It’s All About Test Case Count…NOT!

• We have 1800 Test cases in the test repository
• Test cycle-1 had 600 executed with 25 failures
• 4 Defects, 12 working-as-designed, and rest were all test case issues

How do you correlate these numbers to help you make decisions? How do these numbers relate to my application quality? What is the real test coverage relative to my risk factors? And finally, are we a Go or No-Go?

First off, the test count driven approach to test planning is misleading and results in poor test design. Such an approach results in redundant test cases and a lack of transparency on the priority of test cases in relation to your business process. And of course, costing you a lot of time and money.

Now I’m sure you are thinking that Traceability is that link, which connects these issues and brings cohesion. However, in today’s complex eco-system of tools, traceability is heavily fabricated and ends up being a black box repository. And worse off, this traceability never represents the true and up-to-date state of your application, especially with frequent releases and application changes in the Agile model.

Just like when you design and architect your application, you don’t take a numbers approach; planning your Quality focus should be on Test Design. Adapt a test design that is driven by your application business processes, and which encapsulates both the application workflow as well as data combinations. A design that comprehensively covers modularity, reusability, and that seamlessly links to your requirements and user stories.

This approach to test design will generate your scenarios with coverage which links directly to your application landscape. It will free you from the wild goose chase of number-driven test planning.  The “count” of scenarios and data combinations for validations will be fluid and dynamic to always adapt to the application state and the needed coverage.

With accelQ, we have not just achieved this but also brought in a scientific approach with path analysis algorithms to assist you in scenario design which directly correlates to your application business processes. In the new world, you don’t need “test case management” tools that just store your data, you need tools that manage and smartly do things, and bring automation across quality lifecycle.