distributedlife

Previously in the Futures in Software Testing Series:

• System Testing Sucks
• Disciplines

The fundamentals of software testing are what we do as testers that are relevant to all disciplines. The fundamentals cover the analysis of systems and requirements to create test scenarios; reporting and management of defects; testing techniques and test execution.

Software testing fundamentals are so important that without developing them you cannot progress within a discipline. Just as our business domain knowledge impacts on our effectiveness to design test cases; so do our fundamental competencies impact on our ability to become skilled within a given discipline. If you can’t design a test case you are not going to be able to design a performance test case.

I created a list of fundamentals and grouped them into themes:

• Concepts – theoretical constructs that are directly relevant to the act of testing.
• Techniques – approaches to solving problems or achieving a task
• Responsibilities – what is a competent tester responsible for

Any fundamentals must be exclusive of a particular discipline; so the analysis of requirements into functional tests does not belong as a testing fundamental. This was probably the hardest part of creating the list of software testing fundamentals and I don’t doubt that the list incomplete.

I have provided the following lists below and at the bottom of the page is the PDF version that can be used for self assessment.

I found it interesting that after writing the fundamentals and discipline concepts, techniques and responsibilities it read like selection criteria. This wasn’t intended but was the eventual goal. This defines what a test can do. Training teaches them how and disciplines provide the what.

There is no order as are all applicable.

Concepts

• Understands the role of software testing and is able to explain the who, what, where, how, why and when of software testing
• Understands the difference between technical and semantic compliance and how that impacts the scope of testing.

Techniques

• Use positive path testing techniques to derive test cases that prove requirement implementation has been successful
• Use negative path testing techniques to derive test cases that exercise the inverse of the specified requirements
• The ability to risk asses the test suite to identify cases that should be executed first because they present the biggest risk to the organisation if they fail.
• Application of the divide & conquer approach to failed tests to identify the root cause of a defect
• Can analyse documented requirement and determine whether they are unambiguous
• Can analyse documented requirement and determine whether they are testable

Responsibilities

• Produce test procedures that provide additional information necessary to complete a test case. Test procedures document the how of a test case.
• Design tests that are discrete; this means that they only test one thing.
• Design tests that consider and cater for all relevant input data combinations
• Design tests that explicitly state the expectations of the tester
• Design tests that can be executed by another competent tester without intervention
• Analyse system behaviour to identify state data that will influence the expectations outcome and from this derive test cases that exercise these expectations
• Analysis of test outcomes to identify defects
• The ability to create both input and state data to satisfy the test case
• The creation of defect reports that are accurate, reproducible and have an appropriate severity
• Perform test case design reviews to ensure appropriate test coverage has been provided
• Perform test case reviews to ensure test cases are written to the agreed standard
• Perform test execution review to ensure test execution logs are correctly recorded
• Fulfil the obligation of software testing by providing information to stakeholders regarding the quality of the solution
• Communicate effectively by providing metrics to management regarding the testing effort
• Escalate risks before they develop into issues

If you have any suggestions for improving the content; let me know and we can discuss it.

Here is the link to the PDF assessment copy of the testing fundamentals. I will move them out of a PDF document and onto a web page that can be built up by a community over time.