Access Projects - Test Plans

1. Access Projects - Test Plans

2. The purpose of testing is to show that your solution works and does what it is supposed to do. Your testing should include: Unit Testing - testing that individual elements of the solution work correctly Integration Testing - testing that a number of linked elements work correctly System Testing - working through the solution with a complete data set Test Plans – Types of Testing

3. Testing a validation check or the result of a calculation in a query is an example of a unit test. Testing that you can book a lesson or issue a timetable is an example of an integration test as it combines a number of elements. A system test would involve entering known test data and checking that the outputs are correct e.g. adding a student, then booking a lesson and re-issuing the lesson timetable. Test Plans – Types of Testing

4. Another important test is End-User Testing. Your end user needs to be involved in this process. You need to find out if they can use the solution. You need to know your solution meets their requirements – it does what they wanted it to do. End-User Testing will usually require the user to perform unit, integration and system tests. Test Plans – Types of Testing

5. A test plan is a list of all the tests that you will perform on the new system, in a clear and logical order. Tests should: be numbered state the purpose of the test specify the data to be used, if any outline the expected result. Test Plans

6. If you create a relational database, you will not have time to test entering data into every field in every table. Test your system and not the software - that has already been done by Microsoft! Don’t include many similar tests but document just one. Similar validation tests and buttons on forms can be combined into one single test. Test Plans – Don’t waste time!

7. Focus on the key processes and the options that might go wrong. Focus on the purpose of your solution, e.g. if your solution hires/returns DVDs then that process has to work under all conditions. Test Plans – What do I test?

8. In the Pass IT Driving School this could be: adding and removing students booking and cancelling lessons calculating the cost of lessons issuing individual instructor and weekly timetables features you have added such as drop-down boxes for data entry and error messages lessons are archived properly backup procedures. Test Plans – What do I test?

9. Test that: reports fit on the paper. Access has a nasty habit of making reports too wide to fit on an A4 sheet the results of a query are exactly as expected. Book ten lessons for today’s date. Then conduct a search for today’s lessons. Are the results correct? Test Plans – What do I test?

10. Don’t just assume that it works correctly. Genuinely try and provoke failure. Try to make your system go wrong! Think about the data you would have to choose to cause a problem. Choose realistic data to cover normal operations and erroneous or extreme data to put the solution under pressure. Test Plans - Testing for Failure

11. Is it easy to delete a record? Does it affect other tables? Are calculated fields returning the right answers in queries and reports? How do queries respond when no data is found? How do reports behave when the amount of data forces a page break? Test Plans - Testing for Failure

12. Do reports fit the page when tested with extreme data such as long customer names and addresses? Is there a limit? How do reports behave when they return no data? What do they look like? Do they still look presentable? How do we know they are still correct? Are subforms returning the correct data? How do you know action queries are moving or deleting the correct data? Test Plans - Testing for Failure

13. You should include a plan to test your solution with the end-user. They will see things from a different perspective and their input will be vital. Create a series of tasks and questions you ask them to work through and make comment on later. They can also test that the system meets their original requirements. Test Plans – End-User Testing

14. You need to test that they can use your solution by setting them some common tasks with realistic data, e.g. book a lesson, print out a timetable, backup today’s files. If a requirement was that it would save time issuing timetables then there should be a test for that. Test Plans – End-User Testing