Test Cases Specs
Lao-tzu quote applies to QA
On January 25, 1988, Presiden Ronald Reagan gave the following quote at his last State of the Union address:
"As ancient Chinese philosopher, Lao-tzu, said, "Govern a great nation as you would cook a small fish; do not overdo it.""
The idea behind this quote can be applied to Test Cases for regression. I often see that when initially creating the QA test engineer will overwhelm the test case with complex steps and validations. It's important to keep the test case as simple as possible.
Tips and Tricks
Each test should focus on one test result. (This will make it easier to downgrade tests.)
The test case should piggyback on a parent test. For example, the common path to the functionality being tested. This will make it easier to change future enhancements and make it easy to test that test against other paths that customers may take.
Keep the test as simple as possible. If there's complexity involve consider splitting the test up.
Test Cases should be easy enough that anyone new to the organization could be able to follow the steps. However, don't keep it too simple to miss out on the reason behind the test.
Just like developers have code review, QA should have their test cases reviewed by their peers.