What Testers Should Know About Specs ?

👉 Spec (Specification) = The answer to “How should this system work?”

🎯 To test effectively, you need to clearly understand the system before you start testing.

📚 Common Types of Specs

Depending on your development process (Waterfall, Agile, Scrum…), you may encounter various types of specs.

1. Business Requirement Document (BRD)

👉 Describes the business-level needs and goals.

• Explains the problem the system is solving
• Doesn’t go into technical details
• Read by: Business Analysts (BA), clients, PMs, and QA

2. User Story (Agile)

👉 Describes features from the user’s perspective.

Example:

"As a user, I want to transfer money between accounts so I can manage my finances."

Usually includes:

• Acceptance Criteria (when the feature is considered acceptable)
• Definition of Done (when the feature is complete)

3. Design Spec (Figma / Wireframe / UI Flow)

👉 Describes the UI layout and navigation.

4. API Spec (Swagger / Postman)

👉 Describes backend API details: endpoints, methods, parameters, responses, error codes.

5. Use Case / Flow Chart / Sequence Diagram

👉 Visual representations of process or user flow.

✅ Conclusion

As a tester, you're not just someone who follows checklists.

You're responsible for ensuring product quality, and that starts with understanding the requirements.

• Want to test right? → Read the spec.
• Want to test thoroughly? → Analyze the spec.
• Want to test smart? → Think like a user, a BA, and a developer.