Story of a Test case ....

A Test case or Test is an important entity that we as testers create/use/work with as part of our testing activities. What if a test case were to come Live like a living thing or Ghost and were tell it's story or it's life cycle ---

Here is how it MIGHT go ...


• Born – in word document or excel or in some text file or HTML form of web based test tool – very rarely in the minds of a tester.
• Some form of Reference document (requirements, design or Functional Spec) is considered to be my one parent while my other parent is Application behavior that I am suppose to check and verify.
• I exist for proving that my both parents are one and they don’t have conflicts.
• My body structure is such that when one of my parents changes it’s shape or form – I need to change otherwise I temporarily get dumped and do no exist –get invalidated.
• I live in different types - manual, automated, semi automated, documented, un documented, versioned and non versioned, In test management tool, in informal documentation.
• I am a countable *thing* though I differ from my siblings, cousins, friends in may ways.
• Named by a tester and pushed into some repository I have an ID
• I am referred in many ways like test, test case, Test idea, Test spec, Test procedure, Test pack, Test set
• Sometimes I am too detailed that a school kid can execute me by following the steps and sometimes I can be very tricky. Some time I become very lengthy and some times just a one liner – “Verify this….”
• Sometimes I have hard coded data and some times I will not have expected results. Some times my internal parts contradict each other.
• I get classified as “simple, medium and complex” so that people can measure time for creating or modifying, automating or executing me
• I get a graduate degree when I people start calling me as ‘Regression test” – I need to pass every time I get executed.
• Developers hate me when I fail and managers would like see only “passed” tests.
• Some times I am called unit test or some time end to scenario
• Some one will review to confirm that I am indeed born to my logical parents
• I tend to loose my identity when some one automates me and forgets me that I ever existed.
• Some tester adopts me and uses me and abuses me and cruelly compares me against my parents and declares that I pass or Fail.
• I just go into hibernation mode every now and then (when either or both of my parents change their form and shape)
• I am at mercy of tester to look for me changes that might be required to bring me back to life (from hibernation)
• When one or both of my parents change their form and shape OR when one or both of them die (Feature deleted form the application and reference document) – That is the end of my life – I get deleted.

Interesting Right?

What is the story of your Test case?

Shrini