Test Case Interview Questions

What is a Test Case?

• Set of conditions and/or variables under which a tester will determine if a requirement upon an application is satisfied

What does Test Case include?

When planning for testing the test case:

• Test case ID
• The purpose (Title, Description) of the test case
• An instruction on how to get from the application base state to a verifiable application output or expected result
• Expected result

When execute test cases we need two more columns:

• Actual result
• PASS/FAIL indication

What is a test plan?

• Document that describes the objectives, scope, approach, and focus of a software testing effort.
• The process of preparing a test plan is a useful way to think through the efforts needed to validate the acceptability of a software product. The completed document will help people outside the test group understand the 'why' and 'how' of product validation. It should be thorough enough to be useful but not so thorough that no one outside the test group will read it.

What does Test Plan include?

The following are some of the items that might be included in a test plan, depending on the particular project:

* Title

* Identification of software including version/release numbers

* Revision history of document including authors, dates, approvals

* Table of Contents

* Purpose of document, intended audience

* Objective of testing effort

* Software product overview

* Relevant related document list, such as requirements, design documents, other test plans, etc.

* Relevant standards or legal requirements

* Traceability requirements

* Relevant naming conventions and identifier conventions

* Overall software project organization and personnel/contact-info/responsibilities

* Test organization and personnel/contact-info/responsibilities

* Assumptions and dependencies

* Project risk analysis

* Testing priorities and focus

* Scope and limitations of testing

* Test outline - a decomposition of the test approach by test type, feature, functionality, process, system, module, etc. as applicable

* Outline of data input equivalence classes, boundary value analysis, error classes

* Test environment - hardware, operating systems, other required software, data configurations, interfaces to other systems

* Test environment validity analysis - differences between the test and production systems and their impact on test validity.

* Test environment setup and configuration issues

* Software migration processes

* Software CM processes

* Test data setup requirements

* Database setup requirements

* Outline of system-logging/error-logging/other capabilities, and tools such as screen capture software, that will be used to help describe and report bugs

* Discussion of any specialized software or hardware tools that will be used by testers to help track the cause or source of bugs

* Test automation - justification and overview

* Test tools to be used, including versions, patches, etc.

* Test script/test code maintenance processes and version control

* Problem tracking and resolution - tools and processes

* Project test metrics to be used

* Reporting requirements and testing deliverables

* Software entrance and exit criteria

* Initial sanity testing period and criteria

* Test suspension and restart criteria

* Personnel allocation

* Personnel pre-training needs

* Test site/location

* Outside test organizations to be utilized and their purpose, responsibilities, deliverables, contact persons, and coordination issues

* Relevant proprietary, classified, security, and licensing issues

* Open issues

* Appendix - glossary, acronyms, etc.

Write test cases for a text field?

• 5 test cases for capacity including 2 for each boundary and one for the class between boundaries
• 3 test cases for valid/invalid input of letters, digits, special characters
• One test cases for each allowed special character (email field as an example)
• Functionality testing if there is any functionality (validation of input as an example, case sensitivity, required field, etc.)

What is Test matrix

Data collection mechanism. It provides a structure for testing the effect of combining two or more variables, circumstances, types of hardware, or events. Row and column headings identify the test conditions. Cells keep the results of test execution.

If there are so many settings/options to choose, how to write test cases?

• Test cases should be developed for all most common potential scenarios
• They should cover most of the positive input

Beside test case & test plan, what documents are required to write?

·        Check Lists

·        Test matrices

·        Test design specs

·        End-to-end tests

·        Test summary reports

·        Bug reports

Describe risk analysis

Risk analysis means the actions taken to avoid things going wrong on a software development project, things that might negatively impact the scope, quality, timeliness, or cost of a project. This is, of course, a shared responsibility among everyone involved in a project. However, there needs to be a 'buck stops here' person who can consider the relevant tradeoffs when decisions are required, and who can ensure that everyone is handling their risk management responsibilities.

How will you write test cases for testing fields LOGIN & PASSOWRD, positive and negative testing?

Testing boundary conditions? Why? How?

• Boundary value analysis is a methodology for designing test cases that concentrates software testing effort on cases near the limits of valid ranges.
• Boundary value analysis is a method which refines equivalence partitioning.  It generates test cases that highlight errors better than equivalence partitioning. The trick is to concentrate software testing efforts at the extreme ends of the equivalence classes.  At those points when input values change from valid to invalid errors are most likely to occur.  As well, boundary value analysis broadens the portions of the business requirement document used to generate tests.

For example, if a valid range of quantity on hand is -9,999 through 9,999, write test cases that include:

1. the valid test case  quantity on hand is  -9,999,

2. the valid test case  quantity on hand is 9,999,

3. the invalid test case  quantity on hand is -10,000  and

4. the invalid test case  quantity on hand is   10,000

What is the difference between a test case and a test plan?

• Test plan is the most comprehensive Software Testing document that describes the objectives, scope, approach, and focus of a software testing effort
• Test case is the smallest Software Testing document that describes both typical and atypical situation (set of conditions and/or variables) that may occur in the use of an application (under which a tester will determine if a requirement upon an application is satisfied).

Which documents would you refer to when creating Test Cases?
All business and technical documentation available:

- PRD - Product Requirements Document

- BRD - Business Requirements Document

- Functional Specifications

- Manuals and Help

- Use Cases

- Test Design

- Third party publications (books, published by independent authors)

What is Business Requirements Document (BRD)?
BRD is written by the Business Analysts. It details the business solution for a project including the documentation of customer needs and expectations.

The most common objectives of the BRD are:
- To gain agreement with stakeholders
- To provide a foundation to communicate to a technology service provider what the solution needs to do to satisfy the customer's and business’ needs
- To provide input into the next phase for this project
- To describe what not how the customer/business needs will be met by the solution