Now as I tester I find Excel to be a key tool in my daily work life. It is flexible and can be used for many different purposes. My main use of it however, was for writing test cases. My test cases in excel would be quite detailed and would look something like this:
NOTE: The assumption for the above is that only the customers surname needs to be present for a customer record to be added, I know very unrealistic but done for simplicity :)
Now as you can imagine this becomes very tedious and laborious when you have lots of test cases to write.I have started to get involved in the testing community by going to some local test meet-ups to talk all things testing with other testers as well as reading various blogs and articles. This has led me down a more exploratory approach to my testing and one in which Mind maps are a useful tool.
Mind Mapping
Now for those of you who don't know, a mind map is basically what older people would call a Brain Storm. It is a method of visually outlining information and ideas and It starts with a single word and associated words and concepts are linked to that first single word.
Below is an example:
As you can see this is visually appealing and you can quickly grow your mind map to incorporate lots and concepts and ideas that you want to write down or remember.
There are many free applications that you can use to create your mind map. Here are a few:
Xmind (http://www.xmind.net/)
FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
MindMup (http://www.mindmup.com/)
I use FreeMind as it is easy to create maps and shortcut keys can be configured to cater for your needs.
So just after I discovered mind mapping i thought about how I could incorporate them into testing. Having been to Test Retreat Bournemouth which got my testing juices flowing I thought about using mind maps to generate testing ideas rather than writing out test cases using Excel.
Spec to Mind Map
I started by going through a functional spec and mind mapping what needed testing. This helped me breakdown the mind map into logical pieces and from there I started to expand the pieces to include what tests could be performed on each section. Below is an example for the requirement at the start of this post:
Now I appreciate that I have a few more testing ideas than I did in the Excel example but this just goes to show how quickly and easily you can generate test ideas using mind maps. It encourages a more exploratory approach as you are not following a rigid structure of steps. My experience of using Excel for test cases is one of extreme boredom and restricts the lateral thinking of a tester. (For a explanation of lateral testing listen to the psychology in testing episode of this podcast: http://testinginthepub.co.uk/testinginthepub/ ) As mind maps can be a brain dump of what to test and because they can be done quickly and easily they do not interrupt your flow of ideas.
Now the mind map does not go into as much detail such as selecting the 'Save' button to save the customer details but I don't think these things are needed otherwise testers would spend most of there time writing test cases rather than actually testing. The timed saved using Mind Maps can be used to explore and understand how the software works - something which is much more important than writing test cases. Throwing off the shackles of too much and unneeded documentation allows testers the time to really get stuck in and learn a how a system works.
The mind map should be a dynamic document which changes as more ideas come to you. You can also add icons and notes which can be used to show stakeholders the status of the testing as well as more detailed information about the testing you have performed. I don't know about you but going into a meeting with clients with a printed out mind map showing the state of testing would be a lot more pleasurable than Excel spreadsheets.
Simplicity
The key to successful mind mapping is simplicity. My first few were a little over complicated and having looked backed at them now I tried to hard too include all details rather than get the basics down. So from my experience, if Mind Maps are too complicated they become counter productive. Keep it Simple and hopefully you will reap the rewards that come with an exploratory testing approach .
Now as you can imagine this becomes very tedious and laborious when you have lots of test cases to write.I have started to get involved in the testing community by going to some local test meet-ups to talk all things testing with other testers as well as reading various blogs and articles. This has led me down a more exploratory approach to my testing and one in which Mind maps are a useful tool.
Mind Mapping
Now for those of you who don't know, a mind map is basically what older people would call a Brain Storm. It is a method of visually outlining information and ideas and It starts with a single word and associated words and concepts are linked to that first single word.
Below is an example:
As you can see this is visually appealing and you can quickly grow your mind map to incorporate lots and concepts and ideas that you want to write down or remember.
There are many free applications that you can use to create your mind map. Here are a few:
Xmind (http://www.xmind.net/)
FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page)
MindMup (http://www.mindmup.com/)
I use FreeMind as it is easy to create maps and shortcut keys can be configured to cater for your needs.
So just after I discovered mind mapping i thought about how I could incorporate them into testing. Having been to Test Retreat Bournemouth which got my testing juices flowing I thought about using mind maps to generate testing ideas rather than writing out test cases using Excel.
Spec to Mind Map
I started by going through a functional spec and mind mapping what needed testing. This helped me breakdown the mind map into logical pieces and from there I started to expand the pieces to include what tests could be performed on each section. Below is an example for the requirement at the start of this post:
Now I appreciate that I have a few more testing ideas than I did in the Excel example but this just goes to show how quickly and easily you can generate test ideas using mind maps. It encourages a more exploratory approach as you are not following a rigid structure of steps. My experience of using Excel for test cases is one of extreme boredom and restricts the lateral thinking of a tester. (For a explanation of lateral testing listen to the psychology in testing episode of this podcast: http://testinginthepub.co.uk/testinginthepub/ ) As mind maps can be a brain dump of what to test and because they can be done quickly and easily they do not interrupt your flow of ideas.
Now the mind map does not go into as much detail such as selecting the 'Save' button to save the customer details but I don't think these things are needed otherwise testers would spend most of there time writing test cases rather than actually testing. The timed saved using Mind Maps can be used to explore and understand how the software works - something which is much more important than writing test cases. Throwing off the shackles of too much and unneeded documentation allows testers the time to really get stuck in and learn a how a system works.
The mind map should be a dynamic document which changes as more ideas come to you. You can also add icons and notes which can be used to show stakeholders the status of the testing as well as more detailed information about the testing you have performed. I don't know about you but going into a meeting with clients with a printed out mind map showing the state of testing would be a lot more pleasurable than Excel spreadsheets.
Simplicity
The key to successful mind mapping is simplicity. My first few were a little over complicated and having looked backed at them now I tried to hard too include all details rather than get the basics down. So from my experience, if Mind Maps are too complicated they become counter productive. Keep it Simple and hopefully you will reap the rewards that come with an exploratory testing approach .
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