Effective Test Design
(CSTP #2)

This tutorial counts as one day of training towards the Certified Software Test Professional requirements.

This course will cover the test design phase of the testing lifecycle. It starts with coverage of test case design techniques both for black and glass box testing. This includes Equivalence Class Partitioning, Boundary Value Analysis, Cause-Effect Diagram, and Decision Tables. The second part of the course will cover test design activities and writing Test Design Specification including documenting test conditions, test cases, test scripts and procedures, and expected results.

Course Outline

1. Test Case Design Techniques
   • Strategies for generating test cases
   • Black Box testing
   • Equivalence Class Partitioning
     • Boundary Value Analysis
     • Cause-Effect Diagram
     • Decision Tables
   • Glass Box testing
     • Statement/decision/condition coverage
     • Path coverage
     • Program complexity and basis path coverage
2. System Test Planning
   • Why plan
   • Developing a test strategy
   • Test documentation
   • Components of a test plan
   • A test plan template
3. Systems Test Design
• Test design basics
• Test design activities
• Deliverables of the test design phase
• Conditions and test cases
• Procedures and expected results
• Major areas of system testing
• Business requirement testing
• Preparing the Test Design Specification
  • Defining test conditions
  • Testing for missing business requirements
  • Defining test cases
  • Identifying data needed to execute tests
  • Defining baseline data
  • Determining expected results
  • Defining test cycles
• A Systems Test Specification template


Dr. Magdy Hanna is a recognized educator, speaker and consultant in several related areas of software engineering. He is the President of Software Dimensions Consulting and Training, and Chairman of the International Institute for Software Testing and brings over 20 years of experience with building and maintaining software systems. As an associate professor at the University of St. Thomas, he teaches graduate courses on several software engineering topics.