The Requirements Are the Test

Before starting any sort of testing, it is necessary to define specifically what should be tested.  These are called requirements.  Let’s assume we have been contracted to provide quality assurance testing for Google – more specifically to test their Advanced Search page.

We would first need to ensure that the “Advanced search” link exists on the page, and that clicking it takes us to the Advanced Search page.

We would then need to examine the text, links, text fields, and select lists to make sure they are labeled and functioning correctly.  In traditional testing, a business analyst would provide this list of requirements to his or her team, but Janova takes advantage of English-based syntax to streamline this process. Sitting down to detail what exists on this page would create a requirements sheet that looks more or less like this:

1. The home page of the Google site should have an “Advanced search” link.
2. When the “Advanced search” link is clicked, an Advanced Search page should load.
3. The Advanced Search page should have a Use the Form Below field.
4. The Advanced Search page should have a Find Web Pages section.
5. The Advanced Search page should have a But Don’t Show Pages section.
6. The Advanced Search page should have a Need More Tools section.

These are, of course, the high level designations for each section to be tested, and each will need to be expanded upon in order to fully validate the page.  For instance, the Find Web Pages section will necessarily include all displayed text in that category, an All These Words text field, and a This Exact Wording text field, among others.  We will go into detail for each of these requirements when we begin writing tests for them.

If you follow these tutorials from start to finish, you will define and validate nearly every element on the Advanced Search page, giving you a good knowledge base to begin branching off into more complicated testing.

Continue on to part three, Application Setup.