Software Testing - Test Scenarios

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As the requirements are finalized, both the development and testing team start their individual activities. While development starts with the coding of the software, the testing begins with going through requirements. Finally, the test scenarios, and use cases are created based on the requirements which are later converted into test cases.

What is a Test Scenarios?

A test scenario is a document that contains all the end to end flows of the software functionalities. It is mainly developed from the customer’s viewpoint in a concise manner, sometimes may be in one line. A test scenario is similar to the real life simulation of a situation the customer may face while using a software.

A test scenario guides a testing team by streamlining the test approaches, and processes. It details information of the actions and conditions that an end user goes through while using the software not at a granular level. A test scenario can be created, and updated seamlessly. It saves a lot of time and effort, and is adopted in the agile framework.

A test scenario becomes a very useful document to validate if all the requirements, and features of the software are working. It is always recommended to come up with test scenarios consisting of real-life, and business use cases after taking feedback from customers, business users, developers, and other project stakeholders.

Advantages of Test Scenarios

The advantages of test scenarios are listed below −

• It helps to enhance the software quality by increasing test coverage.
• Once it is developed, it is reviewed and approved by clients, business analysts, and other project stakeholders to ensure that nothing is missed from the testing perspective.
• As all the real-life use cases are covered in a test scenario, it helps to estimate the testing effort for the project.
• It helps to segregate critical, and non-critical flows, and guides the testing team.
• It can be maintained, updated, accessed, and created very easily by the testers.

When is the Test Scenarios not Prepared?

A test scenario is not prepared in the following circumstances −

• If there is a strict project deadline it becomes difficult to come up with a test scenario containing all the possible real-life, and business use cases.
• If the product being tested has requirements changing frequently, and those are still not stable, then creating, and updating the test scenarios each time is a difficult process.
• It is not mandatory in an agile environment, to come up with a test scenario document.
• In a regression, and defect retest test cycle, a new test scenario is not created. An existing test scenario from previous test cycles can be utilized.

Test Scenarios Example

Let us take an example of below test scenarios of a payment module for an e-commerce software −

• Check user has selected an item before initiating payment for it.
• Check the proper invoice with all the details is generated after the payment is processed.
• Check that payment has been processed for all the selected items.
• Check if all the items with successful payment history are showing in the customer dashboard.
• Check if the payment history is reflected with the bank details.
• Check if valid coupon codes can be applied while processing the payment for the user.
• Check if the refund of the payment has been processed successfully for the customer.
• Check if the payment is successful even when the customer enters invalid banking details, amount etc.
• Check if all the payment methods can be used by the users.
• Check if the user can pay with the amount he got from the cashback received from previous transactions.

How to Create a Test Scenarios?

A test scenario can be created by following below steps −

• Go through, and analyze every functional, business, and system requirements.
• Brainstorm individual requirements and come up with all possible real life scenarios from the customer’s viewpoint.
• Identify every technical resource required to test a requirement.
• Identify all possible ways the software may be exploited by the end users, and detect users who can be potential hackers.
• Come up with the test scenarios covering every functionalities, and features of the software. These scenarios should contain all possible flows, paths etc.
• Create a traceability matrix to map every scenario with a requirement, to ensure none of the requirements are missed.
• Get all the test scenarios reviewed and approved by the project stakeholders.

Best Practices to Write a Test Scenarios

The best practices to write a test scenario are listed below −

• If a test scenario is written by incorporating multiple requirements, it should be confirmed that each requirement is satisfied. Else, it may result in a requirement missed.
• If a large number of test scenarios come up with a single requirement, it is important to set priority to these scenarios based on customer usage.

Difference Between Test Scenarios and Test Case

Conclusion

This concludes our comprehensive take on the tutorial on Software Testing Test Scenarios. We’ve started with describing what is a test scenario, advantages of test scenarios, when test scenarios are not used, test scenario examples, how to create a test scenario, best practices to write a test scenario, and what are the differences between test scenarios and test cases.

This equips you with in-depth knowledge of Software Testing Test Scenarios. It is wise to keep practicing what you’ve learned and exploring others relevant to Software Testing to deepen your understanding and expand your horizons.