?? What’s Your Flavour? Three Styles To Help You Start Testing

What activities should we perform as testers? And what are the likely outcomes of those activities? There are many ways to perform testing and selecting an approach requires an appreciation for context. Here are three testing styles to help you start testing.?

1. Test Scripts

A series of steps to follow. Where each step informs the tester of an expected outcome – the thing that should happen if all is working well. As a tester you follow the steps and check against the expected outcome, noting down the actual outcome. It can be useful to mark each step as passed or failed. These types of tests tend to form the foundation of automated checks as they allow for those checks to assert true or false.?

Be aware that software doesn’t tend to be as black and white and those expected outcomes. There’s plenty of things to observe beyond what’s been specified. How can you guarantee that a user will follow the exact steps you’ve taken with a test script? This is where acceptance tests and exploratory testing notes come in handy.?

2. Acceptance tests

These types of tests attempt to check that the team is developing what the business wants. They tend to be written using the following Gherkin format of Given, When, Then. For example:

Given I have permission to view the admin panel

When I log in with my credentials

Then I should be logged into the admin panel view

It’s important to recognise that acceptance tests aren’t test scripts. They are there to guide your testing efforts and to spark conversations about what to test and where to test. And for some contexts, they can ensure you’ve met legal requirements. Acceptance tests describe the rules of the application as acceptance criteria and help you understand how those rules will behave when an entity interacts with them.?

3. Exploratory Testing Notes?

Exploratory testing notes can be captured when someone is exploring an application, wireframe, API, prototype, set of requirements, design doc and much more. They are structured yet unscripted. The structure comes from defining an exploration goal and by usually setting a timer to focus testing effort. Notes can be captured in long form by writing out what you are thinking, doing and observing.

You might also use a mind map to group your observations. Or even record your session with video and audio. Those notes allow you to summarise your findings and report back to whomever you need to via a debrief. This type of testing takes effort and practice. There’s a sweet spot to be found with time spent planning, running and debriefing exploratory testing sessions.

Understand your context and experiment with different flavours. Mix and match these testing styles and see what outcomes you discover.??

You can read more about the different flavours of testing and how to get started with testing in this incredible reading list. A perfect match for those new to the craft: Software Testing Essentials ????

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