This question appears in Mumbai University > Software Testing & Quality Assurance Subject

Marks: 10 M

Year: Dec 2012,June 2015

State Transition Diagram of a Test Case :

• Test engineers concurrently execute test cases from a selected test suite on different test beds. The results of test execution can be modelled using a state transition diagram as shown below

    Figure: State transition diagram of test case result

• The above figure illustrates a state transition diagram of a test case result starting from the untested state to four different states : passed, failed, blocked and invalid.

• The execution status of test case is put in its initial state of untested after designing or selecting a test case.

• If the test case is not valid for the current software release, the test case result is moved to the invalid state.

• In untested state, the test suite identifier is noted in a field called test_ suite id.

• The state of the test result after execution of a test case is started, may change to one of the following states: passed, failed, invalid or blocked.

• A test engineer may move the test case result to the passed state from the untested state if the test case execution is complete and satisfies the pass criteria.

• If the test execution is complete and satisfies the fail criteria, a test engineer moves the test result to the failed state from the untested state and associates the defect with the test case by initializing the defect_ids field.

• The test case must be reexecuted when a new build containing a fix for the defect is received.

• If the reexecution is complete and satisfies the pass criteria, the test result is moved to the passed state.

• The test case result is moved to a blocked state if it is not possible to completely execute it. If known, the defect number that blocks the execution of the test case is recorded in the defect_ids field.

• The test case may be reexecuted when a new build addressing a blocked test case is received.

• If the execution is complete and satisfies the pass criteria, the test result is moved to the passed state.

• On the other hand, if it satisfies the fail criteria, the test result is moved to the failed state.

• If the execution is unsuccessful due to a new blocking defect, the test result remains in the blocked state and the new defect that blocked the test case is listed in the defect_ids field.