Introduction

You must have heard about Test Scenarios before, but want to know more about it?

In this post, you will learn why, when, and how to create test scenarios. And not just that, you’ll get to know about the tips and best practices of creating test scenarios. By the end of this post, you’ll have a clear understanding of test scenarios. The tips and the best practices will help you perform software testing more efficiently and easily. Here are the things you’ll learn in this post.

We have to create test scenarios to confirm that the website or application we’ve created is functioning correctly.

There are a few things you must consider while creating scenario tests that are effective. It includes getting the right information from clients, developers, and stakeholders. We can get the different scenarios based on user preferences with such input. And we can conduct detailed testing of all the processes of the software.

We use test scenarios to check how the system performs from the user’s perspective. So when you create test scenarios, you must take into account that it’s basically for users. In that way, you can have a better understanding of how to handle the software once it’s made live.

Test scenarios help QA testers to effectively test user actions in order to drive the expected results from your software testing efforts. Being a QA tester, once you implement a test scenario, you feel more confident about the software product. Also, you can surely explain different queries for different functions of the software product.

Why create Test Scenarios?

As we’re talking about different test scenarios, you might wonder why to create them in the first place. So here we’re giving you some logical reasons why you have to create test scenarios.

• It offers complete test coverage.
• The developers, business analysts, and some chosen customers approve these test scenarios. So it passes through almost covers everything before you make it available for the public.
• It helps organize the entire testing process.
• You can estimate what testing efforts you need.
• You can use it as a proposal for your prospective clients.
• It helps identify user flows that make it easier to prioritize testing efforts.

When to not use Test Scenarios?

As you know test scenarios are extremely important, but it’s not necessary to create them in some test cases. Here we’re listing down some situations where you don’t have to create test scenarios.

• When you’re using an agile methodology to develop a software project.
• If you’re using regression testing or doing a bug fix.
• While you test an application or website that is unstable that we call ‘crunch time.’ The reason behind this is that it takes time to develop test scenarios. And once we stabilize the software, we will have to change it, anyway. So it makes no sense to work on it for unstable applications or websites.

How to Write Test Cases Scenarios

Creating test scenarios and conducting scenario tests is a complex task, as the testing process greatly depends on it. We’ve put this process in 5 steps to make it easier for you. Let’s have a look at these:

Step 1
Begin by reading requirement documents for the particular System Under Test (SUT). Other than this, you can also look at the manuals, user test cases, books related to the application you’re working on.

Step 2
The next step is to identify potential user actions and objectives for each requirement. Then work on technical aspects on the requirement. Evaluate and predict potential threats to your system.

Step 3
Now in this step, work on test scenarios especially find the ones that verify different features of the software.

Step 4
Then create a Traceability Matrix to ensure you have all the requirements that correspond to Test Scenarios.

Step 5
Finally, the supervisor reviews the created scenarios. Then stakeholders of the project also review the scenarios.

Tips to Create Test Scenarios

• Follow a suitable Project Methodology that considers minimum one requirement tied to Test Scenario.
• As you create a Test Scenario verifying multiple requirements at once, make sure to create a Test Scenario for checking each requirement separately.
• Prefer not to create extremely complex Test Scenarios with multiple requirements.
• Try to save the expenses by cutting down the number of scenarios to run. Prefer to prioritize those.

Best Practices to Create Test Scenarios

• For every single requirement, create one test scenario to make things simple.
• If you choose to include multiple requirements in one test scenario, then always check each of the requirements in isolation.
• If you have a limited budget and cannot run many test scenarios, prioritize them.

And as always, we appreciate your participation in the comments.