September 26, 2023

What is Scenario Testing?

Continuous Testing
Mobile Application Testing

In a perfect world, app developers and testing teams could rest assured the app they have worked so hard on will work perfectly during every single use immediately upon release. But this is not a perfect world, and your app will go through a lot of potentially unpredictable situations that may negatively impact the app’s usability and functionality. 

To prevent gaps in app performance, an essential component of any team’s testing strategy should be scenario testing. Simulating how your app responds to a wide variety of circumstances is the best way to ensure it will hold up whatever the world throws at it. 

In this blog, we will discuss what scenario testing is, examples of scenario testing, and scenario testing best practices. 

Table of Contents

  1. What is Scenario Testing?
  2. Scenario Testing Examples
  3. Scenario Testing Best Practices
  4. Bottom Line
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What is Scenario Testing?

Scenario testing is testing against a specific use case or a specific scenario in which a user finds themselves when interacting with an app or website. 

Each scenario testing teams test against represents real-word circumstances that an app will encounter. Each one is unique, and the best way to create effective scenario tests is to gather input from customers, developers, and relevant stakeholders for pertinent information. 

Scenario testing is important because it bolsters your test coverage to be the best that your resources allow. Because scenario testing should be a collaborative effort, they would ideally address every type of scenario that should be tested against before release. 

This practice identifies the most important scenarios or circumstances your app will encounter and helps establish priorities which, in turn, will create a more efficient testing flow. 

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Scenario Testing Examples

There are countless circumstances that you could leverage scenario testing for in your testing strategy. For the sake of brevity within this blog, we’ll take a look at two: food delivery apps and registration pages. 

Registration Page

Here we will use the Target registration page:

Target registration page.

There are several aspects of this page that should undergo scenario testing. For instance, testing teams should ensure that a user can successfully login to their Target account with the correct email and password. On the flip side of that, the page should deny a login attempt if either of those fields are incorrect. 

Other things to consider are if the “Forgot Password” link works correctly. Does it allow the user to recover their password? Additional links such as the terms and conditions and privacy policy should lead seamlessly to their respective content. 

Food Delivery App

Food delivery apps are incredibly dynamic — there are a large number of components that have to work both smoothly and in tandem. Here we will use DoorDash as an example.

Food delivery app.

When we say food delivery apps are dynamic, here is what we mean: 

  • User registration 

  • Selecting and ordering food 

  • Tracking delivery 

  • Payment

Scenario testing a food delivery app will address multiple aspects of each of those components. 

User Registration 

Testing should include the ability to successfully create an account, to unsuccessfully create an account with invalid information, and accessing a page that confirms a successful registration. 

Selecting & Ordering Food 

Many of these apps leverage location services to offer local food options. Is your location services functionality working properly? You should also test whether users can add food options to their cart, whether the cart correctly displays the total cost of the order, the ability to modify an order, and, finally, confirmation that an order has been placed. 

Delivery Tracking 

Tracking the status of your food order is one of the most important aspects of any food delivery app. People want to know where their food is! Scenario testing delivery tracking should ensure that users can track the order from start to finish, the delivery driver’s estimated time of arrival, and the ability to contact the driver if there are issues with the order. 

Payment 

When it comes to people’s money, they want to know it is being handled securely. It is crucial that the “Add Payment Method” functionality works properly and securely. Additionally, testing should ensure the payment is handled correctly and there is a receipt of the purchase. Users should be able to dispute errors in payment seamlessly — nothing is more frustrating than issues with payment. 

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Scenario Testing Best Practices

With so many potential scenarios to test against, you may not know where to start. Here a few good guidelines to keep in mind as you embark on incorporating scenario testing within your greater testing strategy: 

  • Simplicity — Don’t overcomplicate scenario testing. It is best to create one specific, defined scenario for each test and then execute against that scenario. 

  • Double Check — Sometimes test scenarios may involve multiple components. Check each of those components on their own to be certain they are exactly what you want, and then execute your test; you do not want to miss testing any functionalities in your tests. 

  • Prioritize — As many testing teams are well aware, you are often confined within the parameters of your budget or resources. If your scenario testing is starting to grow beyond those parameters, you should prioritize the most important scenarios. 

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Bottom Line

Your app goes through a lot. In order to deliver the best experience possible to your users, you should be leveraging scenario testing so you can be confident your app will stand up to whatever the world throws at it. 

Scenario testing with Perfecto offers an unrivaled ability to simulate real-world conditions. Whether it’s using real and virtual devices to expand your test coverage, cross-browser testing for ensuring your app functions no matter the user’s browser preference, or testing against varying Wi-Fi speeds or device conditions, Perfecto has all your bases covered so you can release your app with the utmost confidence. 

Get started with Perfecto today with a 14-day Free Trial! 

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