Importance Of Data

Workroom Productions Paper: The Importance of Data in Functional Testing

The Importance of Data in Functional Testing

Author: Version:

James Lyndsay 1.0

Author Biography

James Lyndsay, Workroom Productions Ltd. James Lyndsay is an independent test consultant with ten years experience. Specialising in test strategy, he has worked in a range of businesses from banking and telecoms tothe web, and pays keen attention to the way that his clients' focus is shifting away from functional testing. A system is programmed by its data. Functional testing can suffer if data is poor, and good data can help improve functional testing. Good test data can be structured to improve understanding and testability. Its contents, correctly chosen, can reduce maintenance effort and allowflexibility. Preparation of the data can help to focus the business where requirements are vague. Data, Functional testing

Abstract

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The Importance of Data in Functional Testing © Workroom Productions 2001 1 of 11

Importance of Data in Fn Test Version 1.0

Workroom Productions Paper: The Importance of Data in Functional Testing

The Roles of Data in Functional Testing
Testingconsumes and produces large amounts of data. Data describes the initial conditions for a test, forms the input, is the medium through which the tester influences the software. Data is manipulated, extrapolated, summarised and referenced by the functionality under test, which finally spews forth yet more data to be checked against expectations. Data is a crucial part of most functional testing. Thispaper sets out to illustrate some of the ways that data can influence the test process, and will show that testing can be improved by a careful choice of input data. In doing this, the paper will concentrate most on data-heavy applications; those which use databases or are heavily influenced by the data they hold. The paper will focus on input data, rather than output data or the transitionalstates the data passes through during processing, as input data has the greatest influence on functional testing and is the simplest to manipulate. The paper will not consider areas where data is important to non-functional testing, such as operational profiles, massive datasets and environmental tuning.
A SYSTEM IS PROGRAMMED BY ITS DATA

Many modern systems allow tremendous flexibility in the waytheir basic functionality can be used. Configuration data can dictate control flow, data manipulation, presentation and user interface. A system can be configured to fit several business models, work (almost) seamlessly with a variety of cooperative systems and provide tailored experiences to a host of different users. A business may look to an application's configurability to allow them to keepup with the market without being slowed by the development process, an individual may look for a personalised experience from commonly-available software.
FUNCTIONAL TESTING SUFFERS IF DATA IS POOR

Tests with poor data may not describe the business model effectively, they may be hard to maintain, or require lengthy and difficult setup. They may obscure problems or avoid them altogether. Poordata tends to result in poor tests, that take longer to execute.
GOOD DATA IS VITAL TO RELIABLE TEST RESULTS

An important goal of functional testing is to allow the test to be repeated with the same result, and varied to allow diagnosis. Without this, it is hard to communicate problems to coders, and it can become difficult to have confidence in the QA team's results, whether they are good orbad. Good data allows diagnosis, effective reporting, and allows tests to be repeated with confidence,.
GOOD DATA CAN HELP TESTING STAY ON SCHEDULE

An easily comprehensible and well-understood dataset is a tool to help communication. Good data can greatly assist in speedy diagnosis and rapid re-testing. Regression testing and automated test maintenance can be made speedier and easier by using...