Are test cases and test reports dead?
That’s something you hear quite often nowadays, well is it true?
If you ask people within the web industry or that is working with pure application software, you most of the times will get a Yes as answer.
What about embedded systems that includes software?
The amount of them just gets more and more due to the time of IoT. Which also make the certifications the products should fulfill growing and more demanding than ever before. What does this mean then?
It means that you need requirement specifications, that is covered by test cases and test reports to prove that you have tested your software and by that fulfilled the certification. My answer would then be No on the question.
A couple of situations that this applies to
Just take for example the software controlling the breaks on a car, would you like the only test executed would be by an automated script or more correct an automated check. Another example is a pacemaker do you think it is enough with an automated check their, would you feel comfortable with that, I wouldn’t
I don’t say I like to do scripted testing and handle the documentation that comes with it, but it’s a necessary pain. Thank god most of it can be automated, but some of the tests must be done manually on the final product. The reason for automating it is to get more time over for exploratory testing on the product which usually is the tests that finds the strange bugs.
Is the certification asking for the right things?
The scripted part is just a necessary pain to get your product certified, so you can of course ask yourself if it not should be the exploratory testing that should be mandatory? Since it is here the most important bugs are found. The scripted testing only shows that the product works when you use it according the requirement specification. Not as a real user that will do many strange things with the product. Just go to yourself when you buy a new cell phone, do you start with reading the manual or playing with the phone. Most of us start playing with the phone and already here we have broken the requirement specification.
My conclusion then is that test cases and test reports are not dead, but it has become context dependent mostly determined by which branch you are working in.
