Guidelines for an effective test case

After being an software tester for nearly 5 years, thought of writting down my views on writing an effective test case for a software application.

To say in a single line, the test cases irrespective of the complexity of the application being tested should be SELF-EXPLANATORY!

As a test case designer, you should always remember that it's not 'You' who will always test these cases, but need to be thinking of the future as well. Anyone else from your team, especially new comers should also be able to start testing these cases without any prior training on the application. It even can reduce the time required for the initial knowledge transition.

Test only 1 functionality per test case and do not combine multiple functioanlities in a test case. The details on test name, description and steps given below.

Test Name:

• It's all in the name. 
• When we have a well defined name, it will help us a lot in the future especially when trying to add the cases to the test set at the start of the test cycle.
• It also helps those who reviews the test case.

Test Description:

• Detailed info needs to be provided in the test description. It should include any pre-requisites, required installations, assumptions, info on environment to be tested, any specific configurations need to be done, test data required, acceptance criteria etc.

Test Steps:

• Steps should contain very detailed information on the user actions.
• Which entry to select in down down, text to enter in text box, which button to click, username, password to be used etc.
• Each step should contain only 1 action. Do not include multiple actions per step.
• Use terms consistently across the test cases and do not use variations. Eg: If you refer something like GMail, continue to use it till the end instead of gmail, GMAIL etc.
• Do not point to previous steps. Always type in the required steps once again.

# Test case should be designed in such a way that the same test case without even a minor change should be repeatable back to back and the should be successful both times i.e. the result should be the same in both runs.
# Always return the system to the initial state. If you have created a new user, add new steps at the end of the test case to delete the user created. This would help in achieving the repeatability of the test case.
# As a good practise, always write a single test case and share it with a friend preferrably not a tester and for sure not in the same test team and check whether he is able to follow the same steps without any help.

The above mentioned were desirable attributes for a test case, if everything is incorporated it can add up to the quality of the deliverable.

Happy Testing!!!