The default "pattern" of Hexawise tests is that all your tests will have the same number of Values. In other words, if you have a plan with 10 Parameters, each test will have exactly 10 Values that are specified for a tester to execute.
But often a system you are testing will have some conditional branching logic that will result in some steps being "skipped" if certain conditions are present. In Hexawise, a common way that designers indicate that a test condition is not applicable to be included in a given scenario is to specify "N/A" instead of a specific Value.
In this test design exercise, you will gain some practice dealing with this common test design objective.
Instructions:
I. Create a New Test Plan with the Following Test Inputs
Flying From: New York, Bangalore, Toronto, Sydney
Flying To: Sydney, Toronto, Bangalore, New York
Day of Travel: Today, Tomorrow, In 14 Days, In More Than 14 Days
Include a Car Reservation: Add a Car Reservation, Do Not Include a Car Reservation
Type of Car: A Modest Vehicle, A Vehicle That Would Make Donald Trump Green with Envy
Include a Hotel Reservation: Add a Hotel Reservation, Do Not Include a Hotel Reservation
Type of Hotel: A 5 Star Hotel, A 4 Star Hotel, A 3 Star Hotel, A Bed-Bug Infested Youth Hostel
Payment Type: Cash, Credit Card
II. Before You Modify Anything, Create a Set of 2-way Tests
How many tests do you need at this point to achieve 2-way coverage? __________________________
III. Modify Add Invalid Pairs to Prevent Impossible to Test for Scenarios from Appearing
Specifically,
A) Remove all flights scenarios that would have the same "Flying From" and "Flying To" cities.
B) In scenarios that do not include a car reservation, skip the "Type of Car" details.
C) In scenarios that do not include a hotel reservation, skip the "Type of Hotel" details.
IV. Encountered a Problem? Need a Hint?
Unless you figured out that you needed to add an extra Value to each of the "Type of Car" and "Type of Hotel" Parameters, you would have just run into a problem and received an error message.
Why? Because some specific value needs to appear in every cell in the table
The Create Tests screen in Hexawise has a table describing what specific Values should get tested in every test. That table has does not contain any blank cells. There will be multiple tests in that table that include "Do Not Add a Hotel Reservation." If you created Invalid Pairs so that
"Do Not Add a Hotel" never appears in combination with "5 Star Hotel"
"Do Not Add a Hotel" never appears in combination with "4 Star Hotel"
"Do Not Add a Hotel" never appears in combination with "3 Star Hotel"
"Do Not Add a Hotel" never appears in combination with "A Bed-Bug-Infested Youth Hostel"
... then what would the test optimization algorithm put into the cell for "Type of Hotel" in those scenarios that do not include a hotel reservation?
Given that some specific value will need to appear in that cell, you will need to add a new Value to the "Type of Hotel" Parameter in addition to the 4 options included. Adding "N/A" as a Value in the "Type of Hotel" Parameter will give you a way around this problem.
V. Add "N/A" to both "Type of Hotel" and "Type of Car"
VI. Add the Necessary Invalid Pairs to Your Plan and Create Tests Again
VII. Are Any N/A's appearing When Reservations Include Hotels? Or when Reservations include Cars? If so, make sure to remove those also.
VIII. Share your updated (fixed) test plan with instructor@hexawise.com