DEV Community: Roselyne

How to write good Test Cases with examples

Roselyne — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 09:22:54 +0000

Test cases are an integral part of the testing process. But how can one write good test cases? They are used to verify that when a software application is being tested when it comes in contact with input, the output is what is expected.

The test cases are executed by a tester. The tester should have enough knowledge about the software being tested so that he/she can identify the prerequisites that are needed to proceed with the execution of the test cases.

Having sufficient knowledge is key because it saves time, effort and money for both the individuals executing the test cases and also for teams who have to write test cases.

This information can help them know what value each hypothesis they write should have so that they don’t waste time implementing solutions not applicable or not suited for their use case.

Prerequisites are to be satisfied before the test case can be executed.

A test case generally has two parts:

1) Inputs

They describe what should happen when they are given different inputs – these will be given in different combinations to see if they produce the correct output. For example, one input might be “One plus One” and another input might be “2 minus 1”. These inputs would be combined with all other possible inputs to see which ones produce the desired results.

2) Outputs

Outputs describe what an application should produce when given a certain input. For example, if the input is “One plus One” the expected output would be “Two”.

Most Test cases are generally created or written by Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) testers.

However, programmers also document test cases for themselves to ensure that they are testing each part of their application.

Tips to write good test cases

1) Avoid test repetition

it is difficult to determine if you have covered all possible input combinations or not. It is even harder to determine if a program has worked properly for each scenario.

2) Verify the application works properly under different conditions

This helps ensure that your application will work properly after a change has been made to it. For example, if a calculator is being tested and the programmer implements a new feature that doesn’t work as intended, the users of that calculator can check whether it works as expected or not by running tests created before and after the change was implemented, this is known as regression testing – see more here.

3) Have someone else read your test cases(peer reviews)

Peer reviews help to catch errors in logical thinking as well as typos that may have been introduced when writing test cases manually.

4) Consider a test-driven development approach

This allows the test cases to be created by developers so that they can create a complete set of test cases for a demo/prototype rather than manually creating all the scenarios the software has to be tested against.

5) Tests should be simple and easy to understand.

6) Tests should be easily identified by the title

Avoid writing vague titles like “Test for Input” or “Test for Output 2”. Keep in mind that your goal is to communicate what the test case does to the reader in the most concise manner possible.

7) Never assume any test scenarios

User stories, acceptance criteria or use cases should be written to describe expectations of the application. Do not write test cases without considering these as they can lead to you executing incorrect tests. Covered by other tests is a good Cucumber term, i.e., this scenario covers all those scenarios which are already written in the past.

8) Create a standard testing template for the team to follow

It’s very useful as it can help keep the team members consistent in their test cases by following a format that works for the entire team.

Good Test Cases are the foundation that is used to create proper test plans, i.e., test cases are used to decide what should be present in the test plan, therefore creating a good plan is essential for maintaining high-quality software.

Good tests cover all functionalities that are required for the application being tested and ensure that these applications implement all necessary functions.

A proper testing plan should contain Minimum Viable Product (MVP), User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and User Acceptance Testing with Regression Testing (UAT+R).

Best practice to write good test cases:
1) In most cases, Test cases should be written against the requirements and not against the design.

Let’s take a look at some examples of good and bad test cases for the same scenario. Here we have a webpage that needs testing on basic login – logout functionality.

Check examples of good test cases on the main article here.

What Is The Difference Between Performance Testing And Load Testing

Roselyne — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 06:00:06 +0000

Performance testing and load testing are often used interchangeably but they are actually different parts of an overall test plan that should be executed in combination with each other.

Load testing is all about testing how your website or application can handle increased load – i.e number of requests per second/period of time.

Performance testing, on the other hand, seeks to measure performance under normal operating conditions on a single instance. For example page load time, response time, server response time, network latency and disk I/O. Load testing is a subset of performance testing.

This is an important distinction as your application performance is measured by the user’s perception of how fast a page loads. If a user perceives a page takes too long to load, they might wait longer before making the next request. This would make your application appear slow(poor performance) even though it might be able to handle hundreds or thousands of requests per second(can handle high load).

Performance testing techniques

1) Load testing

This is a frequent part of a development process. Most web applications need to be tested for performance before they go live to the public.

2) Soak testing

This is similar to load testing, except that the test load is gradually increased over a period of time. This helps find performance issues such as memory leaks, which can be difficult to find with ordinary load testing.

3) Stress testing

Testing how an application behaves when it is pushed to or beyond its limits, such as how it behaves if too many users try to use it at one time.

4) Scalability testing

How well an application or hardware can support more users or requests, or how it behaves when the number of users increases. For example, scalability testing is performed to determine if there are any bottlenecks in the system, such as memory usage.

5) Micro-benchmarking

Micro benchmarks are able to test a site as it would be seen by a single user. Micro-benchmarks capture the most important aspects of what will be seen by a typical user. The best sites are able to provide an optimal user experience for their users under all conditions. To perform micro-benchmarking, one needs to test the same tasks the site will experience in production using realistic workloads.

6) Spike testing

Spike testing is similar to load testing except that the test load is carried out only once by increasing the number of users suddenly.

What determines performance?

1) Network conditions
2) Server performance – host configurations, number of cores, memory, disk I/O
3) Database performance – database I/O, query execution times, is the data cached?
4) Thrid party access – API access to other services, caches, 3rd party content delivery networks
5) Client load – what happens when multiple clients are connected to your application?
6) Image rendering
Since you can’t test for all of these, you should carefully think about the performance risks and design tests to isolate them.

Factors to consider when doing load tests

Load tests seek to simulate load from a variety of different use cases including:

Use a staging server with a fixed set of data
Simulate a large number of users making requests in parallel so that your application will behave as expected under high load.
Load tests are launched from a script use a variety of tools to simulate load.
Will the Load tests be done manually or automatically.?
Consider using a combination of load test and performance testing tools to determine how your application will behave under a range of load conditions

Questions to ask yourself when doing performance tests

1) When is the page visible? After how long?
2) How quickly can users begin to interact with the page?
3) What is the server response time?
4) Could there be any latency issues on networks or with browser plug-ins?
5) Can users have a seamless experience across various devices?
6) How do performance metrics change when more third party content is loaded on the page?
7) How much scripting is there? Are they blocking the main thread
8) Is the site using CDN, is the website able to load resources on time?

Example Performance Test Cases

1) How many assets can a device download in parallel?
2) What is the minimum page size that a device can successfully load in a single request?
3) How does the page size and number of images affect load time?
4)How does CSS (stylesheets) and JS(javscript) affect performance of the page?
5) How much XMLHttpRequests (APIs calls, or usage of services) can be done simultaneously without blocking the UI thread.

Most common Performance testing issues

1) Server response time is fine for some users but not others
2) Site or application works fine on a fast connection but slows down when on a mobile/slower connection
3) Increase of 3rd party content on a page causes performance issues as more connections are made to the server, more assets are loaded and requests queued up. The main thread becomes slow, which blocks other operations.

Load Testing tools

There are many different load testing tools available that allow you to test the performance of software applications.
Some are made specifically for users to perform load testing. Others are made for developers who want to test the performance of their own websites.

A lot of companies now use load testing tools instead of manual tests as it is much more efficient, accurate and faster at finding issues with your application.

Load testing scripts

There are many different types of load tests that can be carried out with the most common script types being:

1) Random – These will simply talk to your application as if it is a real user and randomly send requests at any time. This is known as “random” or “sporadic”.
2) Varying Load – This will gradually increase the number of users or requests over a duration of time. This tests your application under what is known as “steady-state conditions”.
3) Data-Driven – These will randomly send requests using the same data that would be sent to your application. Each time a request is made, the data will be repeated to create a realistic simulation of the normal use of your application.

Common performance testing and load testing tools

There are several different types of software performance testing tools available that allow you to test websites and applications. Some are made specifically for users to perform load testing. Others are made for developers who want to test the performance of their own sites. A lot of companies now use website performance testing tools instead of manual tests as it is much more efficient, accurate and faster at finding issues with your application.

1) JMeter – is a Java application that can be used to measure performance on a website. It is open-source and can be used to simulate a range of tasks, such as page refresh, database queries, user interactions and more. JMeter also allows you to create separate tests for different content within your site.
2) WebLoad – This is a tool that allows you to script load testing of website and it offers the ability to run scripts on a schedule or when thresholds are reached.
3) Loadrunner – is a product designed for performance testing websites. It allows you to test multiple websites in the same environment, which allows you to compare results.
4) LoadNinja – is a free tool that includes an editor, recorder, test script compiler and automatic report generator. It allows you to run load tests via the command line.
6) Sauce Labs – Allows you to automatically run load tests on real devices.
5) Loader – is a JavaScript library that provides tools for loading websites. It can be used to simulate different network conditions, repeat requests or introduce latency into requests.

13 Tips For Making A Successful Startup Pitch

Roselyne — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 05:46:38 +0000

We are going to cover 13 tips for making a successful startup pitch.

A successful startup pitch is important for any entrepreneur to showcase their ideas before the investment market. Depending on the pitch, you could land an early-stage investment or find your company included in a major media outlet to help build buzz about your product.

But how does one develop an effective pitch to start with? This blog post is here to put you on track for perfecting this vital skill!

Whether it’s a startup, venture capital firm, or angel investor that you are attempting to convince, these tips can give them just what they need.

1) Have a compelling story.

2) Create a strong team profile.

3) Have a clear purpose for your business.
How it will make the world a better place? (what problem does it solve?) Show how your company solves a problem for the world’s population, not only today’s market of users but for everyone that will exist in the future as well.

4) Know the market for your product or service
Make sure you know the ins and out of your product, what is does, how it works and why people would be interested in buying or using it.( what’s the ROI?)

5) Be prepared to answer tough questions.
These can be questions about how you’ll win who needs to buy in, and where you’re going to get all that funding from?

6) Be confident

When presenting your pitch, try practising in front of someone so that they can give feedback on how well you did with the pitch and prepare accordingly. If you’re confident, you will be able to present your pitch in a better way. When addressing questions asked by potential investors, try giving one or two sentence answers that are positive and confident. Remember that any question is an opportunity to convince the person that is listening to your pitch of why they should invest in your business.

7) Be memorable
When presenting your pitch, try doing something out of the ordinary (like adding props or making videos) so that people will remember you and what you do even after they’ve left the room. This can help with generating leads because it gives people something interesting to remember you by.

8) Show your passion
when addressing investors, try showing them that you’re passionate about what you’re trying to do. If they see that you’re truly passionate about this, then they will have confidence in investing into your business even through the difficult times.

9) Practice
The only way to get good at presenting a good pitch is practice. The more practice you do in front of people the better it will become when you present in front of potential investors. Not only will practising help prepare you for the main event but it’s also helpful in making sure that everything is in place for when things start happening quickly

10) Reinforce your credibility
One of the most important aspects of any pitch is establishing yourself as someone who is capable of making things happen. Since entrepreneurs are more credible than salespeople, emphasize your experience, knowledge, and background when you are presenting.

11) Be yourself
Most people ask themselves ‘how should I look and sound’ when pitching a start-up, but the truth is, there is no set way to pitch a start-up. You should show yourself as a real person by being yourself, and not trying to imitate someone else

12) Have a clear goal in mind
Know what you want to accomplish through the pitch and how you want to get there. For example, “I want to get an investment for my new start-up” or “I am looking for partnerships with your company”.

13) Finish strong
The last thing you want to do as you finish your pitch is make people wait… Practice your ending so your listeners feel satisfied with what they heard.

What are a few mistakes to avoid while pitching?

Don’t be unprepared- if you’re pitching a startup to potential investors, then this should be seen as a professional meeting. You need to make sure that you’re properly prepared beforehand. Take your time and figure out what you’re trying to present and how it’s going to help convince people that what you’re doing is worth investing in.

Don’t go over the time limit- keep your presentation short and concise so that people will have no reason not to listen to it. If they feel like they’ve listened for too long, then they might get bored so try practicing this with someone beforehand so that you know how long the presentation is supposed to go on for.

Answer questions confidently – when addressing questions asked by potential investors, try giving one or two sentence answers that are positive and confident. Remember that any question is an opportunity to convince the person that is listening to your pitch of why they should invest in your business.
Conclusion

As an entrepreneur, it’s possible to start your own business in many different ways. You can either focus on creating your own company or partnering with one that already exists. The main difference between these two is the opportunity to make money. When you take the time to build something from nothing, you are able to make money without selling out your idea or product.

How To Choose A Test Automation Tool

Roselyne — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 08:19:14 +0000

This article is all about how to choose a test automation tool. This brief post will give the pointers that you should consider before making that investment on a testing tool. Test automation tools are an essential part of software testing. As such, choosing the platform can be overwhelming and difficult. This article provides a brief overview on the two main types of test automation: exploratory and scripted, along with a list of some popular test automation tools available for both types.

Factors to consider when choosing a test automation tool

1) Will it be a UI based vs. script based tool
Many people choose automation based on the type of interface. For example, if you are looking to test websites and applications, a UI-driven tool such as Selenium may be the right choice. On the other hand, if you want to concentrate more on your test case and scripts, a script-driven tool such as WinRunner or LoadRunner may be a better choice.

2) Will it be open source vs. commercial
Both kinds of tools have their own advantages and disadvantages. For example, open-source tools such as Watir and OpenQA tend to be free but also do not always have the support and features to compete with commercial tools such as Cucumber, LoadRunner, and Selenium.

3) What is the cost of the tool
This is a major factor in choosing a test tool because you need to be able to afford it; however, we do not recommend choosing a tool based only on the price.

4) What are the features of the test automation tool
As with any tool, you need to have a good understanding of what it can do for you. The more features the tool supports, the more flexible it will be. However, even if there are many features, you still need to determine how important each feature is for your project.

5) Will there be a license to consider as well as the cost of the tool
In general, it is a good idea to evaluate the costs and licenses that are involved with each tool. The license may affect your ability to use the tool, but it also can affect how many features you can use within your test automation.

6) What companies are using the tool
One way to find out what tools are the most successful is to find out which companies are using them. For example, Selenium has been used by companies such as Google, Mozilla, Adobe, and Yahoo. For other tools, some of the largest users are HP, Microsoft, IBM, DELL EMC, CI&T and NTT Data.

7) What type of testing will it be for
When choosing a test automation tool, you need to know what you will be testing. For example, a tool such as Cucumber may be a good choice if you will be scripting tests rather than using a UI interface. Read more about different automation testing types here.

8) What type of language the tool supports
The more programming language the tool supports, the more flexible it will be. For example, Selenium supports many languages including C#/Java/Ruby/PHP/Perl/Python among others.

Conclusion
There are many considerations when choosing a test automation tool, but the most important thing to remember is to choose something you can use. You don’t want to invest in a tool only to find out that it does not work for you. However, if you do choose a tool and it is not working for you, then you will need to look into why it is not working and find ways to fix the problem.