Important Software Testing Techniques

Following are some of the imortant techniques which can be used while testing an application:-

1). User Story Testing (Agile)

A user story is nothing but a requested feature which is the requirement of the end user in agile SDLC. In the user story, QAs have to specify the demand, tell the reason for the demand and the details of end user who has requested the demand.

Definition of Done (DOD) is the completion criteria which tells whether the code is done or not, the unit test is done or not, manual testing is done or not and so on. 

Acceptance criteria is always defined by the POs (development team can help POs) and there should be at least 1 test scenario for every acceptance criteria in th test process of the user story

2). Use Case Testing

Use case testing is generally defined by the operations performed by the users to achieve a specific goal. In this, the functional requirements of the system are defined and managed with the help of use cases. The scope of the requested or desired job is figured out in this way. Users then prepare the test scenarios by taking inputs and outputs of the test steps. Then the results are determined by comparing expected outputs with the actual outputs.

Generally QAs use business language rather than technical language while writing use cases. There should be at least one test scenario for each requirement so that all use cases are covered. Test coverage is increased in this way and traceability matrix is used to measure this. Traceability matrix is usually created in a table with test scenarios and requirements and then they both are mapped with each other. In this way, all the requirements are covered.

3) Checklist Based Testing

Basically a checklist is created in this type of testing from the user stories. In the user stories, if no risk is mentioned, then all checklist items can be used based on the scope of the user story. When these tests are executed and a defect is found, scope of the checklist should be expanded by adding the failed scenario. Thereby incresing the rosk for upcoming releases.

4) Exploratory Testing

The most common misunderstanding about exploratory testing is that everybody beleives that it's a random or ad-hoc type of testing. It is assumed as a random, non-observable, non-testable test technique. However, it is an approach based on learning and exploring the application by simmultaneously using it and understanding the domain, analytical and intellectual details of it.

A preparation should be done before starting the exploratory testing. A test plan containing the functionality, tools used, data, environment, etc should be prepared. This document will guide the QAs while executing the tests. 

5) Experienced Based Testing

This is a technique which is entirely based on the skills, knowledge and experience of the QA who is testing the application. All the documents used (test plan, strategy, scenarios, cases) are all based on the experience and knowledge of the QA testing the application. There should always be an experienced QA if we are preferring to go with this type of technique.

Previous experience of the QA comes handy in this technique. It is usually carried out when we are running short on time and there is lack of sufficient documentation. However, if the application comprises of higher risks, then it is not advised to carry out exploratory testing because alone it cannot guarantee that every area is covered.

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