Scenario testing is a software testing

Software testing

Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software...

 activity that uses scenarios

Scenario (computing)

In computing, a scenario is a narrative describing foreseeable interactions of types of users and the system. Scenarios include information about goals, expectations, motivations, actions and reactions...

: hypothetical stories to help the tester work through a complex problem or test system. The ideal scenario test is a credible, complex, compelling or motivating story the outcome of which is easy to evaluate. These tests are usually different from test case

Test case

A test case in software engineering is a set of conditions or variables under which a tester will determine whether an application or software system is working correctly or not. The mechanism for determining whether a software program or system has passed or failed such a test is known as a test...

s in that test cases are single steps whereas scenarios cover a number of steps.

History

Kaner coined the phrase scenario test by October 2003. He had already co-authored a book on software testing, lectured on the subject, and was a testing consultant. He commented that one of the most difficult aspects of testing was maintaining step-by-step test cases along with their expected results. His paper attempted to find a way to reduce the re-work of complicated written tests and incorporate the ease of use case

Use case

In software engineering and systems engineering, a use case is a description of steps or actions between a user and a software system which leads the user towards something useful...

s.

A few months later, Buwalda wrote about a similar approach he had been using that he called "soap opera testing". Like television soap operas these tests were both exaggerated in activity and condensed in time. The key to both approaches was to avoid step-by-step testing instructions with expected results and instead replaced them with a narrative that gave freedom to the tester while confining the scope of the test.

System scenarios

In this method only those sets of realistic, user activities that cover several components in the system are used as scenario tests. Development of system scenario can be done using:

1. Story lines
2. State transitions
3. Business verticals
4. Implementation story from customers

Use-case and role-based scenarios

In this method the focus is on how a user uses the system with different roles and environment.