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I am a black-box tester. Usually whenever a test fails, I write the reason for its failure under 'Actual results' section of the test case and attach a screenshot/image for evidence.

But when a test case has passed I just attach the screenshot and mark it done.

Is it the correct practice?

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  • just pass and fail is enough including screenshots Dec 28, 2015 at 4:45

6 Answers 6

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I would say no. Your tests Should be written with an expected true/false criteria. As such a pass says all it needs to say. If there is a "but" or a "only when" then i would suggest you add new tests to cover those scenarios and improve your coverage.

One caveat to this is if you need to add the screenshot to Prove you carried out the test, but that points to bigger trust issues..

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Well if the test case is passing, then what is the need to specify any reason. However, you may enter comments in the section mentioned, as " the test case met the expected results".

For example, if I am trying to test a login, with a valid username and valid password, and the test case passes, then I can mark it as passed, and mention in comments as : "The test case met the expected results. A user with valid username and password is able to login"

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A good practice would be to include an "Expected result" field to every test case so that you can define the goal of the test case just once.

Defining the "Expected result" is useful also because it allows you to better separate cases when the result of the same action could be different.

That being said when a test case passes you can just flag it as successful and the final result of the case will be implicit.

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if you blackbox test is for validation to comply with contract,industry standard etc it has to be very formal

Date and initial on every page

Sign on the last page

Attach test log if it is an automated test

Provide screenshot only if necessary, try an automated test with log

Failed Test will not be accepted in this case

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Do you also maintain a column for "Expected Result" in your test case? If yes then you can write "Same as expected" or "As per expectation" in the "Actual Result" column and attach a screenshot if required.

Better yet ask your audience how they would like to receive the test documents. Do they need you to write down long logs which I'm guessing no one will be reading (most probably). If its just for the sake of a record in a system then along with your team work out an alternative as I mentioned above. This is because writing a long description of each and everything requires time (which will ad to the overall testing time given) and I'm sure your team will be wanting to spend less time on testing.

Hence I always prefer asking my audience what they want and is it acceptable for them if what they wants require more time? If not then we work out alternatives and eventually I provide them the documents in format they agree upon and are easily understandable by them.

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Definitely not, I think. It should start with whether the result is pass or not but further details are required.

If it is a pass, add the details like small snippet on which data it is passed. Because many a times a scenario passes in test but fails in live. So it is always helpful to track what was missed in test, which will save a lot of time for dev and would add learning to test. This is a little overhead but it is worth making.

If it is a fail then add the details about failure and yet again mention the details of data on which test is executed.

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