Experienced Testing Interview Q&A – Part 1

1) Have you written Test Plan? What is a Test Plan? What does it include?

-Yes I have written/contributed to the test plan.

– A test plan is a document describing the scope, approach, objectives, resources, and schedule of a software testing effort. It identifies the items to be tested, items not be tested, 

who will do the testing, the test approach followed, what will be the pass/fail criteria, training needs for team, the testing schedule etc.

– A Typical Test Plan for as per IEEE-829 contains following)a) Test plan identifier

b) Introduction

c) Test items

d) Features to be tested

e) Features not to be tested

f) Approach

g) Item pass/fail criteria

h) Suspension criteria and resumption requirements

i) Test deliverable

j) Testing tasks

k) Environmental needs

l) Responsibilities

m) Staffing and training needs

n) Schedule

o) Risks and contingencies

p) Approvals

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2)  What is a Test Case? What does it include?

test case is a document, which has a set of test data, preconditions ,expected results developed for a particular test scenario in order to

verify compliance against a specific requirement.- Typical Test Case Parameters consists of:

a) Test Case ID

b) Test Scenario

c) Prerequisite

d) Test Case Description

e) Test Steps

f) Test Data

g) Expected Result

h) Actual Result

i) Test Status

j) Comments

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3) How many Test Cases did you write in your last project?

I wrote about 1000 Test Cases in my last project.

(The reasonable number of Test Cases varies from 500 to thousands.

The number 1100 test cases can be completed in a 8 month project duration).

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4) What document did you refer to write the Test Cases?

Requirement document. (NOTE: It can also be Use Cases, or

Design Document and purely depends on company)

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5)  Did you have a situation where you did not have any documents

(no requirement document, no Use Cases, or no Design Document) and you had to write the Test Cases? How did you write the Test Cases?

Yes. I have been to that kind of scenarios in some companies.

There were companies where they had no documents at all

(As requirement doc becomes obsolete sometimes for new or maintenance projects)In that case, I had to discuss the application scenario and functionality with the Business Analysts or developer. Sometimes I prepared document indicating main work-flow of the application.

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6) Can you tell me what a Use Case is?

A use case is a document that describes the user action and system response for a particular functionality.

For example,  a Use Case for Banking System can have the following user interactions:

BankApplication_UseCase

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7) What is Software Development Life Cycle?

The systems (or software) development life cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project, from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application.

It includes the following different stages:

1.Requirement phase<

2.Design phase

3.Coding (programming)

4.Testing

5.Release (Production)

6.Maintenance (Support)

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8) What is Build? What is mean by Patch ?

Build:

When each of the different modules of software is prepared, they are put in a single folder by the Configuration Management Team and it is called the ‘Build’.In other word, the developers put their code in the

shared location (folder) and all those code (modules) are combined together

so that it is a complete application that works.Patch:

A patch (sometimes called a “fix”) is a quick repair job for a piece

of programming. During a software product’s beta test distribution

or try-out period and later after the product is formally released,

problems/bugs will almost be found.

A patch is the immediate solution that is provided to users.

E.g. Check that for HP UFT they release patches to provide support

for new browser version or to fix any bugs that is found after release.

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9) What is meant by the Build Deployment?

When the Build so prepared by the Configuration Management Team is sent to

different Test Environments, it is called the Build Deployment.

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10)What is Requirement Trace-ability Matrix?

Tractability matrix is used to cross check the test cases as per the requirement of the test cases.  In other words, it checks whether the each functionality is covered in the Test Cases as per requirement document.