The Fundamental QA Terminology For Software Testing
Introduction: There are a number of terms to understand software testing. It includes many terms that a QA engineer uses to communicate with the team, prepare data, and use cases. Here are some of the main terminologies and their brief descriptions:
1. Use Case: A use case describes any requirement. Mainly, a use case contains three items:
Actor- An actor is a user which can be a single person or a group of people, interacting with a process.
Action- An action is performed to reach the final outcome.
Goal/Outcome- A goal or an outcome is the successful user outcome.
2. Test Scenario: A test scenario is a possible area to be tested. A simple question is “What to test?”.
3. Test Case: A test case is a step-by-step action performed to validate the functionality of the task. This can better be explained as “How to test?” in simple language. A test case contains test steps, expected results, and actual results.
The test case contents are: Test Case Id, Test Case Title, Description, Pre-condition, Priority(P0, P1, P2, P3,…), Requirement Id, Steps/ Actions, Expected Result, Actual Result, Test Data
4. Test Suite: A test suite is a group of test cases that belong to the same category.
Test plan
Test Suite 1
Test Case 1, TC 2, TC 3,…
Test plan
Test Suite 2
Test Case 1, TC 2, TC-3, …
Test Suite 3
Test Case 1, TC 2, TC 3, …
5. Requirement Traceability Matrix(RTM): An RTM describes the mapping of requirements with the test cases. The main purpose of RTM is to see that all the test cases are covered so that no functionality should be missed while doing the software testing. The parameters included are Requirement Id, Requirement Description, and Test Case Ids.
6. Test Environment: It is a platform specifically built for test case execution on a software product. It is created by integrating the required software and hardware with proper network configurations. A test environment stimulates the production/real-time environment. Another name is a Testbed.
7. Test Execution: During this phase, the testing team will carry out the testing based on the test plans and the test cases prepared.
Entry Criteria- Test Cases, Test Data and Test Plan.
Activities-
The test case is executed based on the test planning.
Status of the test cases is marked like passed, failed, blocked, running, etc.
Documentation of test results and log defects for test cases are done.
All the failed and blocked test cases are assigned Ids.
Retesting is done after the bugs and defects are fixed.
Defects are tracked till the closure.
Deliverables- This provides defect and test case execution reports along with completed results.
8. Main guidelines for Test execution: The build deployed to the QA environment is the most important part of the test execution cycle. Test execution is mainly done in the Quality Assurance(QA) environment. This happens in multiple cycles. The test execution phase consists of executing the test cases and the test scripts, if automation.
9. Defects/ Bugs: Any mismatched functionality found in an application is called Defect/ Bug. During the test execution, Test Engineers report the mismatches as defects to developers through templates or using any tools.
There are many defect reporting tools in the market:
Clear Quests
Dev Track
Jira
Quality Center
Bug Zilla, etc.
10. Defect Report Contents:
Defect Id- This is a unique identification number used to specify a particular defect.
Defect- Detailed description of defect includes information about the module in which the defect was found.
Version- The version of the application which was used when the defect was seen.
Steps- Detailed steps along with screenshots, videos with which the Dev can replicate, understand and resolve the issue.
Date- The date when that defect is raised.
Reference- The actual reference of documents like requirements, design, architecture, or screenshot of the error to understand the defect.
Reported By- Name/ Id of the tester who reported the defect.
Status- Status of the defect such as Backlog, In Progress, Dev-Done, QA, Reopened, On Hold, etc.
Fixed By- Name/ Id of the Dev who fixed the defect.
Date closed- Date in which the defect is closed.
Severity- This describes the impact of the defect on the app.
Priority- This is related to a defect fixing emergency.
Severity/ Priority could be High/ Low based on the impact urgency at which the defect should be fixed respectively.
Conclusion: There are a few more descriptions that will be uploaded in Part II of “Some Important Terminologies to understand Testing
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