Test Case vs Test Scenario: What’s the difference b/w two?

What’s the difference between test cases and test scenarios? people often find it confusing in defining these two terminologies in software testing. To ease the burden, we have made an infographic representation out of the topic so that it will be easy to understand the test case and test scenario.

What is a test scenario?

A test scenario is a high-level use case or functionality to be tested. Each test scenario can be mapped to one or more detailed test cases. Test scenarios are derived by understanding the user expectation from the software and it is used by the user.

A good tester would cover all the test scenarios and functionalities. This document would then be used to derive the test cases. An example of a test scenario would be a login scenario that can consist of multiple test cases.

What is a test case?

A test case is a detailed step-by-step instruction to perform a series of actions or steps that help to validate a particular functionality in an application. A test case has the following main parts:

1. Pre-conditions: the conditions noted in this section need to complete before proceeding with the next steps. For example for a login test case, the preconditions would be the app or software should be successfully launched and the login screen should be displayed.
2. Test Steps: These are detailed step-by-step instructions on how to perform the actions on the application. It should include the data to be entered, the action to be performed, and the details of the object of which the action needs to be performed. The quality of the test case is defined by the quality of the test steps. The steps should be so detailed that even a layman should be able to perform the test.
3. Expected Result: This section describes the happy path or actual application behavior. For e.g in a login scenario, successfully being able to log in and enter the new screen should be the expected result. One should make sure that 1 test case should have only 1 expected result. This is particularly important for tracking and retesting defects.
4. Actual Result: This section is left blank during the planning phase and is updated by the tester during the execution phase. This section captures what the tester sees in the application after performing the test steps mentioned above.
5. Test Case Result: If both the expected and actual results are the same the test cases are marked as a pass, and if they are different it is marked as a fail.

Difference between test case and test scnario

How to write test cases?

Step 1: ID’ing the test case is very important. Each test case must have a unique ID for better traceability and accountability.

Step 2: Description of the feature or functionality that will be put to test must be added to each test case

Step 3: Conditions that have to be met before execution must be included

Step 4: Relevant data for the execution must be included in every test case

Step 5: The step required to execute the test must be included in detail

Step 6: Expected result before the execution along with actual result must be included