Colleague Michael Bolton responded to my “Case Against Test Cases” entry and reminded me of a recent (recorded) conversation he had with my brother James about this topic. The link is to an MP3 – an hour-long conversation between Michael and James where Michael role-plays a tester as James plays the customer.
As you listen, you might deduce that even the simplest notions of assumption and common sense when running a test case are challenged, making it hard to know what should or shouldn’t be included in a test design.
For example, some environments (clean rooms) require wearing a lab coat before testing is performed. Should that be listed in the first test case?
