Developing Reusable Test Designs

(CSTP #2) or (CSTAS #1) or (CTM Elective)

This course covers area 2 of the Test Professional Body of Knowledge requirements. This course also counts as an Elective towards the requirements of the Certified Test Manager (CTM) certification. This course also covers area 1 towards the requirements of the Certified Software Test Automation Specialist certification.

For costs and cities where this course might be offered, please see the right border of this page or to bring this course to your test team at your location, contact our Education and Professionals Services Group.

Concepts

Would you like to be an instant testing expert, able to start testing effectively in new situations without delay? Would you like to spend more of your time running tests and less of your time creating the tests? Reusable test designs make it possible. This interactive course shows how to apply a systematic structured Proactive Testing approach that enables you to design much more thorough tests than traditional methods. Then, you'll discover how to convert your test designs into reusable test designs you can apply instantly in new situations. You'll develop several reusable test designs in class and be able to add more to your toolkit back on the job. Exercises enhance learning by allowing participants to utilize practical techniques to an actual case.

Participants will learn:

• How test designs fit into the overall test planning structure and provide special advantages
• Systematic, reliable, repeatable methods for identifying test designs to test a given system
• Checklists and guidelines that enable you to spot the conditions traditional methods overlook
• Converting your project-specific test designs into reusable test designs you can use for other systems
• Applying reusable test designs to jumpstart your testing with instant expertise and effectiveness

This course has been designed for testers, managers, analysts, designers, programmers, auditors, and users who plan, oversee, and/or carryout testing of software products.

Outline

• Proactive Test Design Benefits
  • Proactive vs traditional reactive testing
  • Often-overlooked key to proper prioritizing
  • Systematic drill-down strategy
  • IEEE Standard for Test Documentation
  • Master and detailed test plans
  • Test design specifications
  • Test case specifications
  • How taking time to structure saves time
  • Structuring to make test sets manageable
  • Facilitating reconstruction of test data
  • Taking off the blinders to allow selectivity
  • Re-using instead of rebuilding test designs
• Identifying Needed Test Designs
  • Functional (black box) testing
  • Three-level approach to functional testing
  • Keys for thoroughness
  • Breaking down to manageable pieces
  • Functionality Matrix technique
  • Use case perspective
  • Technical software actions
  • Test design specifications that are needed
• Designing Tests More Thoroughly
  • How designing adds thoroughness
  • Traditional test design still misses a lot
  • Checklists and guidelines to fill the gaps
  • Tests based on data formats
  • Coverage of data and process models
  • Common problems that need to be tested
  • GUI and navigation issues
  • Equivalence classes and partitioning
  • Ranges and boundary testing
  • Often-overlooked other dimensions to test
  • Using decision trees to identify outcomes
  • Truth tables
  • Cause and effect graphing for rigor
  • Error guessing
• Making Test Designs Reusable
  • Extracting the reusable elements
  • Instant expertise for testing new situations
  • Enhancing with system-specific tests
  • Updating and adding test designs to toolkit
  • Translating test designs into test cases
  • Necessary other component of test cases
  • Reusable test case specifications