All,
I am a developer but like to know more about testing process and methods. I believe this helps me write more solid code as it improves the cases I can test using my unit tests before delivering product to the test team. I have recently started looking at Test Driven Development and Exploratory testing approach to software projects.
Now it's easier for me to find test cases for the code that I have written. But I am curios to know how to discover test cases when I am not the developer for the functionality under test. Say for e.g. let's have a basic user registration form that we see on various websites. Assuming the person testing it is not the developer of the form, how should one go about testing the input fields on the form, what would be your strategy? How would you discover test cases? I believe this kind of testing benefits from exploratory testing approach, i may be wrong here though.
I would appreciate your views on this.
Thanks, Byte
Bugs! One of my favorite starting places on a project for adding new test cases is to take a look at the bug tracking system. The existing bugs are test cases in their own right, but they also can steer you towards new test cases. If a particular module is buggy, it can lead you to develop more test cases in that area. If a particular developer seems to introduce a certain class of bugs, it can guide testing of future projects by that developer.
Another useful consideration is to look more at testing techniques, than test cases. In your example of a registration form, how would you attack it from a business requirements perspective? Security? Concurrency? Valid/invalid input?