How to write Test cases from a functional design specification document?

Question

I am having problem in writing test cases from a functional spec document. The doc has many different sections and each section has sub-sections, each one describing the new functionality or modification of existing features. My web application has many different user roles like "Administrator, user etc. Each role can view different reports. If I write test cases for each user role/reports/functions, then number of cases would be in the thousands.

SECTIONS
2.2.
2.2.2.
2.2.3.
2.2.4.

Also, should I club similar test cases? Please suggest a better way to write minimal no of test cases.

Answer 1

You could use this IEEE 829-1998 Test Case Specification Template as a guideline to create the test case. Anyway, in designing test cases from specification based view, there are a few techniques you could apply such as Boundary Value Analysis, Equivalent Partitioning, to minimize the number of test cases created but still covers important areas. You could see the explanation of Boundary Value Analysis and Equivalent Partitioning on this link.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

To start with I would want to know if the functional requirements outline some type of data that state the function is working as documented.

I would then use a test case template that used the information above and then break down the expected results for each role.

it would also be good to organize your test cases to be directly related to the functional requirements to help with your coverage analysis.

Hope that helps.