Establish and Document the Application's Test Suites, Test Cases, and Expected Outcomes - Application Management Best Practices

Establish and Document the Application's Test Suites, Test Cases, and Expected Outcomes

(Chapter 72 of Application Management Best Practices)

Executive Summary: Chapter Overview

IF4IT

The Bottom Line

Verification is repeatable and objective only when every test states what it checks and what outcome counts as a pass. This chapter establishes, during requirements and design, test suites such as unit, integration, system, regression, performance, security, and acceptance, and test cases with requirement traceability, preconditions, test data, steps, and unambiguous expected outcomes. A current regression suite lets each Release confirm that existing functionality still works; execution evidence is covered separately under SIT and UAT testing evidence.

Core Concepts

Concept	Definition & Strategic Role
Test Suite	An organized group of tests serving one verification purpose, such as unit, integration, system, regression, performance, security, or acceptance testing. Defining suites during requirements and design establishes how each of the Application’s requirements will be verified.
Expected Outcome	The result a test case must produce, stated clearly enough that a pass or fail is unambiguous. Clear expected outcomes make verification objective, so each Release is checked to the same standard regardless of who runs the tests.
Regression Suite	The maintained set of tests that confirms existing functionality still works. Keeping it current with every Release lets each new Release be checked against everything the Application already does, not only against what changed.
Test-to-Requirement Traceability	Linking each test case to the requirement or requirements it verifies. Traceability shows exactly which requirements are verified, and which are not, before a Release reaches Production.

Quick Q&A

Question: Where may an Application's test suites and test cases be recorded?

Answer: They may be recorded in the Test section of the Application Documentation, or in the enterprise’s test management capability or the Application’s Code Repositories with links from the documentation. Wherever they live, they carry their expected outcomes and traceability to requirements and are updated with every Release that changes requirements or behavior.

Question: What must be established for each individual test case?

Answer: Establish what it tests and which requirements it verifies, its preconditions and test data, its steps or automated procedure, and its expected outcome, stated clearly enough that a pass or fail is unambiguous. This is done during requirements and design, before tests are executed and their evidence is recorded.

This chapter explains how to establish and document the tests that verify an Application, and the outcomes they expect. Evidence of test execution is addressed in the chapter “Establish and Document the Application’s Testing Evidence for Systems Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).”

Establish the Application’s Test Suites, Test Cases, and Expected Outcomes

During requirements and design, establish how each requirement will be verified, and organize tests into suites, for example unit, integration, system, regression, performance, security, and acceptance test suites. For each test case, establish:

What it tests, and which requirement or requirements it verifies.
Its preconditions and test data.
Its steps or automated procedure.
Its expected outcome, stated clearly enough that a pass or fail is unambiguous.

Maintain the regression suite so that each Release can confirm that existing functionality still works.

Record the test suites and test cases, with their expected outcomes and their traceability to requirements, in the Test section of the Application Documentation, or in the enterprise’s test management capability or the Application’s Code Repositories with links from the documentation. Update the tests with every Release that changes requirements or behavior.

Best Practice: Establish and Document the Application’s Test Suites, Test Cases, and Expected Outcomes

It is a best practice to both establish and document the solution for verifying an Application: define test suites and test cases with clear expected outcomes, trace each one to the requirements it verifies, and keep the regression suite current with every Release.

Benefits: Documented tests with clear expected outcomes make verification repeatable and objective, so that each Release can be checked to the same standard regardless of who runs the tests. Traceability to requirements shows exactly which requirements are verified, and which are not, before a Release reaches Production.

The Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Best Practices describes testing across the Systems Integration Testing and User Acceptance Testing phases. The Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) Framework for Software Systems addresses verification of non-functional requirements.

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