How to Create Test Scenarios: A Complete Guide for Website Testing

What’s the one thing all Enterprise websites do before launching a new website version? Website testing! Learn how to create test scenarios for your website to avoid a total train wreck.

Website wireframe vector created by storyset – www.freepik.com

So, you think you’ve wrapped up the design and development of your new website?

You couldn’t be more wrong!

If you’ve left out website testing — you’ve skipped the most important pre-launch step. This post will discuss everything you need to know about website testing and how you can create test scenarios of your own — no matter what size your business is. We’re also going to take a peek at what goes on behind some of the World’s best online experiences.

Now, what are test scenarios, and how does it fit into the overall website testing? 

What is website testing?

As the name suggests, website testing refers to the process developers use to test the website’s quality, performance, and functionality. Various test scenarios will be utilized to ensure there are no errors and bugs in the website and functions just fine across devices. 

Why carry out website testing?

Regardless of where your target customers are located, they can now effortlessly use their smartphones to browse your website. Reports say there will be 4.3 billion smartphone users by 2023. Given the competitive market of the businesses and millennials spending more than one-third of a day online, the stakes are high. 

Companies must provide their customers with a seamless digital experience to stand out from competitors, their marketing plans, and the complex marketplace. High-performance and error-free websites are needed to achieve this, which further leads to thorough website testing.     

What is a test scenario?

A test scenario is a walk-through of a real-world website situation that a customer would encounter. During the website testing process, developers and quality analysts of the web development services agency will check how the program responds and reacts to such situations and how well it performs. 

Any feature or functionality of a newly developed website that may be tested and each of these tests is called a test scenario. Some of these test scenarios are complex, and some are easy to evaluate, but they are all a credible part of the customer journey. These test scenarios are utilized to ensure that an application’s features and functionalities are working just as expected. 

Testing a website or a mobile application before it goes live is critical to determine whether it works correctly or not. 

On what basis are the test scenarios created? 

The best way is to collect feedback and input from clients, beta users, and developers to generate accurate and valuable test scenarios. This process will ensure all possible scenarios are considered and the product is well tested. 

How to create a test scenario?

1. Thoroughly review the requirements related to the System Under Test, such as Business Requirement Specifications, Functional Requirement Specifications, etc.. 
2. Break down every requirement into smaller tasks and determine the user actions that are required to be tested. In addition, identify the technical challenges that could arise. Analyze possible system abuse scenarios by assessing the program/system through a hacker’s eyes.  
3. Line up all test scenarios that could cover every system’s feature and functionality. Now, ensure these test scenarios include both user and business flow in the website’s operation. 
4. Once you have all possible test scenarios, get a traceability matrix to ensure every requirement has a test scenario.
5. Lastly, get all those scenarios reviewed by the project manager or supervisor, along with the client and stakeholders of the project. 

Types of test scenarios

When it comes to test scenarios, there are two types. 

1. Positive testing
2. Negative testing

Positive testing

Developers and testers can use positive testing on the software by providing valid input. After giving the input, the system will check if the software is behaving just as expected or not. 

For instance, there is a text box that will only accept numbers. When the user provides the input of any number from 0 to 999999, the system accepts the entered value. 

Image for reference purpose only. 

As shown in the image above, the system accepts the number input and shows no error. 

Negative testing

Negative testing can be performed by providing invalid data as input. When the user enters invalid data, the system will show an error, behaving as expected with negative input. 

For instance, if the user provides alphabets or special characters as input in the same text box instead of numbers, the system will display an error, showing invalid data. 

Image for reference purpose only

The above image shows that the system will not accept alphabets as valid data, showing an error message that only numbers should be given as input. 

Best practices for test scenarios

1. Each requirement should have one test scenario. 
2. Ensure every requirement is well tested individually when utilizing a single test scenario for various requirements before deploying the scenario as a whole.
3. If there are too many test scenarios to conduct or the cost of testing is getting expensive, prioritize them according to the customers and business. 

Final thoughts

Test scenarios are a critical part of website testing. They include everything developers, and testers should test before the software is made available to customers. These test scenarios will enable a web development services company to predict how much testing work is required and to plan the rest testing strategy.