Joep Schuurkes (Posts about test cases)https://smallsheds.garden/categories/test-cases.atom2023-11-26T10:50:52ZJoep SchuurkesNikolaIt's time to retire our test case management toolshttps://smallsheds.garden/blog/2020/its-time-to-retire-our-test-case-management-tools/2020-07-19T16:38:17+02:002020-07-19T16:38:17+02:00Joep Schuurkes<div><p>Recently the topic of test case management tools popped up a few times in my surroundings. In almost all cases I'd recommend against using these kinds of tools and I found myself able to give a few reasons, but also found that my thoughts lacked the clarity I'd like them to have. Hence this blog post, to force myself to think more deeply and communicate more clearly.</p>
<p>Before I go into that, there are a few things this blog post is not about. I won't be really going into what effect test cases have on test execution, or rather if test cases are a good tool to use when doing actual testing. Personally I don't think they are and I wrote about my inability to use them in <a href="https://smallsheds.garden/blog/2013/test-cases-cant-do-m-no-more/">this post from July 2013</a>. For some deeper thoughts on this, I recommend James Bach's and Aaron Hodder's article "<a href="https://www.testingcircus.com/documents/TestingTrapeze-2014-February.pdf#page=31">Test cases are not testing: Towards a culture of test performance</a>".</p>
<p>What I do want to cover in this post is managing test cases. Having a collection of test cases stored somewhere to re-use across releases and reporting their pass/fail numbers. Both are important use cases for a test case management tool and both are in my opinion a bad idea.</p>
<p><a href="https://smallsheds.garden/blog/2020/its-time-to-retire-our-test-case-management-tools/">Read more…</a> (12 min remaining to read)</p></div>The test case - an epistemological deconstructionhttps://smallsheds.garden/blog/2015/the-test-case-an-epistemological-deconstruction/2015-02-01T22:19:55+01:002015-02-01T22:19:55+01:00Joep Schuurkes<div><p><em>(This article was first published in Dutch in <a href="https://www.testnet.org/testnet/home">TestNet</a> Nieuws 18. The article below is a translation with minor changes. Many thanks to Joris Meerts and Ruud Cox for reviewing the original version.)</em></p>
<h3>Testing as an information problem</h3>
<p>Testing is an information problem. We are in search of certain information, of an answer to the question: does this application fulfill the relevant explicit and implicit expectations? The exact way in which we can answer this question, however, is not immediately clear. First we will need to decide which questions to ask, how to ask them and how to evaluate the responses. Hence, testing is an information problem.</p>
<p>For the traditional test methodologies (ISTQB and TMap being the most well-known) the test case is a large part of the solution. So let's take this solution apart epistemologically and see what it is we have in front of us. If the traditional test case is our solution, what information does a test case contain? What changes occur after executing it? And also, where is the understanding in all of this that's happening?</p>
<p>In this article, I will first describe how a typical test case is created and how it is used. Then we shall take a look at which kinds of information a test case contains. Finally, we will analyze where the understanding of what happens during testing, is present and where it is not.</p>
<p><a href="https://smallsheds.garden/blog/2015/the-test-case-an-epistemological-deconstruction/">Read more…</a> (10 min remaining to read)</p></div>Test cases, can't do 'm no morehttps://smallsheds.garden/blog/2013/test-cases-cant-do-m-no-more/2013-07-06T20:19:32+02:002013-07-06T20:19:32+02:00Joep Schuurkes<div><p>Continuing the style of my previous blog post...</p>
<p>Some days ago I found myself no longer able to think in test cases while testing. Of course, it's not as if I was using test design techniques to generate test cases one day and woke up the next day to find myself unable to do it anymore. But still, about a week ago I figured I had explored enough to be able to write down the test cases I wanted to execute and found myself staring at a blank page (well ok, empty Excel sheet) feeling alienated from what I was planning to do.</p>
<p>So what do I mean when saying "thinking in test cases". Simply put, you take a piece of functionality, let a test design technique loose on it and there you go: a set of test cases to execute. Combine test design techniques over the different pieces of functionality as required and you're all covered test strategy-wise. Or that's the idea.</p>
<p><a href="https://smallsheds.garden/blog/2013/test-cases-cant-do-m-no-more/">Read more…</a> (1 min remaining to read)</p></div>