Exercise: Designing a basic test plan for a software scenario

Having learned about dynamic testing, it’s now time to put some of that learning into practice by designing a basic test plan.

Design a basic plan

Outline a basic test plan for simple software scenario below, including: 

• test case design 
• test execution  
• test evaluation. 

Don’t worry if you’re not sure – you can find sample answers below.

Consider the testing activities we discussed in the previous video as you complete this task. Your test plan should try to be comprehensive and should cover a range of possible scenarios.

This task will help reinforce your understanding of testing activities and prepare you for some of the more complex testing scenarios you will encounter in your future roles.

Software scenario

Imagine a simple web-based calculator app that can perform basic arithmetic operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The calculator has a user interface with buttons for digits 0-9, decimal point and arithmetic operators (+, -, ×, ÷). There is also a display field for input and output, a “Clear” button to reset the display and an “Equals” button to perform the calculation.

Help prompts

To get your started, you can find an outline of a basic test plan below, with prompts to help you work out the activities.

1. Test planning

a. Objectives: what are the objectives? Hint: what do you need to verify?

b. Scope: what do you need to test? Hint: which operations? what about the user interface? Is there a need her for edge cases?

c. Approach: will you use manual testing? Hint: think about negative and positive test cases.

2. Test case design

a. Positive test cases: what positive test cases could you use?

b. Negative test cases: what negative test cases could you use?

3. Test execution

a. Manual execution: what will you do for the actual test? Hint: think about testing inputs, testing calculations and comparing the output to the expected output.

b. Defect documentation: what will you record having done the test?

4. Test evaluation

a. Defect analysis: how will you review the defects? Hint: think about severity and impact.

b. Decision making: Should the defects be fixed before or after release in a future update?

Sample answers

Download a PDF with two sample answers for this exercise.

Sample answers – Designing basic test plan