Scenario testing is a method of testing which involves creating real life scenarios for detecting possible issues that a user may have with a piece of software. These type of tests need to describe a complex procedure but in the same time they need to be easy to evaluate. The most important feature of a scenario test is credibility; this means that it needs to create real life situations.
Although a hypothetical story, the act of creating a scenario is more or less similar to telling a good story: it needs to captivate the public and to make it believe that it might happen.
The main difference between test cases and scenario tests is that the former cover simple steps whereas the latter focuses on complex tests which have as main purpose the relationship between features. So each feature of the software needs to be tested individually before elaborating rich scenarios.
By developing scenarios tests, the quality assurance team gets an insight into the functionalities of the product, learns its mechanism and is capable of exposing failures and preventing future issues. The purpose of such tests is to see how the software will react when employed by an experience user: to acknowledge its benefits and to underline its weakness.
Such scenarios offer developers a real and complex feedback about their work, and the possibility to fix bugs and issues before the product comes out on the market. This increases the overall quality of the product and guarantees satisfied users.
In order to develop powerful scenario tests, testers need to determine different typologies of users and to define their main characteristics. It's highly important to know who your users are and what their main interests are. Failing to do so will lead to failing to deliver a quality product.
Also, testers should not neglect the challenges and failures the product had in the past. If this is the case, a thorough analysis of the previous versions will set a path for future testing and will reduce the time allocated to searching issues.
The difference between scenario testing and other types of tests, such as stress testing, domain testing, function testing, risk based testing, etc. is that it offers a global view of the functionalities of a product from the end user's perspective and underlines the complex relations between features. Scenario testing is suitable for complex functionalities, succeeding to point out bugs and issues that failed to appear through other approaches.
There's no such thing as a good scenario test or mandatory steps, there are tests which serve your purposes, and there are tests that fail to meet their goals. A thing is certain: scenario tests will be different for different products and need to be adapted to the requirements of each piece of software.
Not only that scenarios can improve the quality of the end product, but it can save time developing unsuitable features through its real case feedback. This can only mean a better product and resources invested wisely.
Scenario testing are a must for a company that wants to deliver a quality product and to gain an important position on the software market.
Brad Larson promotes quality standards in programming services. He works with http://www.sbp-romania.com/ in sustaining a high level for code writing.
