monthly e-newsletter.
Testing Without Requirements
A typical software project lifecycle includes
such phases as requirements definition, design, code and
fix. But, are you shipping software applications with minimal
to no requirements and little time for testing because of
time-to-market pressures? Build it, ship it, then document
and patch things later.
'Time-to-market' products can lack detailed
requirements for use by testing because of their huge pressures
for quick turnaround time. You don't want to slow down development,
or testing, by having to create detailed documentation.
At the same time, the test effort needs to be useful and
measurable. So, how can this product be tested to achieve
adequate effective coverage and overall stability of its
functionality?
A Starting Point
Effective ad-hoc testing relies on the
combination of tester experience, intuition, and some luck
to find the critical defects. Adequate test coverage involves
a systematic approach that includes analyzing the available
documentation for use in test planning, execution, and review.
Ad-hoc testers can greatly benefit from up-front information
gathering, even when they don't have time for formal testing
processes and procedures. Ad hoc testers must still understand
how the software is intended to work and in which situations.
Ask developers, testers, project managers,
end users, and other stakeholders these basic questions
to assist with clarifying the product's undoubtedly complex
tasks:
Why is the system being built?
What are the tasks to be performed?
Who are the end users of the system?
When must the system be delivered?
Where must the system be deployed?
How is the system being built?
Also, the risks of the system need to
be identified. (See our article Risk Based Testing Article
#11 for more on this topic.) Correlate these risks against
the time available to prioritize the test focuses.
With this information you are well on
your way to being able to define an applicable strategy
for your upcoming test effort.
User Scenarios
User Scenarios (sometimes called Use
Cases) define a sequence of actions completed by a system
or user that provides a recognizable result to the user.
A user scenario is written in natural language that pulls
together from a common glossary. The user scenario will
have the basic or typical flow of events (the 'must have'
functionality) and the alternate flows. Creating user
scenarios/use cases can be kick-started by simply drawing
a flowchart of the basic and alternate flows through the
system. This exercise rapidly identifies the areas for
testing including outstanding questions or design issues
before you start.
Benefits of creating user scenarios:
Easy for the owner of the functionality to tell/draw the
story about how it is supposed to work
System entities and user types are identified
Allows for easy review and ability to fill in the gaps
or update as things change
Provides early 'testing' or validation of architecture,
design, and working demos
Provides systematic step-by-step description of the systems'
services
Easy to expand the steps into individual test cases as
time permits
User scenarios quickly provide a clearer
picture of what the customer is expecting the product
to accomplish. Employing these use cases can reduce ambiguity
and vagueness in the development process and can, in turn,
be used to create very specific test cases to validate
the functionality, boundaries, and error handling of a
program.
Checklists
Are there common types of tasks that
can be performed on the application? Checklists are useful
tools to ensure test coverage of these common tasks. There
may be a:
User Interface checklist
Error and Boundary checklist
Certain Features (eg: Searching)
Benefits of creating checklists:
Easy to maintain as things change
Easy to improve as time goes by
Captures the tests being performed in a central location
Checklists used in conjunction with
User Scenarios make a powerful combination of light-weight
test planning.
Matrices
A test matrix is used to track the execution
of a series of tests over a number of configurations or
versions of the application. Test matrices are ideal when
there are multiple environments, configurations, or versions
(builds) of the application.
Benefits of using test matrices:
Easy to maintain as priorities and functionality change
Simple to order the functional areas and the tests in
each areas by priority
Clear progress monitoring of the test effort
East to identify problem areas or environments as testing
proceeds
Test matrices provide a clear picture
of what you have done and how much you have left to do.
Summary
If you have minimal to no requirements
there are still ways that effective testing can be achieved
with a methodical approach. You can quickly outline a
methodology for yourself that considers the basics of:
Describing the application in terms of intended purpose
Identifying the risks of the application
Identifying the functionality of the application with
basic and alternate flows
Identifying and grouping common tests with checklists
Identifying how testing records will be traced
Revisiting and refining each of the above as the project
and testing effort proceeds
For more information...
A recent study of over 8,300 IT projects
found that more than 50% were "challenged" by reduced
functionality, being over budget and going beyond the
original schedule. The main reasons were a lack of user
input and incomplete and changing requirements.
QA Labs' expert analysts can provide
you with a proven light-weight solution tailored to your
timeframe and resource realities that allows you to capture
your already existing requirements without slowing development
and make that document serve as your test plan as well
- saving you significant rework, confusion, and money.
Two critical artifacts in one!
Our clients hire us knowing they have
hired a company, not an individual or group of individuals.
We bring our comprehensive experience to the table and
can provide the exact resource skill sets needed at exactly
the right time. QA Labs offers a clear alternative to
individual hires.
Contact us at services@qalabs.com or
visit our
website for more information on our QA and Testing
services.
QA Labs is a powerful player on your team supplying the critical competitive advantage you need today. Our mission is to help you make your software products succeed in the marketplace, whatever the climate. We work with you to make wise choices that reflect project constraints, industry trends, and business considerations. We are the largest independent software quality assurance and testing service provider in Canada. For more information, please visit www.qalabs.com.
Reduce costs - Take advantage of lower labour costs and today's 