Benefits of dynamic test data generation and test case design tools

Datamaker Data Design™ - because there's no substitute for good test data.

Rigerous test data design

• Reduce the cost and effort to resolve and reduces the amount of scrap and rework on the project
• No matter how many testers you have, they all are going to come back with the same test case
• Provides better wording of the test descriptions than wording in original specifications
• Allows the test cases to be reviewed by the users/domain experts to validate the system or application rules and find defects in specifications by reviewing the test cases
• Moves a major step of user acceptance earlier in the process before the code is written
• Address defects that might be hidden because they are not directly observable
• Increases code coverage, and decreases the likelihood of hidden errors canceling each other out
• Allows companies to achieve major savings in the effort to script/implement test cases as well as reducing the time to run test cases, validate test cases, and maintain the test library
• With one fourth the tests for equivalent coverage, this results in over a ten X reduction in the cost and effort to build executable scripts
• Ensures that code coverage is 2 to 3 times better at delivery of the application. Most organizations only achieve 30% to 35%. For organizations that must meet test coverage criteria set by various government agencies (e.g. FAA, FDA, DOD).
• Helps ensure the system maintains data and transaction integrity even under adverse conditions
• Avoids confusion in exactly how to set-up the test and what the results should be. Those not using Data Design™ to design tests often use subtly or even significantly different wording to describe the same condition.
• Forces the tester to ask questions of how individual functions work and how those functions should work in relation to other functions
• Numerous defects are detected which are not normally found until system integration testing
• Configuration test design
• Ensures elimination of impossible test combinations while still supporting full negative testing
• Protects the investment in the existing test cases

Test coverage measurement

• Provides management with quantitative measure of the quality of the application. Go / no go decisions are made on a quantitative basis function by function.
• Allows testers to decide which test to implement first
• Optimizes test coverage when time is limited

Test exporting

• Saves redundant data entry because it is described once in Data Design™ and that description is replicated across all the Data Design™ test cases
• Exported into Mercury Interactive’s Test Director, saving an enormous amount of redundant entry
• Reduce rework time by ensuring immediate notification of requirement changes, keeping all stakeholders up to date on the project
• Create self-documenting tests which saves scripting time
• Allows easy integration with non-standard tools
• Allows flexible integration of test information in other documents

Test document generation

• Saves testers time
• Produces test definition matrix and test coverage matrix with one mouse click instead of hours spent building an Excel spreadsheet
• Ensures that the tests are in the format most useful to needs of the project
• Switching between formats only requires one mouse click. This is especially useful when doing projects for the federal government since they require formats necessitating a lot of work to create and maintain.

Test coverage analysis

• Analyzes how much the existing set of test cases cover the rules of a new or revised function
• Identifies what additional test cases are now needed, what modifications need to be done to existing test cases, and which test cases are now redundant
• Allows testers to maintain an optimal test library while minimizing rework of tests already built
• Ability to prioritize the testing effort by focusing on the tests which give the greatest coverage first, a reasonably stable version of a given component can be created for use in early entry into system level integration test
• Assist when projects find tight time or resource constraints limit how many tests can be implemented and run

Requirements management integration

• Identifies impacted tests when a specification changes
• The test cases are often more detailed and easier to read than the original specifications. Users use this view to ensure that what is being built matches their expectations.
• Provides mechanism to move user acceptance testing earlier in the life cycle long before code has been written
• User do not have to be familiar with Data Design™ as they are viewing outputs produced by it
• Ability for users to make informed decisions as to whether the application is ready to deploy
• Users do not have to be familiar with Data Design™ as they are viewing outputs produced by it

Requirements based testing process

• Minimize user ramp-up time by providing quick and comprehensive training
• Ensure that they are correct, complete, unambiguous, and logically consistent
• It is a useful skill for users and developers in addition to the testing staff
• Staff can be trained in less than a day to apply this step
• Uncovers unclear rules for the sequencing of the steps in a system (i.e., unclear precedence relations)
• Uncovers problems with aliases in the naming of data and processes – an object being referred to by more than one name across different sections in the specifications or two or more different objects being referred to by the same name

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